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Scientific Intelligence. 



iron tun into the vessel, which had the effect of entirely renieiting the 

 former charge, and when the whole was tapped out, it exhibited, as usual, 

 that intense and dazzling brightness peculiar to the electric light. 



To persons conversant with the manufacture of iron it will be at once 

 apparent that the ingots of malleable metal which I have described will 

 have no hard or steely parts, such as is found in puddled iron, requiring 

 a great amount of rolling to bend them with the general mass, nor will 

 such ingots require an excess of rolling to expel cinder from the interior 

 of the mass, since none can exist in the ingot, which is pure and perfectly 

 homogeneous throughout, and hence requires only as much rolling as is 

 necessary for the development of fibre ; it therefore follows that, instead 

 of forming a merchant bar or rail by the union of a number of separate 

 pieces welded together, it will be far more simple and less expensive to 

 make several bars or rails from a single ingot ; doubtless this would have 

 been done long ago had not the whole process been limited by the size of 

 the ball which the puddler could make. 



The facility which the new process affords of making large masses 

 will enable the manufacturer to produce bars that on the old mode of 

 working it was impossible to obtain ; while, at the same time, it admits 

 of the use of some powerful machinery whereby a great deal of labor 

 will be saved, and the process be greatly expedited. I merely mention 

 this fact in passing, as it is not my intention at the present moment to 

 enter upon any details of the improvements I have made in this depart- 

 ment of the manufacture, because the patents which I have obtained for 

 them are not yet specified. 



Before, however, dismissing this branch of the subject, I wish to call 

 the attention of the meeting to some of the peculiarities which distinguish 

 cast-steel from all other forms of iron, namely, the perfect homogeneous 

 character of the metal, the entire absence of sand-cracks or flaws, and 

 its greater cohesive force and elasticity as compared with the blister-steel 

 from which it is made, qualities which it derives solely from its fusion 

 and formation into ingots, all of which qualities malleable iron acquires 

 in like manner by its fusion and formation into ingots in the new process. 

 Nor must it be forgotten that no amount of rolling will give to blister- 

 steel (although formed of rolled bars) the same homogeneous character 

 that cast-steel acquires by a mere extension of the ingot to some ten or 

 twelve times its original length. 



One of the most important facts connected with the new system of 

 manufacturing malleable iron is that all the iron so produced will be of 

 that quality known as charcoal iron, not that any charcoal is used in its 

 manufacture, but because the whole of the processes following the smelt- 

 ing of it are conducted entirely without contact with, or the use of any 

 mineral fuel ; the iron resulting therefrom will, in consequence, be per- 

 fectly free from those injurious properties which that description of fuel 

 never fails to impart to iron that is brought under its influence. At the 

 same time, this system of manufacturing malleable iron, offers extraor- 

 dinary facility for making large shafts, cranks, and other heavy masses ; 

 it will be obvious that any weight of metal that can be founded in or- 

 dinary cast-iron by the means at present at our disposal may also be 

 founded in molten malleable iron, and be wrought into the forms and 



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