Cast Steel . 
383 
or may be, made of cast steel ; for the whole iron, by fu- 
sion with the charcoal or other substances or things con- 
taining carbonaceous matter, will be found to have passed 
into the state of cast steel. If cast into bars or ingots, and 
a proper quantity of charcoal, or other substances or 
things containing carbonaceous matter, has been employ- 
ed, such bars or ingots will be found in a state ready to take 
the hammer, and to be drawn or rolled into other shapes, 
according to the intention of. the manufacturer. In some 
cases, especially where a heavy charge is to be run down, 
the crucibles must be previously properly disposed in the 
furnace, and the mixture introduced into them afterwards,, 
£< By the process before described, and which may be 
varied with circumstances by any prudent operator, cast 
steel may be made in a few hours, which, by the process 
or processes hitherto discovered, has usually required ma- 
ny days, and sometimes weeks ; for cast steel, by the 
common method of manufacture, has been hitherto made 
from bar steel, which had previously required, for its own 
conversion into that state, from the state of bar-iron, or of 
scrap-iron, a tedious cementation with charcoal, in a fur- 
nace constructed for the purpose, and usually known a- 
mong manufacturers by the name of a converting furnace . 
“ It cannot here escape observation, that this is not the 
only saving in point of time and expense, gained by my 
process or processes ; for, when I meet with or procure 
iron-stones or iron-ores sufficiently rich, and free from 
foreign mixtures, I save even the time and expense neces- 
sary for the conversion of such iron-stone or iron-ore first 
into cast or pig-iron, and afterwards by a tedious and ex- 
pensive process, accompanied with a great waste of metal, 
into bar-iron. For such ore or iron-stones, being previ- 
ously roasted or terrified, when that process may be found 
necessary, which will often happen, may be substituted 
for the bar-iron, scrap or waste iron, as before described, 
i 
