TILTING OF STEEL. 



at one procefs be of ihf fame f./.c, or the fmaller ones would 

 be thoroughly converted before the others had taken up a 

 fufficient lofe of carbon. This large quantuy of a fingle 

 article .s more than the trade of i'ome manufaaurers will 

 difpofe of. they therefore employ fmaller furnaces, wljich con- 

 tain only eight tons, at,d fuch are generally conftrufted but 

 with one pot ten feet in length, three feet broad, and two feet 

 deep ■ the fire-place is diredly beneath the pot, twenty mches 

 wide, and flues are carried round it on both fides and ends : 

 the vault and chimney of fuch a furnace are the fame as the 

 double pot. It is found by experience that the Imall tur- 

 naces confume fomewhat more fuel in proportion to the 

 quantity of iron they convert, than the large ones, becaufe 

 the heat loft in the beginning and end of the procefs, and that 

 tranfmittcd through the walls of the building, is the fame in 

 both inftances. 



Mr. Daniel Little of America, in 1785, recommended a 

 new fubftance to be ufed in the cementation of fteel inftead 

 of charcoal : it is the marine plant known by the name of rock- 

 weed, or rockware, and is found in great plenty on rocky 

 ftiores in America. It was to be prepared by firft mowing it 

 from the rocks by the fcythe or fickle, and fpreading it out on 

 dry land till the rains have wafhed off the greater part of the 

 fea-falt ; it was then to be dried and pulverized, and miy be 

 ufed as any other cement for making of fteel. He lays that he 

 difcovered this property in an experiment where a fmall piece 

 of iron was put into a crucible, and filled with the powdered 

 plant as a cement : after it had been expofed to little more 

 than a cherry heat for five or fix hours, it was converted 

 into fteel. 



All cemented fteel in its raw flatc, after it is taken from 

 tlic converting furnace, is called bliftered fteel ; becaufe the 

 furfaces of the bars are covered with blifters, and on break- 

 ing a bar it is found to be full of cavities withinfide, which 

 feem to have been opened by fome gas generated in the iron 

 when in thi procefs of cementation, and to have raifed the 

 furface into blifters, which are hollow within. In this ftate 

 the fteel is not fit for any purpofe, becaufe of thefe numerous 

 cavities, and from the great difpofition it has to break with 

 the moft irregular and rugged frafture imaginable. To render 

 it found and tenacious, it muft be well hammered while at a 

 moderate heat, which operation is termed t'llting the Jleel, 

 becaufe it is done under the tilt-hammer, worked by ma- 

 chinery. There are many reafons why the hammering of 

 fteel cannot be fufficiently performed by hand : the principal 

 are, tliat the expence of labour wo"ld be too great to anfwer, 

 and that a man could not ftrike hard and quick enough, to 

 complete the operation at one heat of the fteel : if more than 

 one heat is taken, the fteel will not receive fo much advan- 

 tage from the hammering, becaufe when it is heated, its 

 pores are opened ; and if fuffered to cool without hammering, 

 the grain of the fteel will be found confiderably coarfer ; 

 therefore, every time it is heated, the good effefts of the pre- 

 vious hammerintr are in a great meafure loft. Tilt-hammers 

 are worked by water-wheels or fteam-engines, according to 

 the local fituation of the manufaftory. (See adefcription in 

 the article Tii-T-Z/ammfr, PlateVlW. Iron Manufadure.) 

