IKON AND STEEL. 
75 
were given ill return to all who made this sacrifice. These gifts 
bore the inscription, “ Gold von Eisen and these Spartan 
ornaments are to this day much treasured by the possessors 
their families. The demand arising from these circumstances 
led to that wonderful delicacy so much admired. 
Notwithstanding the statement made by Dumas, we have 
been assured by a Prussian founder that the Berlin castings are 
largely made from English non, and that the whole secret of 
the manufacture consists in securing the necessary fluidity of 
the melted metal by a very high temperature. A fine silicious 
sand is required to form the moulds, and this, Ehrenberg informs 
us, is entirely composed of the shells of microscopic animalcule, 
which once swarmed hi the ancient seas that united the Baltic 
with the Black Sea. 
Where chains are produced in Berlin iron, the central rosette 
of each link is the only portion really cast, the loops forming 
the connection behig of wire bent to form, and laid into the 
prints provided for them in the mould. This being arranged, 
the metal to form the rosette is run in, fills the impression of it, 
and surrounds the ends of the non rings ; thus forming the fink. 
We have, however, had in our possession a chain made by a 
German workman, at the Hayle foundry in Cornwall, which was 
nearly five feet in length, consisted of 180 links, and weighed 
about an ounce and a half, the whole of which was cast. It is 
curious to contrast these delicate castings, weighing but a few 
grains, with such enormous castings, as the cylinder of the 
hydraulic press which was used to raise the Britannia tube 
into its place, and to push the Great Eastern to her home of 
waters ; — the weight of which was twenty- two tons. 
We must pass on to Steel. It has been shown that pig or 
cast-iron is a compound of iron and carbon. The malleable 
iron is produced by depriving the metal of much, but not all, of 
its carbon ; and we have now to show that steel is another com- 
pound of these two elementary bodies. If we place together 
the chemical constituents of each of those states of iron, the 
peculiarities will be at once evident. 
PE Iron 
CARBON. 
5-1 
IRON. 
94-9 
Malleable Iron 
0'25 ... 
99'75 
Shear Steel 
1-5 
98-5 
Cast Steel 
2-0 
98-0 
Indian Steel ( Wootz ) . . . 
7-18 ... 
92-82 
In India, and in some of the Continental States, especially 
in Westphalia, Styria, Siegen, and in Sweden, steel is prepared 
directly from the ores of iron, and is known as native steel. In 
these places, charcoal is employed as the fuel; but certain 
manipulatory details, into which we cannot at present enter, 
