Steel. 
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283 
moistened, about an inch thick : in this the bars are laid 
side by side with about l-4th inch of charcoal dust be- 
tween each bar. This layer is covered with half an inch 
of charcoal dust, and this again with a layer of bars. The 
last layer is covered with 2 inches of charcoal, and this 
with a coating of clay, or of moistened sand. The sand 
is raised up high in the middle where it is about 10 inches 
thick. If the charcoal were exposed to the air, it would 
burn away. The walls at the breadth of the cases are 
now built up, leaving only a hole in the middle of each, 
stopped up with loose brick, big enough to take out a 
trial bar. The mouth of the fire-place at each end is 
also built up so as to leave only an opening of about 10 
inches by 8 to feed the grate with fuel and stir the fire ; 
this hole is shut by an iron plate as a door ; so that the 
air ascends up the ash-hole and through the bars to main- 
tain the fire. The lire is generally lighted on Monday 
evening, and is kept up as hot as can be from thence 
till Saturday night, which is about the time that ten 
tons of iron takes to be converted into steel. If there 
be more than ten tons, the fire is put in on Sunday night. 
Toward the latter end of the time, the trial bar from the 
middle of the cases at each end is examined. When the 
process is over, the fire is drawn, by removing the movea- 
ble bars between the hxt bars of the grate, so as that the 
fuel tumbles into the ash-hole. The whole then is left 
to cool, which takes near a week more. They calculate 
to bum mom 16 to 18 fodder of coal, each fodder weigh- 
ing 16 cwt. and being worth four shillings sterling, or 
from 250 to 290 cwt. of coal. They say the iron neither 
gains or loses in weight by the operation. This is blis- 
tered steel, and sold (the volume bears date 1774) at 26 
to 28 shillings the cwt. 
These flat bars of steel, when cold, are drawn into 
square bars, of about 3-4ths of an inch thick, which are 