 The fame axis is made to aftuate three or four tilt-hammers 

 placed fide by fide, and the hammers are not all of equal 

 lengths, each one being ftiorter than the next : by this ar- 

 rangement, when they are all working together, the work- 

 man of one tilt does not incommode thofe employed at the 

 other two. The anvils of the hammers are nearly on a level, 

 or at moft only a few inches above the furface of the ground ; 

 and the workman fits in u pit or folTe, dug for the purpofe, 

 m a direftion perpendicular to the helve of the tilt, upon a 

 feat which is fufpcnded from the roof of the building by two 



II 



iron rods : by this means he can with the greateft eafe advance 

 to or from the hammer, by juft touching the ground with 

 his foot, and pufhing himfcif backwards or forwards as he 

 fits in the fwing. The three feats are in parallel direftions, 

 but fufficiently diftant from each other, in confequence of 

 the diff'erent lengths of the hammers, to allow the workmen 

 to perform their bufinefs. At a convenient diftance from 

 each tilt, is placed the forge for healing the fteel. The two 

 forges for the fmall hammers are placed together under the 

 fame dome, while the other forge is by itfelf near the great 

 hammer. The bellows for the forges are worked by a fmall 

 crank on the end of the gudgeon of the ftiaft ; they are 

 placed over-head in the roof of the building, and a copper 

 pipe conveys the air to the tue iron. The forges are like 

 thofe ufed by fmiths, except that they have a fmall cover 

 built of fire-brick over the hearth : the cover is fquare within, 

 about eight inches wide, eight high, and eighteen inches or 

 two feet long. It is open in front, to introduce the bars. The 

 coals are placed on the hearth, as fmiths ufually do, and the 

 brick cover afts, to reverberate the flame down upon the fteel, 

 and give a very regular heat. Each workman at the tilt is 

 attended by two boys, who heat the fteel at the forge, aiKl 

 convey it to the workman, that he may lofe no time : ano- 

 ther boy attends each tilt to take away the finished rods and 

 cut them to length, and then to ftraighten them. 



The operations of the tilt are condufted in the following 

 manner : Suppofe a piece of fteel has been heated by one of 

 the boys, and brought to the man at the hammer, he places 

 it upon the anvil, at a part neareft to tlie centre of the ham- 

 mer, where its furface is reduced to a round edge, about 

 an inch wide : the face of the hammer is made round, to 

 correfpond with the anvil, and from its fimilarity to the edge 

 of a fmith's hammer, may be called the pen of the hammer 

 and anvil. The macliine is always in rapid motion, and be- 

 tween every ftroke that the hammer makes, he moves the 

 bar forwards on the anvil, that it may be ftruck by the edge 

 of the hammer in a frefli place. If the bar is flat, as blif- 

 tered fteel ufually is, it is firft hammered in this manner 

 upon its edge, to reduce it to a fquare, and at the fame time 

 draw it out in length. When it has been hammered thus all 

 its length, the furface becomes indented on both fides by 

 the edges of the hammer, tlie anvil being bounded by 

 waving lines. This firft operation is called notching doivn. 

 The tilter then removes the bar beneath the flat face of the 

 hammer, and the rod is flattened at every ftroke, and all the 

 indentation removed ; when he gradually recedes from the 

 hammer, drawing the rod along, and flattening it all the way. 

 When the end of the rod comes under the hammer, he turns 

 the other face of the rod upwards, and advancing to the 

 hammer, pufties the rod forwards under it : in this manner 

 he proceeds, flattening it on one fide or the other, until he 

 brings it to the proper fize, which he tries by a gauge. The 

 moment it is finifhed, the boy brings another piece of hot 

 fteel, which he places under tiie hammer, and then the other 

 boy takes away the finifhed rod from the tilter, who takes 

 the frefti piece : in doing this, they are careful that the hot 

 piece of fteel is placed under the hammer before the other is 

 taken away, that the faces of the hammer and anvil may not 

 itrike together, when there would be danger of breaking 

 them, as they are both made of caft-iron : the fecond piece 

 is tilted in the fame manner as before, and when finiftied, is 

 changed for another. 



The perfeftion of tilting fteel, depends upon drawing out a 

 rod perfeftly ftraight to the fame fizc in every part of its 

 length. Many workmen, particidarly at Sheffield, have ac- 

 quired fuch fl<ill and dexterity in the management of the rod 

 while under the tilt, that their work is as ftraight and even 



