Every kind of iron is not suited to be come steel. The iron which answers best is made at Danemora, in Sweden, and the whole produce of the Danemora mines, amounting to 8000 tons, is im ported into Britain by a single house, and the cementation is performed at Sheffield, by Sanderson & Co., who export steel to all parts of the world.
For a long time we had to import all our steel from England, and England had to import all her iron from Sweden to make her steel. Within the past year steel has been made at the establishment of the Adirondac Steel Works in Jersey City, and although these works are com paratively in their infancy, having been in operation only since last January, the article produced is preferred, at the same price, for many purposes, to the best English cast steel. Similar works exist in Connecticut.
The ore used is produced from Essex county, N. Y., at the sourocs of the Hud son, at an altitude of 5,000 feet, among the Adirondac Mountains, and about 50 miles West from Lake Champlain. Largo expenditures have been made by the proprietors for the purpose of developing the immense mineral resources of that region.
The ore is here converted into bar iron and transported to the Company's works in Jersey City to be manufactured into steel. Its adaptedness to this purpose
was ascertained by Joseph Dixon, Esq., of Jersey City, after a protracted series of expenmenta made with reference to that object. He also succeeded in the use of anthracite—supposed by English manufacturers impossible ; and then ap plied himself to the manufacture of black-lead. crucibles possessing sufficient ly powerful refractory qualities to with stand the heat of anthracite furnaces. In this too he was successful, and his pots are now in use in England and else where by the first artisans.
In these, the steel is broken into small pieces, and put into sixteen crucibles of a capacity of forty to sixty pounds, which are placed in as many small furnaces whose tops are even with the surface of the floor. After the lapse of two hours, the molten contents are poured into in got moulds, of various sizes. The steel is then readily drawn out upon being re heated, under heavy hammers, into being of any desired shape or size.
Edge tools may be made with cast steel faces upon iron by fixing a clean piece of wrought iron, brought to a welding heat, in the centre of a mould, and then pour ing in melted steel, so as entirely to en velope the iron, and then forging the mass into any shape required.