386 
Cast SteeL 
ed for five days, or more or less, according to the thick- 
ness of the bars or other forms, and the quantity introdu - 
ced, the bars, ingots, or other shapes, being then taken 
from the furnace, will be found to possess all the solidity 
which they formerly were possessed of as cast-steel, with 
that property of welding peculiar to blistered, faggot, or 
german steel of the usual mode of manufacture. 
“ By this invention I obtain steel which for solidity may 
be used for the purposes of cast-steel ; uniting at the same 
time the property of welding, without destroying the so- 
lidity or quality of the metal : a circumstance of the high- 
est importance to our manufacturers. Ingots, bars, plates, 
and eveiy shape into which this steel is cast, rolled, or 
hammered, will be possessed of uniformity of quality, 
without those numerous reeds, flaws, blisters, and dis- 
joined laminae found in steel made by the processes in use 
before my invention. 
“ When pit- coal cokes are to be used in any of the 
foregoing operations, either in mixture with the ore, or 
with the iron, or for fuel in the furnaces, in which the cru- 
cibles containing the mixture are exposed to the action of 
the fire, it is of the utmost importance that the cokes be 
properly prepared. The process which I have found to 
answer best for this purpose, though common cokes will 
also do, is founded upon the principle, that all access of 
oxygen to the coals to be coked, should be prevented : 
this end is gained by preparing the cokes in iron vessels, 
in the same manner as wood is now charred for the pur- 
pose of being employed in the manufacture of gun-pow- 
der. The bitumen, or coal-tar as it is commonly called, 
which is volatilized from the coals to be coked, by the 
heat applied to the exterior of the iron vessel or other cham- 
ber containing the said coals is thus saved, instead of be- 
ing burnt or dissipated in the atmosphere, as is the case 
in the common process of coking, in which the coals are 
