604 MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL. 
To persons conversant with the manufacture of iron (says Mr, 
Bessemer), it will be at once apparent that the ingots of 
malleable metal which I have described will have no hard or 
steely parts, such as are found in puddled iron, requiring a 
great amount of rolling to blend them with the general mass ; 
nor will such ingots require an excess of rolling to expel 
cinder from the interior of the mass, since none can exist in 
the ingot, which is pure and perfectly homogeneous through- 
out, and hence requires only as much rolling as is necessary 
for the development of fibre ; it therefore follows that, instead 
of forming a merchant bar or rail by the union of a number 
of separate pieces welded together, it will be far more simple 
and less expensive to make several bars or rails from a single 
ingot. Doubtless this would have been done long ago, had 
not the whole process been limited by the size of the ball 
which the puddler could make. I wish to call the attention 
of the meeting to some of the peculiarities which distinguish 
cast steel from all other forms of iron — namely, the perfect 
homogeneous character of the metal, the entire absence of 
sand-cracks or flaws, and its greater cohesive force and 
elasticity, as compared with the blister steel from which it is 
made — qualities which it derives solely from its fusion and 
formation into ingots, all of which properties malleable iron 
acquires, in a like manner, by its fusion and formation into 
ingots in the new process ; nor must it be forgotten that no 
amount of rolling will give to blister steel (although formed 
of rolled bars) the same homogeneous character that cast 
steel acquires by a mere extension of the ingot to some ten 
or twelve times its original length. One of the most im- 
portant facts connected with the new system of manufacturing 
malleable iron is, that all the iron so produced will be of that 
quality known as charcoal iron; not that any charcoal is used 
in its manufacture, but because the whole of the processes 
following the smelting of it are conducted entirely without 
contact with, or the use of any mineral fuel ; the iron result- 
ing therefrom will in consequence be perfectly free from those 
injurious properties which that description of fuel never fails 
to impart to iron that is brought under its influence. At the 
same time this system of manufacturing malleable irons offers 
extraordinary facility for making large shafts, cranks, and 
other heavy masses. It will be obvious that any weight of 
metal that can be founded in ordinary cast iron by the means 
at present at our disposal, may also be founded in molten 
malleable iron, to be wrought into the forms and shapes 
required, provided that we increase the size and power of our 
machinery to the extent necessary to deal with such large 
