414 
Cast Steel. 
iron of this description, both by the illustrious Swedish 
chemist just named and Meyer and Clouet. 
If however it be granted that hot-short and cold-short 
iron respectively contain arsenic and phosphoric acid, yet 
it must in return be allowed that these qualities appear in 
very many cases where there is no reason to suspect ei- 
ther the one or the other, and that the methods by which 
these defects may be produced or remedied are in many 
cases at least not very reconcilable with their supposed 
origin. 
If white cast iron, that is, such as is deficient in carbon,, 
be exposed to the action of a current of flame after it has 
exhibited its proper degree of malleability, it will pass int© 
the state of cold-short iron, and its brittleness will increase 
in proportion to the length of time that it is thus exposed,’ 
Does it not therefore seem probable that in many cases 
at least the defects of cold-short iron are occasioned by an 
absorption of oxygen ? This however the advocates for 
the universality of Bergman’s theory on this subject may 
allow with perfect consistency. They would say that 
the phosphat of iron originally contained in the ore is 
converted by the process of smelting into phosphuret of 
iron, which being capable of uniting perfectly with bar 
iron and forming only a very small proportion of the whole 
may render the iron hard without materially impairing its 
toughness while cold : but when this iron deprived of 
carbon is exposed at a high temperature to the action of 
the air, the phosphorus becomes acidified, and the phos- 
phat of iron that hence results being incapable of combin- 
ing with malleable iron is merely dispersed through it* 
and must therefore tend to render it brittle. Nor is the 
explanation of the fact contradicted by the methods made 
use of to correct this quality. Rinman says that cast iron 
which by the common treatment would yield cold-short 
bar, may be made to afford soft malleable iron by fusing 
