2 55 
on the alloys of steel. 
the whole of the metals, and nothing else, packed into the 
crucible, and placed in the furnace, to attend to it while there, 
and to suffer it to remain for some considerable time in a 
state of thin fusion, previous to its being poured out into the 
mould. The cast ingot was next, under the same super- 
intendence, taken to the tilting mill, where it was forged into 
bars of a convenient size, at a temperature not higher than 
just to render the metal sufficiently malleable under the tilt 
hammer. When returned to us, it was subjected to exami- 
nation both mechanical and chemical, as well as compared 
with the similar products of the laboratory From the exter- 
nal appearance, as well as from the texture of the part when 
broken by the blow of the hammer, we were able to form a 
tolerably correct judgment as to its general merits ; the hard- 
ness, toughness, and other properties, were farther proved 
by severe trials, after being fashioned into some instrument, 
or tool, and properly hardened and tempered. 
It would prove tedious to enter into a detail of experiments 
made in the Royal Institution ; a brief notice of them will at 
present be sufficient. After making imitations of various 
specimens of meteoric iron by fusing together pure iron and 
nickel, in proportions of 3 to 10 per cent, we attempted mak- 
ing an alloy of steel with silver, but failed, owing to a super- 
abundance of the latter metal ; it was found, after very many 
trials, that only the — ^ part of silver would combine with 
steel, and when more was used a part of the silver was found 
in the form of metallic dew lining the top and sides of the 
crucible ; the fused button itself was a mere mechanical mix- 
ture of the two metals, globules of silver being pressed out 
of the mass by contraction in cooling, and more of these glo- 
bules being forced out by the hammer in forging ; and far- 
