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After the carbon has been sufficiently carried off by the 
oxygen of the air, the molten cast iron becomes stiff and 
pasty, losing its fluidity, and shortly exhibits a granular 
condition caused by the accumulation of particles of malleable 
iron which collect together and are made up into 4 ' balls" 
by the workman, who, by means of a suitable iron paddle, 
presses these granulated particles into larger masses within 
the furnace, from whence they are in due time removed, and 
beat and rolled into bars by aid of hammer and rolls. 
Now, having given this description of the process of 
puddling and its object, I shall proceed to describe the 
nature of my improvement : which simply consists in 
employing the combined mechanical and chemical action of 
steam, to effect at one and the same time the effects for 
which such a vast amount of manual labour is required, in 
the ordinary mode of agitating or puddling the iron by hand, 
so as to enable the air passing over the surface of the iron 
to remove or abstract the carbon. 
In order to accomplish the desired object, I introduce a 
current of steam beneath the surface of the molten cast iron, 
by means of a curved iron steam pipe, so that when the 
steam is let on, and the orifice of this pipe is depressed 
down to the bottom of the pool of molten cast iron, the 
steam, in passing up through the molten iron, not only 
throws the metal into violent agitation, but also by reason of 
the intimate contact of the steam with the molten iron, the 
steam is decomposed, the liberated oxygen passing to the 
carbon of the cast iron with which it combines, and passes 
off in the condition of carbonic acid and carbonic oxide 
gases ; while, the hydrogen liberated at the same time, 
combines with another portion of the carbon of the cast iron, 
forming carbureted hydrogen, and another portion of the 
hydrogen unites with any sulphur which the iron may 
contain, and removes it in the form of sulphuretted hydrogen. 
