35£ 
Cast Steel. 
dients. From one- 30th to one- 20th part of the iron, af- 
fords steel capable of a high degree of hardness, which 
may be forged at a low red heat, and has all the properties 
of cast-steeh If more charcoal be employed, the products 
resemble those of the smelting-furnace. 
The attraction of iron for carbon, continues Citizen 
Clouet, is such, that at a very high temperature, it will 
take it even from oxygen. He proves this by the following 
experiments : Let iron, in small pieces, be put into a cru- 
cible with a mixture of equal parts of carbonate of lime 
and clay ; let the heat be urged to the degree necessary 
to weld iron, and kept at that elevation for an hour, or 
more, according to the size of the crucible : the metal be- 
ing then poured into an ingot mould, will prove to be steel 
of the same quality as cast-steel. 
The oxydes of iron are equally susceptible of passing 
through the states of soft iron, steel, and fusible or cast- 
iron, according to the proportions of coal made use of. 
The black oxyde of iron, of which the state appears to be 
the most constant, becomes iron when heated in the cru- 
cible with an equal bulk of charcoal powder : a double 
quantity affords steel : a progressive augmentation, im- 
parts the characters of the white and the grey cast-iron. 
Lastly, Citizen Clouet observed the same transitions de- 
pendant on the respective quantities, by heating cast-iron, 
and the oxyde of iron ; cast-iron and forged-iron ; the 
oxyde of iron and iron ; the oxyde of iron and steel. No 
more than one-fifth of cast-iron is necessary to convert 
bar- iron into steel. \ 
Iron and its oxyde do not intimately unite together. 
The black oxyde, mixed with half the quantity of char- 
coal which would be necessary for its reduction, affords 
iron, which is soft, possessing little tenacity, of a black 
colour, and indistinct fracture. 
One-sixth of oxyde, restores common steel to the state 
