On the Manufacture of Bar Iron in India, 37 



" balled, and ready for sbingling and rolling. The cinder 

 " produced, is superior in quality to that which results from 

 " the common system : it contains from 50 to 55 per cent. 

 " of iron, and is free from phosphoric acid, which frequently 

 "exists, and is so injurious, in all the ordinary slags ; when 

 " re-smelted, it produces as much No. 1 and No. 2 cast- 

 " iron, and of as good quality as the ordinary " black band" 

 " ore of Scotland. The cast-iron produced from the slag, 

 " (amounting to one-third of what was originally contained 

 M in the ore,) is mixed with the ore and coal in the pud- 

 " dling furnace : and thus while nearly all the iron is ex- 

 " tracted from the ore, as much wrought iron is produced in 

 " a given time, and at the same cost of fuel, as by the old 

 " system ; while nearly i more iron is produced by two pro- 

 " cesses only, and of as good a quality as by the six processes 

 " of the old system. The iron resulting from Mr. Clay's 

 " process is stated to bear a high polish, is very uniform in 

 " its texture, is ductile and fibrous, having more than an 

 " average amount of tensile strength, and at the same time 

 " appears to be more dense, as it possesses a peculiar sonor- 

 " ousness, resembling that of a bar of steel when struck." 

 It has also been converted into steel of a good quality. 

 Mr. Clay's process having been discussed in the presence of 

 scientific men interested in the subject, the general good qua- 

 lities of the iron produced was allowed, and it was expected 

 that the supplies of Paris ores, of iron ore in England, of 

 Ulverstone, of Cumberland, and of Dartmoor, might be made 

 available for making steel instead of Swedish iron. 



8. Even in Mr. Clay's description, there appears to be 

 either a want of knowledge of the correct ultimate principles 

 of the process, or else this knowledge is concealed under 

 ambiguous expressions. The gases resulting in the furnace 

 are not carburetted hydrogen as is stated, and instead of 

 their merely " advancing the reduction of the ore," the fact 

 is, that the ore when brought to incandescence, burns in con- 



