170 
Mr. Mushet's Experiments on Wootz. 
Forging 4 fh Cake. 
Both halves of this cake cut pleasantly, and with a degree 
of tenacity and resistance, mixed at the same time with soft- 
ness beyond what was experienced in any of the former cakes. 
Two quarters of this cake were drawn under the tilt hammer, 
and one by hand. The resulting bars were nearly perfect. 
A slight scale was observable upon the bar, from that quarter 
which contained the figure. The fracture was solid, though 
not homogeneous as to quality and colour, and it appeared 
pretty evident, that a considerable portion of one side through 
the whole bar was in the state of malleable iron, and of course 
not capable of being hardened. It was a subject of consider- 
able regret, that the cake the most perfect and the most tena- 
cious of the whole, in the process of forging, should get an 
imperfection which rendered it useless for the perfect purposes 
of steel. 
Forging gth Cake. 
The first half of this cake cut uncommonly soft for wootz, 
but by cracking before the chissel still exhibited a want of 
proper tenacity. The next half cut equally soft, but with more 
tenacity. Two quarters of this cake drew readily out under 
the tilt hammer, and a third was drawn by hand at a bright 
red, sometimes approaching to a faint white heat. None of the 
bars thus obtained were uniformly free from cracks and scale, 
although the fracture exhibited a fair break of a light blue 
colour, and the grain was distinctly marked, and free from 
yolks. 
