Cast Steel. 
385 
times so little as a two hundredth part of the weight of the 
iron. Steel produced with any proportion of charcoal, not 
exceeding a hundredth, will generally be found to pos- 
sess every property necessary to its being cast into those 
shapes which require great elasticity, strength, and soli- 
dity. It will also be found generally capable of sustain- 
ing a white heat, and of being welded like malleable iron ; 
and, indeed, as the proportion of charcoal or other carbo- 
naceous matter is reduced, the qualities of the steel will 
be found to approach nearer to those of common mallea- 
ble iron. 
“By further pursuing the principle of my new inven- 
tion, I fuse down malleable bar or scrap-iron in a crucible 
or crucibles, without any visible addition of carbonaceous 
matter, and run it into bar, ingot, or other moulds. In 
this state the metal is nearly of the same quality as when 
put in, only altered by the combination of a small portion 
of carbonaceous matter, which the iron by its chemical 
affinity attracts from the ignited fuel, or from the ignited 
carbonic gas of the furnace, and which enters by the mouth 
or through the pores of the crucible or crucibles, proha 
bly dissolved in caloric at a very high temperature. But 
whether so dissolved or not, the fact is, that a portion of 
the carbon passes from the fire into union with the iron, 
and thereby converts it into an extremely soft steel. 
46 Besides the different modes of operation above speci- 
fied, I further reduce iron-ore, bar-iron, or scrap-iron, by 
the addition of lime or chalk, or other carbonats, or of car- 
burets, with clay, glass, and other fluxes, in various pro- 
portions, and form all the various qualities of steel former- 
ly enumeratedo 
44 If the various kinds and qualities of steel obtained by 
the process or processes above mentioned be introduced 
into the common converting or other steel furnaces, in 
contact with carbonaceous matter^ or with earths, and heat- 
