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563 
S T E 
carried even to 200 atmospheres with perfect safety. Mr. Per¬ 
kins next proceeded to demonstrate the rapidity with which 
musket balls might be projected by the same agency. To 
effect this, he screwed on to the gun-barrel a tube tilled with 
balls, which falling down by their own gravity into the 
barrel, were projected, one by one, with such extraordinary 
velocity, as to demonstrate that, by means of a succession of 
tubes, filled with balls, fixed in a wheel, nearly one thousand 
balls per minute might be discharged. In subsequent dis¬ 
charges or volleys, the barrel, to which is attached a move- 
able joint, was given a lateral direction, and the balls per¬ 
forated a plank nearly twelve feet in length. Thus, if op¬ 
posed to a regiment in line, the steam-gun might be made 
to act from one of its extremities to the other. A similar 
plank was afterwards placed in a perpendicular position, 
and, in like manner, there was a stream of shot-holes from 
the top to the bottom. It is thus proved that the steam-gun 
has not only the force of gunpowder, but also admits of any 
direction being given to it. The advantage, in point of 
economy, is thus estimated :—Suppose 250 balls are dis¬ 
charged in a minute by the single-barrel steam-gun, or 
15,000 per hour, this, for 16 hours, would require 15,000 
ounces of gunpowder per hour, or 15,000 pounds weight 
for the 16 hours. The expense of gunpowder being 70s. 
per cwt., or 35/. per thousand, the total is 525/. Mr. Per¬ 
kins says, that he can throw that number of balls in succes¬ 
sion for the price of five bushels of coals per hour, or be¬ 
tween 3/. or 4/. only for 16 hours. 
The particulars of the structure of Mr. Perkins’ gun, have 
not transpired; but it is of course sufficiently easy to be 
arrived at by any intelligent mechanic. War, is however, 
sufficiently dreadful in its present state, and, it is therefore 
hoped, that to the purpose of carnage, steam, hitherto sacred 
to the arts of peace, will never be applied. 
STEAN, s. Applied by Spenser to the urn of Aquarius, 
[ftaena, Sax. a pot.] A vessel of stone. St can is ajar, and 
still so called in the west of England. 
Upon a huge great earth-pot stcan he stood. 
From whose wide mouth there flowed forth the Roman flood. 
Spenser. 
STEANBRIDGE, the name of three small hamlets of 
England, in Gloucestershire, in the parishes of Painswick, 
Bisley, and Stroud. 
STEATITE, a mineral particularly distinguished for its 
unctuous feel, resembling that of soap. See Minerology. 
STEATOCELE [from the Gr. axeax, fat, K^Xy, a tu¬ 
mour .] A swelling of the scrotum, containing fat. 
STEATO'MA, s. [c-rea-re^a.] A species of wen.—If the 
matter in a wen resembles milk curds, the tumour is called 
atheroma ; if like honey, meliceris; and if composed of fat, 
stcatoma. Sharp. 
STEBBING, a parish of England, in Essex; 3 miles 
north-east of Great Dunmow. Population 1072. 
STEBBINGFORD, a small hamlet of England, in Essex, 
3 miles from Dunmow, where there is a fair 10th July. 
STECHFELDEN. See Stephansfelden. 
STECHWORTH, a parish of England, in Cambridge¬ 
shire ; 2 miles from Newmarket. Population 336. 
STECKBORN, a small town of the Swiss canton of Thur- 
govia, on the lake of Zell; 7 miles west of Constance. 
STEDHAM, a parish of England, in Sussex; 2 miles 
west-north-w’est of Midhurst. 
STEE, or Stey, s. A ladder. Common in the norlh 
of England. 
STEED, s. [jxebe.] A horse for state or war. 
My noble steed I give him, 
With all his trim belonging. ShaJcspeare. 
Impresses quaint, caparisons and steeds. Milton. 
Who, like our active African, instructs 
The fiery steed, and trains him to his hand ? Addison. 
