206 
Iron . 
two or three feet up in the air ; it then inflames and sepa- 
rates, with a slight hissing explosion, into a great many 
minute particles of brilliant fire. When these are collect- 
ed they prove to be a true oxyd of iron, but so much sa- 
turated with oxygen as to possess no magnetic obedience. 
The surface of oxygenated iron, when running, is covered 
with waving flakes of an obscure smoky flame, accompa- 
nied with a hissing noise ; forming a wonderful contrast 
with the fine rich covering of plumbago in the other state 
of the metal, occasionally parting and exhibiting the iron 
in a state of the greatest apparent purity, agitated in num- 
berless minute fibres, from the abundance of the carbon 
united with the metaL 
When iron thus highly oxygenated comes to rest, small 
specks of oxyd begin to appear floating upon the surface : 
these increase in size ; and when the metal has become j 
solid, the upper surface is found entirely covered with a 
scale of blue oxyd of various thicknesses, dependent up- 
on the stage of oxygenation or extreme privation of car- 
bon. This oxyd, in common, contains about 15 per 
cent . of oxygen, and is very obedient to the magnet. In 
place of a dark blue smooth surface, convex and richly 
carbonated, the metal will exhibit a deep rough concave 
face, which, when the oxyd is removed, presents a great 
number of deep pits. This iron in fusion stands less con- 
vex than carbonated iron, merely because it is less sus- 
ceptible of a state of extreme division ; and indeed it 
seems a principle in all metallic fluids, that they are con- 
vex in proportion to the quantity of carbon with which 
they are saturated. This iron flows dead and ponderous, 
and rarely parts in shades, but at the distance of some inch- 
es from each other. 
This is a slight sketch of the appearance of the two ex- 
treme qualities of crude, or pig-iron, when in a state of fu- 
sion. According to the division formerly made, there still 
