354 
Cast Steeh 
nails, and 245 grammes (about 8 1 oz. avoirdupois) of a 
mixture of carbonate of lime and baked clay, were ex- 
posed to strong heat for an hour, when the fusion was judg- 
ed to be complete ; and after removing the vitreous mat- 
ter the ingot was poured out. From the effect produced 
on two pyrometric pieces, it was judged that the steel had 
undergone a heat of 150 degrees. This steel had all 
the properties of cast-steel, and was made into razors by 
citizen Lepetitoualle, who found it of a good quality, easy 
to be worked, and capable of bearing a comparison with 
the cast- steel marked Marshal and B. Huntsman . 
Upon these facts, the reporter observes, that since iron 
does not become steel but by taking up about 0,2013 of 
its weight of carbon*, and in the present process it exists 
only in the form of carbonic acid, this acid must conse- 
quently be decomposed ; which happens, as the reporter 
observes, by means of a combination between its princi- 
ples respectively and certain adequate portions of the iron, 
that is to say, the oxygen of the acid combines with part 
of the iron, and forms an oxyde with which the vitreous 
flux becomes charged, and the carbon combines with 
the rest of the iron, and forms steel. Hence it may be in- 
ferred, that this new process must be attended with a loss 
of so much more consequence, as it is necessary to use 
iron of the best quality for making steel. But, on this 
head, the reporter takes notice that the loss in the experi- 
ment with the wind-furnace was not quite one-twelfth part ; 
and, in another experiment, by Vauquelin, the loss was 
less than one twenty- second part; a loss, which he ob- 
serves, will be well repaid by the increased value of the 
* This quantity (upwards of one-fifth) so much exceeds any ad- 
dition which iron is stated to gain by conversion into steel, that I 
suppose it to be 0,20 1 3 in the centenary or hundred parts of iron. 
Iron is reckoned to gain about a little more than half a pound in 
the hundred weight by cementation.— 3 Nich, Jour. quto. 134. 
