CiiAP. IT.

IRON.
513
hiwh temperature. Cementalinn is also applied to tlie surfaces of articles of malleable iron
in order to give tliem a skin or coating of steel, and is called vntehnrdening.
177'i. II. >S'//e(t'- .s7ce/ is made by breaking bars of blister steel into lengths, faggoting
tiiem, and rolling them out at a welding heat; repeatl.ig tlie process until a near approach
to uniforniitv of composition and texture has been obtained. It is used for tools and
cutting implements.
1773. III. Cast .v^ee' is made by melting bars of blister steel with a small additional
quantity of carbon (in the form of coal tar), and some manganese. It is the purest, most
uniform, and strongest, steel, and is used for the finest cutting implements. Anotlier pro-
cess re(iuiring a higher temperature, is to melt bars of the purest malleable iron with man-
ganese and witii the whole (|unntity of carbon required in order to form steel. Tlie
quality as to hardness is regulated by the jiroportion of carbon. A sort of semi steel c>r
steely iron, made by this process and containing a small proportion of carbon only, is k.;owii
as homogeneous metal.
1774. IV. Steel made hy the air blast is produced from molten pig iron by Bessemer's
process, wherein the molten jiig iron, having been run into a suitable vessel or converter, has
jets of air,bK)wn into it tlirongh tubes as the liquid is poured in. The oxygen of the air
combines with the silicon and the carbon oi the pig iron, and in so doing jjioduces enough
of heat to keep tlie iron in a melted state till it is brought to the mMlltable condition
;
it is
then run into large ingots, which are hammered and rolled in the usual way. About two
hours suthce to convert cold iron into pure steel.
1775. V. P(W/e</ A-^ee/ is made by puddling pig iron, and stepping the process at the
instant when the proper quantity of carbon remains. The bloom is shingled and rolled
like bar iron. VI. Grunulaled steel, the inverition of Capt. Uchatius, is made by running
melted pig iron into a cistern of water over a wheel, wliich dashes it about so that it is
found at the bottom of the cistern in the form of grains or lumps of about the size of a hazel
nut.- These are imbedded in pulverized hamiatite oi sparry iron ore, and exposed to a heat
sufficient to cause part of the oxygen of the ore to combine with, and extract, the carbon
from the superficial layer of each of the lumps of iron, each of which is reduced to the con-
dition of malleable iron at the surface, while its heart continues in a state of cast iron. A
small additional quantity of miilleable iron is produced by the reduction of the ore. Tlie.se
ingiedienls being melted together produce steel.
1776. Kirkaldy observes that
"
Steel invariably presents, when fractured slowly, a silky
fibrous appearance. When fractured suddenly, the appearance is invariably granular ; in
which case also the fracture is always at right angles to the length. When the fracture is
fibrous, the angle diverges always more or less fiom 9U. The granular appearance pre-
sented by steel suddenly fractured is nearly free of lustre, and unlike the bnillant crystal-
line apfiearance of iron suddenly fractured : the two combined in the same specimen aie
sliown in iron bolts partly converted into steel. Steel which previously broke with a silky
fibrous appearance is changetl into granidar l)y being hardened. Steel is reduced in
strength by being hardened in water, while the stiength is vastly increased by b^'ing
hiirdencd in oil. The increase of strength is greater the higher steel is heated (not being
burned) and so treated."
1777.
"
In a highly converted or hard steel the increase in strength and in hardness is
greater than in a less converted or soft steel. Steel plates hardened in oil and joined to-
gether with rivets are fully e(|u:d in strength to an unjointed soft plate ; or the loss of
strength by riveting is more than coimterbalanced by the increase in sirengtli by hardening
in oil. The most highly converted steel does not, as some may suppose, possess the greatest
density. In cast steel, the density is much greater than in puddied steel, which is even less
than in some of the superior descriptions of wrought iron."
1778. This subject may, ])erhaps, be considered of greater importance to the architect
and engineer, if those experienced scientific men be right, who predict that the time is
not far hence when there will be no such metals as either wrought or cast iron
;
steel taking
the place of both for all practical purposes. As one instance among many, it has been
urged that the absolute strength of any cast iron girder may be doubled by tiie judicious use
of a very iev/ pounds of steel, costing but a trifle. {See 1632.)
Corrosion and Preseiviitlon
of
Iron.
1779. Cast iron will often last for a long time without ru.sting. if the skin l)e not injiu-cd,
which is coated with a film of the silicate of the protoxide of iron, produced by the action
of the sand of the mould on the iron. Chilled surfaces of castings are wiiliout tliis pro-
tection, and therefore rust more rapidly. The corrosion of iron is more rapid when partly
wet and partly dry, than when wholly unmersed in water or wholly exposed to tlie air. It
is accelerated by impurities in water, and espcci.il'y by the t'resence of decomposing organic
matter, or of free acids. It-is also accelerated by tne contact of the iron with any metnl
which is electro-negative relatively to the iron, or in other words, has less affinity for
oxygen, or with the rust of iron itself If two iiortioi>s of a mass of iron are in ditlerui.t
LL