and Observations on Wootz. 
34i 
lity, which has been melted, approximates the nearest to this 
kind of steel. Its greatest defect is want of malleability. 
hi. Crude or raw iron is a mixture, and has composition. 
It consists of pure iron united, and mixed with other sub- 
stances so as to be hard unmalleable iron : but the substances 
with which it is almost always mixed and united are three, viz. 
oxygen, carbon, and earth. I would term this state of iron, 
on account of external properties, hard unmalleable iron ; and 
on account of structure, impure iron. 
In this statement of the interior structure of the different 
states of iron I have not thought it necessary to reckon the 
impalpable fluids, which they contain in perhaps different pro- 
portions ; viz. light, caloric, electric, and magnetic fluids : for 
I believe their chemical agency has not been ascertained. 
Iron may also contain a much greater quantity of carbon 
than has been above stated to be a constituent part of steel ; 
and this state of iron is hard, unmalleable, and is not uniform 
in its texture. It may be called, according to the new no- 
menclature, hyper-carburet of iron. It is liable to be produced 
by cementing iron in a very high temperature for a very long 
time, with a large quantity of carbon ; and it is also produced 
by melting iron, or steel, with carbon. 
There are innumerable varieties of the first explained state 
of iron, viz. wrought iron. Some of these are familiarly known 
and distinguished by names among artists. Different quanti- 
ties of carbon, which is here an impurity, are the occasion of 
these varieties ; but as the carbon is not in sufficient quantity 
to diminish the toughness, softness, and malleability, to such 
a degree as to produce the obvious qualities of steel, such va- 
Yy 
MDCCXCV. 
