48 Dr. Schafhaeutl on the Different Species of 



I took afterwards two pieces of iron from the puddling fur- 

 nace, one just before the granulated mass began to become 

 coherent, and the other just before the iron was ready for 

 ballino^ or for being made into balls, in order to bring them 

 under the forge hammer. These two samples were treated 

 with acids as before. The first sample, weighing 29-89 grains, 

 separated a gray powder, and left a black skeleton of the iron, 

 which very easily crumbled into powder. The weight of the 

 gray powder was 0''i2i, and the black skeleton weighed 

 0'250. 



The second sample, which had been forged and consisted 

 of a mixture of grains and fibres, weighing 36*625 grains, left 

 grayish-green powder first, and on the acid being changed for 

 the third time, it deposited white powder and left also a black 

 skeleton, which oxidized very rapidly and was soon converted 

 into a brown powder. Concentrated nitric acid would not 

 act at all on this remainder, but on the addition of hydrochlo- 

 ric acid the powder became of a bright red. The remaining 

 powders together weighed 0*8125, and the black skeleton 

 0*4531. 



We learn from this that the black remainder increases with 

 the progressive advancement from cast iron to that of mal- 

 leable, and that the gray powder belongs to the gray granu- 

 lation, and the white remainder to the finished fibrous iron. 



The relation of the black remainder to the gray appears to 

 be in all cases the same, only that the quantity increases pro- 

 gressively towards the finishing of the puddling. 



We gather further from these facts, that the yellow powder 

 appears only on using concentrated hydrochloric acid, and 

 with that species of iron which nearly approaches steel and 

 wrought iron. 



At first I considered the yellow powder to consist of silica 

 with a small portion of iron, and with the view of ascertain- 

 ing with certainty the correctness of my opinion, I collected 

 the yellow residuum of the three before-mentioned specimens 

 on a very small filter, and separated as much powder as I 

 possibly could. 



The powderretained, after being dried, itslightyellow colour, 

 and was neither attacked by acids, except by very concentrated 

 hydrofluoric acid ; it became white by heating it on a platinum 

 foil, and melted with soda on charcoal before the blowpipe, un- 

 der effervescence, into a transparent globule of a ruby colour, 

 which retained its transparency after cooling ; a circumstance 

 which seems to indicate the presence of silica as well as suU 

 ■phur\ the presence of the latter was also ascertained by the 

 smell. 



