REVIEW. 
253 
uninteresting to any of us, may to some of us prove really 
instructive and useful. 
ee Iron is a metal of the most ancient introduction. From 
time immemorial it has been employed in the arts for the 
fabrication of a great variety of machinery. Berzelius has 
asserted that the degree of civilisation of a people might be 
appreciated by the progress they had made in their iron 
works. In a state of nature, iron presents itself under several 
conditions. It comes in its native state, in a state of oxyde, 
in combination with simple bodies, and in the form of salts / 5 
Passing over the account of the several descriptions of 
iron, with the method of smelting the metal, we arrive at 
its physical and chemical properties ; beyond which we come 
to the — 
“ Iron of Commerce . — This, to serve for making horse-shoes, 
ought to be of fine and brilliant grain. In its facture good 
iron presents a twisted and brilliant fibre. Tempering gives 
it a more decided grain. Iron is distinguishable generally 
into strong iron bars and blistered iron bars : the former per- 
mitting being forged and turned either cold or hot ; while the 
latter breaks if hammered cold, or even at a very elevated tem- 
perature. Strong iron bars admit of being easily forged. Cut 
cold, this iron scales or shows its fibres. It admits of being 
bent backward and forward without breaking, whether it be 
hot or cold, and readily yields to the hammer. It is affected 
but tardily by the action of humidity, and is but little liable 
to rust. There is a variety of strong iron they call hard iron , 
which is more strongly grained, but is without fibres or 
parallel plates. Sometimes the strong iron bars are flawy 
( paitteux ;) they exhibit brown spots, which are said to be 
flaws, resulting from the interposition of scoria or oxyde of 
iron. This appearance is detrimental to the good qualities 
of the iron, and makes it more difficult to forge . 55 
The remainder of this chapter is filled with descriptions of 
the blistered and other kinds of iron, with the smelting of the 
iron mineral, and of steel and its application to horse-shoes. 
Then we come to that treating on the forging of the shoes ; 
succeeding which comes the description of the shoe itself, 
(chap, ix,) out of which, that we may make our reader 
acquainted with what the French shoe is, we shall make a 
few extracts. 
% xxvi. 34 
