268 
Steel 
coal, and urged strongly with the bellows. The plates 
by this roasting, which destroys the charcoal of the cast 
iron, begin to assume the qualities of bar iron, after 
which they are carried to the finery furnace. The body 
of this furnace is more capacious than that which is intend- 
ed for steel. The iron is covered with charcoal and 
scoriae, and the tuyere is inclined so that the blast strikes 
on the plates of metal. When the fusion is complete, 
the scoriae are let out, the mass is frequently turned to ex- 
pose it to the blast, and, lastly, the process being com 
pleted, the iron is conveyed to the hammer. 
If the object be to form Steel, the furnace made use of 
is more contracted and deep. It is lined with pulverized 
charcoal, moistened and rendered solid by beating. The 
plates are disposed therein, and covered with scoriae and 
charcoal. The position of the tuyere is nearly horizontal, 
in order that the stream of air may strike the fuel, and not 
the metal. When the metal begins to assume the solid 
state, the coal is taken off, the scoriae are suffered to flow 
out, and scales and fragments of steel are driven by ham- 
mering into the soft mass. 
The piece is afterwards melted a second time with the 
same precautions as before ; and when the metal is thought 
to be sufficiently refined, the scoriae are drawn off, and the 
mass is conveyed to the hammer to divide it into several 
pieces, which are to be separately forged out. 
We see that all these operations are directed to the 
means of destroying the charcoal of the crude iron, when 
bar iron is wanted ; but when steel is required to be made, 
the metal is not only preserved from the contact of the air, 
but the vessel is lined with charcoal, in order that, by its 
contact with the fused matter, it may supply any portion 
of that principle which may be wanting. 
In the foregoing process there are two fusions of the 
metal. In the latter it is not only completed by the se* 