STEEL, , 9 . [i'fcal, pcyle, Sax. stael, Dutch, stal. Icel. 
a -9/ cl, Su. Goth, rigidus; sic Icel. staela, indurare. Serenius.] 
A kind of iron, refined and purified by the fire with other in¬ 
gredients, which renders it white, and its grain closer and 
finer than common iron. Steel, of all other metals, is that 
susceptible of the greatest degree of hardness, when well tem¬ 
pered ; whence its great use in the making of tools and in¬ 
struments of all kinds. 
At her back a bow and quiver gay. 
Stuff'd with s/ee/-headed darts wherewith she quell’d 
The savage beasts in her victorious play. Spenser. 
With mighty bars of long-enduring brass 
The s/ee/-bound doors and iron gates he ties. Fairfax. 
It is often used metonymically for weapons or armour. 
Brave Macbeth with his brandish’d steel. 
Which smok’d with bloody execution. 
Carv’d out his passage till he had fac’d the slave. 
Shakspeare. 
Polish’d steel from far severely shines. Dryden .—Cha¬ 
lybeate medicines. — After relaxing, steel strengthens the 
solids, and is likewise an antiacid. Arhuthnot. —It is used 
proverbially for hardness; as hearts of steel. 
STEEL, adj. Made of steel. 
A lance then took he, with a keene steele head, 
To be his keepe off, both’gainst men and dogges. Chapman. 
To STEEL, v. a. To point or edge with steel. 
Add proof unto mine armour with thy prayers, 
And with thy blessings steel my lance’s paint. Shakspeare. 
To make hard or firm. It is used, if it be applied to the 
mind, very often in a bad sense.—Lies well steel'd with 
weighty arguments. Shakspeare. 
So service shall with steeled fingers toil, 
And labour shall refresh itself with hope. Shakspeare. 
O God of battles! steel my soldiers’ hearts, 
Possess them not with fear. Shakspeare. 
Let the steel'd Turk be deaf to matron’s cries. 
See virgins ravish’d with relentless eyes. Tickell. 
So perish’d all those breasts the furies steel'd. 
And curs’d with hearts unknowing how to yield. Pope. 
Steel is a most valuable metal, consisting of iron com¬ 
bined with carbon. It is chiefly used for edge-tools, and 
other cutting instruments, and from its fine polish is used in 
ornaments of various kinds. 
In chemistry it is called a carburet of iron. 
Its hardness is greater than that of iron; and its most 
valuable property is, that it can be made harder than any 
other metal, by suddenly cooling it when heated to redness: 
also, if it is heated to a lower temperature than redness, 
and suddenly cooled, it becomes the most elastic of all the 
metals. It is of a darker colour when polished, and retains 
its polish longer, not being so liable to oxydate. 
The specific gravity of steel is greater than that of 
iron, thus, the spec. grav. of cast-iron is .72070; malleable 
iron, .77880; steel in its soft state, .78404; hardened steel, 
.78180. 
Steel is manufactured by two processes, one in which the 
steel is made from pig-iron at once in the finery: this is 
practised in Germany, and is called natural steel. Cemented 
steel is formed by stratifying bars of iron with powdered 
charcoal in a close vessel, and by keeping the mass at a brisk 
red heat for a longer or shorter time, depending upon the 
size of the bars. This process is called conversion. The test 
of the conversion being complete is its blistered appearance, 
from which it has been called blistered steel. It is from 
blistered steel that all the different kinds of steel are manu¬ 
factured. These are principally of two varieties, viz. cast- 
steel and shear-steel. 
Cast-steel is blistered steel fused and cast into ingots, 
which are afterwards diawn into rods by the hammer, or 
by rolling. By this change the steel becomes much harder 
and of course entirely free from those seams and other de¬ 
fects which exist in the blistered steel: this is what renders 
cast-steel so much better for polished goods: for when 
blistered 
