228 
Iron . 
differs but little in form from that employed for puddling , 
except in being flat at the bottom instead of concave. — 
The furnace is denominated a balling furnace ; and the 
piles of metal pies or balls' . They are continued in this 
situation until they have arrived at a welding heat, and are 
then removed by large tongs under the stroke of the ham- 
mer. Near to the place a smith’s forge is kept in blast, 
where long bars of iron aro also urged to the welding 
point ; and after the first stroke or two of the hammer, 
united to the balled masses to afford greater convenience 
in turning them. The masses are beaten out into ingots 
of about three feet in length ; and the bar last men < 
tioned being separated, they are divided deeply by an 
instrument termed a set , to facilitate their being after- 
wards broken ; and the process is then completed. 
They are in this state called blooms , and have yet to urn 
dergo another operation, for the purpose of being made 
into bars or plates. Much loss is sustained by the last 
treatment, and principally from the same formation of I 
oxyd as was noticed in the preceding case. The quan- 
tity thus lost, added to the waste occasioned in the bloom -• 
ery, which comes next to be described, is usually con- 
sidered as equal to l-5th of the metal obtained by pud- 
dling ; which will make the total deficiency, by all the 
operations as nearly equivalent to 35. The ingots or 
blooms, which are received from the hammer, after being 
broken, over a small wedge-shaped block of iron called a 
tup, are placed in a species of reverberatory, very similar 
to the balling furnace, and denominated a blooming fur- 
nace, or bloomer y, They are here heated to welding, and 
then submitted to the requisite pressure under rollers, 
which are either plain or grooved, according as the iron 
is wished to be obtained in plates or in bars. This com- 
pletes the whole of the processes necessary for making the 
best malleable iron ; and it results from the observations 
