22 Metallurgy of Iron. 



longa & Co., near Bilboa in Spain, they are enabled to fabricate 

 the metallic sponge at a cost of 200 francs the ton, and the best 

 quality of cast steel at 500 francs, or §100 the ton of 1000 kilo- 

 grammes, (2.200 pounds avoirdupois ) The conversion of the ore 

 to the condition of spouge is, I was assured by Mr. Chenot, ef- 

 fected with little more than its own weight of charcoal.* 



The differences in the nature of the steel made from various 

 ores have long been well known, but until the recent experiments 

 of Chenot, the subject was but very imperfectly understood. Ac- 

 cording to him the nature of the ore has much more to do with 

 the quality of the metal than the mode of treatment, and he com- 

 pares the different steels to the wines of different localities, which 

 owe their varied qualities far more to the nature of the grapes, 

 than to any variations in the mode of their fermentation. The 

 process of cementation employed by Chenot furnishes, according 

 to him, an exact measure of the capability of the iron to produce 

 steel. The sponges of the iron from Sweden and the Ural Moun- 

 tains, after taking up six per cent, of carbon, yield a metal which 

 is still malleable, while that of Elba with four per cent., becomes 

 brittle and approaches to cast iron in its properties. While the 

 ores of Sweden and the Urals are famous for the excellent quality 

 of their steel, the ore of Elba is known to yield a very superior 

 iron, but to be unfit for the fabrication of steel ; and Chenot con- 

 cludes, from a great many observations, that the steel producing 

 capacity of any iron is measured by the quantity of carbon which it 

 can absorb before losing its malleability and degenerating into cast 

 iron. 



Desirous to avail myself of these researches of Mr. Chenot, I 

 placed in his hands, in September, 1855, specimens of the different 

 iron ores from Canada, which had been sent to the Exhibition at 

 Paris, and engaged him to submit them to the process of reduc- 

 tion, and to test their capabilities for the production of steel- 

 Mr. Chenot has also obtained remarkable alloys of chromium and 

 titanium with iron, his processes enabling him to effect the direct 

 reduction of chromic and titaniferous iron ores ; specimens of these 

 two ores from Canada were therefore furnished him, but the sudden 

 and lamented death of Chenot, by an accident in the month 



* We have since the printing of this report learned that several large 

 companies have been formed in France and Belgium for the use of Che- 

 not's patents, and are now applying his processes on an extensive scale. 



T. S. H. 



