ON THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF STEEL. 149 



mass, not sufficiently fluid upon the small scale of the 12-cwt. converters to 

 .be readily run or tapped out of the converting-pot, but quite readily capable 

 of that with a larger converter, and therefore larger mass of material. 



" The converter is upset upon the iron-plated floor, some water is aspersed to 

 bring the mass to its frangible state at a dull red heat, and it is then broken 

 up into lumps of convenient size, to be brought, after receiving a little renewal 

 of heat, under the " shingling hammers," and patted into " cakes of crude 

 steel," as denominated by the patentee. It is purely a matter of " metallur- 

 gical taste " whether these are to be called crude steel or crude iron. The 

 material is in reality a form of steely malleable iron, or mild malleable steel, 

 whichever we choose to call it. It wiU not harden in water as perfectly as 

 complete steel ; it always (probably where the process is rightly conducted) 

 contains more combined carbon than usually belongs to wrought iron. It is, 

 however, metal of the purest and finest quality, and from which, by two 

 difl'erent methods of treatment, either very strong, but soft, tough, and mal- 

 leable, wi'ought iron may be made, or fine cast steel. 



"In the fii-st instance the "cakes of crude steel" are piled, heated inacomraon 

 balUng-furnace, and at once rolled out into "steel-iron" bars, plates, or 

 rails, &c. ; and so fine is the material that but little difference is produced, 

 except that of increased fibre, by cutting up, piling, and balling these bars 

 and rolling a second time. 



" Then, for the cast-steel manufacture, these " cakes of crude steel " are 

 broken or cut up, melted in 60- or 80-lb. crucibles, with about 2 or 3 lb. per 

 lOU lbs. of spiegeleisen, or its equivalent of oxide of manganese, and some char- 

 coal, poured out into ingots of iron, i. e. into the usual inciot moulds of iron. 

 Those ingots of cast steel are then titled into bars, and are then fit for the 

 market, or for any use to which excellent steel is suitable. 



" This is the whole process through its bifurcate train, up to wrought iron 

 as good and stronger than Low Moor or Bowling on the one side, and to 

 cast steel as good as any other process can produce upon the other. 



" Our illustrations (figs. 1 to 6) represent the jjlant, as the patentee, Mr. 

 Heaton, at present advises its construction, and as proposed for the steel plant 

 at the Langley Mill Steel and Iron Works, to a scale of one-eighth of an inch 

 to a foot. 



" Fig. 1 is a side view of the apparatus, showing also a vertical section of 

 one-half of the cupola. Pig. 2 is a front view ; and the same letters refer to 

 the same parts in both views. Figs. 3, 4, 5, & 6 show different parts of the 

 apparatus in plan. A, A are cupola furnaces in which the metal is melted ; 

 F, F in fig. 1 are the tuyeres ; G the hole through which the cupola is 

 charged Avith metal and coke from a platform with an inclined tramway 

 leading to it. B, B are the converters into which the metal is run direct 

 from the cupolas, and from which the melted crude steel is run into the re- 

 verberatory furnace, C. D is a steam-boiler, heated with the waste heat from 

 the reverberatory furnace. Fig. 3 is a horizontal section of the moveable 

 bottom of a converter, showing the fire-brick lining, a, a, a. When charged, 

 the converter-pot is filled with nitrate of soda. Fig. 4 shows a perforated 

 metal plate, which is placed upon the niti-ate of soda. Fig. 5 is a horizontal 

 section of a converter, showing the perforated plate in position. Fig. 6 is a 

 sectional plan of a converter, showing the cramps (c, c, &c.) for holding the 

 converter-pot up to the cylinder of the converter whilst the converting process 

 is going on ; these cramps are shown also in figs. 1 and 2. 



" As given by the patentee, and we have no doubt correctly, the cost per 

 ton of converting crude pig-iron into " crude steel," exclusive of the cost of 



