522 Dr. Schafhaeutl on the Different Species of 



nevertheless a quantity of azote, it must have been taken up 

 during the process of puddling. 



Silicon is also a necessary ingredient in all sorts of cast 

 iron ; 7io carburation of iron would take place without its 

 presence, and the iron appears only to have dissolved the 

 carburet of silicon. Silicon shares this property of carbon- 

 izing iron with manganese, and both are in some degree 

 equivalent to each other, so that in certain cases the action of 

 manganese is substituted for that of silicon. 



Such iron, in which manganese is substituted partially for 

 silica, has that peculiar property of producing, in a certain 

 species of refining fire, steel instead of malleable iron ; it is al- 

 ways obtained from decomposed spathic iron ores; its fracture 

 is silver white, and possessing a highly large laminous cry- 

 stalline structure, and is the well-known spiegeLeisen of the 

 Germans. 



To give the reader an idea of the above-mentioned curious 

 fact, I refer to the analysis of four sorts of white cast iron, 

 made by the celebrated chemist Gay Lussac. The first speci- 

 men is white, very similar to the other three. It produces ex- 

 cellent malleable iron, but very inferior steel in the direct way. 



Iron from Champagne. 



De L'Iser. 



Siegen Coblentz 

 in Germany. 



Carbon 2-324 



2-636 

 0-260 

 0-820 

 2-137 

 94-687 



2690 

 0-230 

 0-162 

 2-390 

 94-328 



2-441 

 0-230 

 0-185 

 2-490 

 94-654 



Silicon 0-840 



Phosphorus ... 0-703 



Manganese traces 



Iron 96133 









We see in the first specimen of the cast iron of Champagne, 

 which produces excellent malleable iron, 0*840 of silicon with 

 only a trace of manganese. In the second specimen, on 

 the contrary, only 0'260 per cent, silicon are to be found, but, 

 instead, manganese amounting to 2'137 per cent. 



If we consitler the quantity of silicon in the first example 

 as a standard, the three other specimens contain only 0'26, 

 and therefore 0*58 silicon less ; now, 0".58 silicon wants 0*627 

 parts of oxygen to become oxidized to silica, but the quantity 

 of oxygen which is necessary to convert the 2*137 of manga- 

 nese into protoxide is 0*615 ; in fact, almost the same as for 

 the silicon of the weight 0*58 before-mentioned. 



This quantity of manganese gives to such iron the property 

 of producing steel immediately in the refining fire, instead of 

 malleable ii*on ; and the explanation of this enigmatical pro- 

 perty is given by the following facts, of which I shall treat 

 more largely in another place. 



