362 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



and becomes exceedingly hard. If now the steel be heated [to a 

 yellow or nearly welding heat, and then suddenly quenched in 

 cold water, instead of becoming harder it loses some of its hard- 

 ness, and becomes exceedingly tough, so that the effect produced 

 upon manganese steel is just the opposite to that produced upon 

 ordinary steel, which is of course rendered hard and brittle by 

 sudden cooling. 



It was important for the purpose of my investigation to obtain 

 a specimen of manganese steel drawn into wire, and Messrs. Had- 

 field endeavoured to draw some for me. In this they did not at 

 first succeed ; so I begged Messrs. Rylands of Warrington, whose 

 extensive wire-drawing works are well known, to make the attempt. 

 They were good enough to oblige me, and, after several ineffectual 

 trials, wrote: — " We gave the steel into the hands of our most expe- 

 rienced wire-drawer, a man who is accustomed to draw crucible 

 steel wire ; but he says that although he gave it every facility, 

 putting only half a size on to it, the steel will not draw at all."" 

 After much time had been lost in these attempts, Messrs. Hadfield, 

 at my request, once more undertook the task themselves ; and I am 

 glad to say they have now been completely successful. The 

 specimens here exhibited for the first time are long lengths of 

 manganese steel wire, No. 13 S. W. Gr., and also No. 19 S. W. Gr.,. 

 of two kinds, hard and soft. I requested Messrs. Hadfield to let 

 me know the method of wire-drawing they found successful, and 

 the following is their account of the process adopted in drawing 

 manganese steel into wire : — 



" "When first trying to reduce this material from the rolled rods into 

 wire, it was attempted to draw it straight away from the rods; hut, 

 owing to its hardness, very little progress could be made, as the wire kept 

 breaking in short lengths. Several methods were tried, such as softening 

 it by annealing, as in ordinary wire ; but this seemed to make very little 

 difference. 



"As exceedingly good bending tests had been obtained with bars of 

 the same steel when heated to a yellow heat, and plunged into cold 

 water, it was thought worth while attempting a similar experiment with 

 the rolled rods before trying to draw it down into wire. The rods were 

 coiled up, heated to a yellow heat over a smith's fire, and then plunged 

 into cold water. It was then easily drawn into wire, starting with 

 No. 7 gauge, when it was drawn to No. 9 with safety. This drawing, 



