Review of the Practical Tourist. 223 



heat be not properly regulated during the process, the pile of iron 

 bars, as I was told by one of the proprietors, becomes fused into a 

 solid mass. The surface of the bars, after being withdrawn, is found 

 to be covered with blisters, resembling air bubbles half bursting from 

 the swollen surface of the metal, which becomes converted by the 

 operation into steel. From the peculiar appearance of the blisters 

 upon the bars, it is called " blistered steel," and sometimes " steel of 

 cementation," from the process performed ; and also " shear steel." 

 from the general use formerly ma^e of it in the manufacture of 

 blades of shears. No iron made in England is equal to that impor- 

 ted from Sweden for the purpose of being converted into steel. 



" To make cast steel, the bars of blistered steel are broken into 

 small pieces, from which the imperfect portions are carefully exclu- 

 ded, and the remainder are put into crucibles about eighteen inches 

 deep. Each crucible is set into a small furnace, about twelve or 

 fourteen inches square, and two feet in depth. Many of these fur- 

 naces, each containing its crucible, are arranged side by side. About 

 forty pounds of the fragments of the bars of steel are put into each 

 one, and immediately covered up closely by a luting to exclude the 

 air, until the metal becomes melted ; after which, it is poured out in 

 a fluid state into moulds to form ingots. Hence the name of cast 

 steel is given to this new product. The ingots are subjected to 

 the action of hammers and rollers, to reduce them into bars like 

 wrought iron, in which state it is prepared for use." 



The author visited Birmingham, and after describing the various 

 manufactories and workshops of the place, he adds, 



" One of the wonders of Birmingham is the manufacture of a pin, 

 which has been often mentioned by writers on political economy, 

 to demonstrate the benefits resulting from the subdivision of labor. 

 This simple, little article, which occupies so important a station on 

 the toilet of a lady, in the course of its manufacture, passes, in de- 

 tail, through nearly as many hands as the complicated mechanism of 

 a watch. One person is employed to polish the wire ; a second, to 

 cut it into suitable pieces, each of the length of two pins, and a third 

 person takes several of these pieces between the thumb and fore- 

 finger, and applies them to a circular steel grinding-wheel or rasp. 

 The pieces of wire, for a dozen or more pins, are thus sharpened at 

 once by the operator, who dexterously causes all of them to turn 

 simultaneously between his thumb and finger ; whereby the points 

 are rendered perfectly round and acute. A fourth person divides 

 each of these pieces in the middle to form two pins, and slips on the 



