84 - 
No. 2a. The remainder of the same strip was placed in 
the drawing office at a temperature of 70°, and allowed to 
lie there for some hours. It then required six blows from 
a 14-lb hammer, the plate being reversed each time, the 
grain being thus severely bent backwards and forwards, 
under heavy blows, before it severed. The outer skin still 
remained in cohesion, and it had to be separated by bending 
backwards and forwards in the smith’s hands. This frac- 
ture shows a splendid quality of iron, the fibre being bent 
in both directions as the blows were alternately reversed. 
There is a slight crystalline line on the skin of one side. 
Mr. F. Monks, of the Whitecross Wire Company, Warring- 
ton, has kindly made the following experiments with wii'e 
billets, which are the very toughest form of iron manufac- 
tured. The wire exhibited is made from one of the same 
bars, and will clearly show the quality of the iron. 
The billets are 1} inch square, being in the semi-manufac- 
tured form ready for the final heating and rerolling into 
wire. They had been lying in the open air several days 
during severe frost. Experiment tried January 1st, 1871, 
10° lowest to 30° highest temperatures. 
Three bars were broken in the open air. They failed to 
break with 22 blows with a 151b. hammer. A small nick 
Jj-in. deep was then cut, with three light blows on a “ set,” in 
the top of each bar, and at another part of it, after which 
a single blow sufficed to break each bar. 
The bars were then thawed and allowed to cool to the 
usual temperature, or about 70°. 22 blows were given to 
each as before, and the same nick was made on one side as 
nearly as possible like the frozen bars had been treated. 
One bar then broke after 11 blows, one after 10 blows, 
and one after G blows. 
The frosted bars are more crystalline, and show no signs 
of fibre ; the other bars show a good amount of fibre, and 
are slightly crystalline in the fractures. 
