Steel. 
these give out their carbon with a less degree of heat than 
the hard charcoals of wood, they are sometimes used in 
the steel furnaces of Pennsylvania, where the only reasons 
why steel is not made as good as in England, are, 1st, the 
want of heat sufficient from a wood fire ; 2dly, the use of 
iron not sufficiently pure in quality, or well hammered in 
the bar; 3dly, the use of charcoal, too hard, not sufficient- 
ly burnt, and not used fresh. 
These facts and observations well considered, will throw 
light upon the common processes for making steel, which 
I am about to detail. 
Steel is made in 3 ways, 
1st. It is made in Sweden and Germany from the crude 
iron. It cannot (as is said) be thus made from iron smelt- 
ed with the coke of pitcoaL When the iron is carried in tj 
small pigs to the bloomery or refinery, it is melted on the 
hearth under charcoal. Grey cast iron is commonly used 
for the purpose. If it be much stirred and exposed to 
the blast in the bloomery, the superfluous carbon or char- 
coal will be burnt away ; and by frequent heating and 
hammering it will become malleable bar iron : but if in- 
stead of being frequently stirred, the slag only is raked off 
as it forms, and the loop covered with charcoal, it will be 
a coarse kind of steel, much used on the continent of Eu- 
rope for rough work, and cheap tools. 
* In order to obtain Iron , the fire place must be larger 
than for steel, and the tuyer must be inclined so as to di- 
rect the blast to the surface of the iron ; the heat must be 
given gradually, and the iron frequently stirred, and raked, 
and kept in the state of a paste. But to make Steel y the 
heat must be given more suddenly, the iron must be plac- 
ed on a bed of charcoal dust, and become fused, so as to 
sink below the Scoriae or slag, and if these are removed*, 
their place must be supplied by charcoal. In making iron 
at the refinery, the charcoal is burnt away ; in making steeh 
