IKON AND STEEL. 
is introduced, together with some rich scoria) or forge-cinders 
(scale oxide of non). By the heat applied, the iron is melted, 
and the workman stirs it about with his poker so as to expose 
every part to the flame. The carbon is burnt off; the metal' 
becomes less and less fusible, passes into a thick and tenacious 
state, so that it sticks together. The “ puddler ” now forms 
the iron into balls called “ blooms.” Each bloom is removed 
with a pair of tongs ; it is compressed into a cylindrical form 
by a few blows from a heavy hammer, and then converted into 
a bar by passing it between grooved rollers. This is malleable 
iron, which is fibrous in its structure, and although the purest 
commercial form of the metal, it still contains about one half 
per cent, of carbon, with traces of silicon and other metals. The 
process of boiling iron, by which crude metal is converted into 
the malleable form without the intervention of the “ refinery,” 
is another mode of proceeding leading to the same end. 
The Bessemer process has excited considerable attention, 
and it must be admitted to be a highly scientific one. Air is 
forced through a mass of fluid iron, the oxygen of which, acting 
on the red-hot metal, greatly increases the heat. The carbon, 
converted into carbonic oxide, burns off in a blue flame, the 
whole mass being in a state of violent ebullition, and the im- 
purities are thrown up, as oxidized slag, in the form of froth. 
Mr. Bessemer says, “ One of the most important facts connected 
with this new system of manufacturing, is, that all the iron so 
prepared will be of that quality known as char coal-iron, because 
the whole of the processes being conducted without the use of 
mineral fuel, the iron will be free from those injurious properties 
which that description of fuel never fails to impart to iron that 
is brought under its influence.” At that stage of the process 
immediately following the “boil,” the whole of the crude iron has 
passed into the condition of cast steel of ordinary quality. By 
the continuation of the process, the steel so produced gradually 
loses its small remaining portion of carbon, and passes suc- 
cessively from hard to soft steel, from soft steel to steely iron, 
and eventually to very soft iron; hence, at a certain period of 
the process, any qualify of ■metal can he obtained. Something 
more than the inventor states certainly takes place. In these 
days of Mechanics’ Institutions, every person has seen the 
beautiful experiment of burning steel wire in oxygen gas. 
This experiment is entirely eclipsed by the brilliant display of 
sparks from the boiling iron undergoing the Bessemer process. 
Much iron is burnt off, and from the experiments made at 
Dowlais and at Briton-ferry, we learn that there was obtained 
“ a mere mass of red-hot friable matter ; which, from its 
crumbling and non-cohesion, was with difficulty formed into an 
ingot.” 
