Cast StecL 
444 
who professed himself able to accomplish it. If therefore 
I should describe a simple process for the purpose, I may 
be of use to the very many who are incredulous on the 
subject. If any one has made the discovery on principle, 
he has reasoned thus : Cast-steel in a welding heat is too 
soft to bear being hammered ; but is there no lower de- 
gree of heat in which it may be soft enough to unite with 
iron, yet without hazard of running under the hammer ? 
A few experiments decided the question ; for the fact is, 
that cast-steel in a white heat, and iron in a welding heat* 
unite completely. 
It must not be denied that considerable nicety is requi- 
red in giving a proper heat to the steel ; for, on applying 
it to the iron, it receives an increase of heat, and will some- 
times run on that increase, though it would have borne 
the hammer in that state in which it was taken from the, 
fire. 
I need scarcely observe, that when this process is inten- 
ded, the steel and iron must be heated separately, and the 
union of the parts proposed to be joined, effected at a sin- 
gle heat. In case of a considerable length of work be- 
ing required, a suitable thickness must be united, and af- 
terwards drawn out, as is practised in forging reap- 
hooks, &c. 
The steels on which my experiments have been made, 
are Walker’s of Rotherham, and Huntsman’s, between 
which I discover no difference ; and though there may 
be some trifling variation in the flux used for melt in gv 
they are probably the same in essentials,^ 
* Mr, Pettibone of Philadelphia ter succeeded in inis process) 
