Chap. II. IRON.

^q^
ravity is again filled with charcoal. It is there agMJii fused, and so on a third time, all
these processes heing accomplisiu-d in three or four lioiirs. 'J'he iron, tlius again solid, is
taken out, and very slightly hammered, to free it from tiie attached scoria
;
after this it
is returned to the furnace, in a corner whereof it is stacked, out of the action of tlie blast,
and well covered with charcoal, where it remains gradually to cool until sufficiently com-
liact to bear the tilt or trip hammer (to be s/iim//ed, to force out the cinders), which is moved
by macliinery, and wliose weight is from 600 to 1200 lbs. Thus it is beaten till the
scorise are forced out. and the particles < f iron weldid together, when it is divided into
several portions, which by rejieated heating and hammering are drawn into bars, in which
state it is ready for sale.
1758. There are various melhods of procuring tlie blast; the first, and most ancient, ig
by means of bellows; the latest, which has bien found in tlie mining districts to be a con-
trivance of great imi)ortancc, is the jilacing a series of vanes attached to an axis, which,
by machinery, are made to revolve in a box with greit rapidity. A pipe passing from the
outside of the box to the furnace conveys the air to it as the vanes revolve, a new portion
continually entering by a hole at the axis. The air thus driven through at its natural
temperature constitutes a cold blast in contradistinction to air heated by artificial means or
fiot ila t. This latter system was discovered by J. 13. Neilson, of Glasgow, about the
year 1826
;
his patent expired in 1845!. At the jiresent day air is fjrced into the furnaces
at a temperature of 600, and even of 800 Fahr., although at the commencement it was
rarely used above .S00. The irons obtained from the former process are considered to be
tougher and stronger than those obtained from the latter process, and present a closer
texture and a smaller crystallization than the latter irons. The Blaenavon, Coed Talon,
Lowmoor, and Muirkirk irons are amongst tlie most esteemed varieties. Perhaps it may
be laid down as a general principle that wliere pig-iron is remelte i with coke in the cui)ola
furnace, for the purposes of the irnnfounder, or refined with coke in the conversion of
forge pig into bar iron, it is of little consequence whether the reduction of the ore has
been effected with the hot or the cold blast ; but where large castings have to be run
directly from the smelting furnace, the quality of the metal will, no doubt, suffer from the
use of the hot blast.
1759. The proportion of pig or cast iron from a given quantity of ore varies as the dif.
ference in the metallic contents of different parcels of ore and other circumstances, but tlift
quantity of bar obtained from pig iron is not valued at more than 20 per cent.
1 760. The other process for manufacturing bar iron, which is that chiefly employed in
this country, is conducted in reverberatory furnaces, usually caWtiA puddling furnaces. The
operation begins with the fusion of the cast iron in refinery furnaces, like the one above
described. When the iron is fully melted, a tap-hole is opened in the crucible, and the
metal and slag flow out together into a fosse covered with clay well mixed with water, by
which a coating is formed that prevents the metal from sticking to tne ground. The finer
metal forms a slab about ten feet long, three feet broad, and from two to two and a half inches
in thickness. For the purpose of slightly oxidizing it, and to make it brittle, it is much
sprinkled over with cold water. In this part of the process it loses in weight from 1
2
to 17 per cent. After this, it is broken up into pieces, and placed on the hearth of a re-
verberatory furnace, in portions heaped up to its sides in piles which rise nearly to the
roof, leaving a space open in the middle to give room for puddling the metal as it flows
down in streams. When the heat of the furnace has brought it to a pasty state, the tem-
perature is reduced, a little water being sometimes thrown on the melted mass. The semi-
liquid metal is stirred up by the workman with his puddle, during which it swells, and
parts with a large quantity of oxide of iron, which burns with a blue flame, so that the
mass appears ignited. As it refines, the metal becomes less fusible, or, as the workmen say,
it begins to dry. The puddling goes on until the whole charge assumes the form of an in-
coherent sand, when the temperature is gradually increased to give it a red white heat, at
which period the particles begin to agglutinate, and the charge, in technical language,
works heavy. The refining is now considered finished, and the metal has only to be formed
into balls, and condensed under the rolling cylinder. From this state it is brought into
mill bar iron. After this last operation, several pieces are welded together, from which it
acquires ductility, uniformity, and cohesion. A lateral welding of four pieces together
now follows, and the mass passes through a series of cylinders as in the first case, and
becomes English bar-iron.
1761. The lamination of iron into sheets is by a refinery furnace, with a charcoal instead
of a coke fire.
1762. Malleable iron is often obtained from the ores directly, by one fusion, if the me-
tallic oxide be not too much mixed with foreign substances. It is a mode of working
miich,,more economical than that above described, and from the circumstance of its having
been long known and used in Catalonia, it is known by the name of the method
of
the Cala-
loaiau forge. The furnace employed is similar to the refiner's forge already described.
The crucible is a kind of semicircular or oblong basin, eighteen inches in diameter, and