398 Manufacture of Bar Iron in Southern India, 



evidently produced by impurities between the fibrous por- 

 tions, and before it is bent as far as an angle of 120°, it will 

 break, and the fracture will be half glistening, and the rest 

 very much resembling lead when forcibly pulled asunder. 

 This last portion is the pure iron, and when viewed endways, 

 will generally appear nearly black. The glistening portions 

 are portions of carburet imperfectly reduced. It is a com- 

 mon remark of authors, that pure iron is either granular 

 or fibrous in texture, the former being produced by sudden 

 cooling, and the latter by elongation under the hammer. 

 This remark I consider, however, to be erroneous, and I 

 have never found pure fibrous iron to become granular, if 

 properly worked, although granular iron will become fibrous ; 

 not, however, by the mechanical effect of the hammering, 

 but by the action of the fire and blast reducing the car- 

 buret. In working the best kinds of English iron, they let 

 fall upon the anvil a quantity of red powder, which very 

 much resembles in appearance the residue left by burning 

 the carbon separated by muriatic acid from cast iron. 

 Even the charcoal-made English iron will hardly bear draw- 

 ing out under the hammer without splitting, and a small rod 

 will generally snap after bending it two or three times. 

 English hoop iron, although it will stand curling up into a 

 roll of about \ inch in diameter, yet on the slighest attempt 

 to bend it longitudinally into a hollow trough, it will crack 

 in three or four places immediately. The following re- 

 marks by Dr. Ure, (Dictionary of Manufacture,) are evidently 

 from a person practically acquainted with the subject. " The 

 quality of iron is tried in various ways ; as first by raising a 

 bar by one end, with the hands over one's head, and bring- 

 ing it forcibly down to strike across a narrow anvil at its 

 centre of percussion on one-third from the other extremity 

 of the bar, after which it may be bent backwards and for- 

 wards at the place of percussion several times. 2. A 

 heavy bar may be laid obliquely over props near its end, and 



