2IB 
Iron* 
A common reverberatory furnace heated by coal, know 
charged with about 2i cwt. of this half refined grey iron. 
In a little more than half an hour, the metal will be found 
to be nearly melted ; at this period the flame is turned off P 
a little water is sprinkled over it, and a workman by intro- 
ducing an iron bar, or an instrument shaped like a hoe* 
through a hole m the side of the furnace, begins to stir 
the half fluid mass and divide it into small pieces. In the 
course of about fifty minutes from the commencement of l 
tire process* the iron will have been reduced by constant 1 
stirring to the consistence of small gravel, and will be con- 
siderably cooled. The flame is then turned on again, the 
workman continuing to stir the metal, and in three mi- 
nutes time the whole mass becomes soft and semifluid* 
upon which the flame is again turned off. The hottest 
part of the iron now begins to heave and swell, and emit i| 
a deep-blue lambent flame, which appearance is called fer- 
mentation : the heaving motion and accompanying flame sj 
soon spreads over the whole, and the heat of the metal 
seems to be rather increased than diminished for the next ‘ 
quarter of an hour ; after this period the temperature again 
falls, the blue flame is less vigorous, and in a little more 
than a quarter of an hour the metal is cooled to a dull red, 
and the jets of flame are rare and faint. During the whole 
of the fermentation, the stirring is continued, by which 
the iron is at length brought to the consistency of sand, 
it also approaches nearer to the malleable state, and in 
consequence adheres less than at first to the tool with which 
it is stirred. During the next half hour the flame is turn- 
ed off and on several times, a stronger fermentation takes 
place, and a loud hissing noise is perceived, the lambent 
flame also becomes of a clearer and lighter blue ; the metal 
begins to clot and becomes much less fusible and more 
tenacious than at first ; the fermentation then by degrees 
subsides, the emission of blue flame nearly ceases* the iron 
