soon as a charge of fluid malleable iron has been drawn off from the converting vessel the workmen will take the scrap intended to be worked into the next charge, and proceed to introduce the several pieces into the small chamber, piling them up around the opening of the throat. When this is done, he will run in his charge of crude metal, and again commence the process. By the time the boil commences, the bar-ends and other scrap will have acquired a white heat, and by the time it is over most of them will have been melted and run down in to the charge. Any pieces, however, that remain may then be pushed in by the workman, and by the time the process is completed they will all be melted, and ultimately combined with the rest of the charge; so that all scrap iron, whether cast or malleable, may thus be used up without any loss or expense. As an example of the power that iron has of generating heat in this process, I may mention a circumstance that occurred to me during my experiments. I was trying how small a set of tuyéres could be used; but the size chosen proved to be too small, and after blowing into the metal for one hour and three-quarters, I could not get up heat enough with them to bring on the boil. The experiment was, therefore, discontinued, during which time two-thirds of the metal solidified, and the rest was run off. A larger set of tuyére pipes were then put in, and a fresh charge of fluid iron run into the vessel, which had the effect of entirely re-melting the former charge, and when the whole was tapped out it exhibited, as usual, that intense and dazzling brightness peculiar to the electric light.

To persons conversant with the manufacture of iron it will be at once apparent that the ingots of malleable metal which I have described will have no hard or steely parts, such as are found in puddled iron, requiring a great amount of rolling to blend them with the general mass; nor will such ingots require an excess of rolling to expel cinder from the interior of the mass, since none can exist in the ingot, which is pure and perfectly homogeneous throughout, and hence requires only as much rolling as is necessary for the development of fibre. It, therefore, follows that, instead of forming a merchant bar or rail by the union of a number of separate pieces welded together, it will be far more simple, and less expensive, to make several bars or rails from a single ingot. Doubtless this would have been done long ago, had not the whole process been limited by the size of the ball which the puddler could make.

The facility which the new process affords of making large masses will enable the manufacturer to produce bars that, on the old mode of working, it was impossible to obtain; while, at the same time, it admits of the use of more powerful machinery, whereby a great deal of labour will be saved, and the process be greatly expedited. I merely mention this fact in passing, as it is not my intention at the present moment to enter upon any details of the improvements I have made in this department of the manufacture, because the patents which I have obtained for them are not yet specified. Before, however, dismissing this branch of the subject, I wish to call the attention of the meeting to some of the peculiarities which distinguish cast steel from all other forms of iron: namely, the perfect homogeneous character of the metal, the entire absence of sand-cracks or flaws, and its greater cohesive force and elasticity, as compared with the blister steel from which it is made -- qualities which it derives solely from its fusion and formation into ingots, all of which properties malleable iron acquires in like manner by its fusion and formation into ingots in the new process. Nor must it be forgotten that no amount of rolling will give to blister steel (although formed of rolled bars) the same homogeneous character that cast steel acquires by a mere extension of the ingot to some ten or twelve times its original length.

One of the most important facts connected with the new system of manufacturing malleable iron is, that all iron so produced will be of that quality known as charcoal iron: not that any charcoal is used in its manufacture, but because the whole of the processes following the smelting of it are conducted entirely without contact with, or the use of, any mineral fuel; the iron resulting there from will, in consequence, be perfectly free from those injurious properties which that description of fuel never fails to impart to iron that is brought under its influence. At the same time, this system of manufacturing malleable iron offers extraordinary facility for making large shafts, cranks, and other heavy masses; it will be obvious that any weight of metal that can be founded in ordinary cast iron by the means at present at our disposal may also be founded in molten malleable iron, and be wrought into the forms and shapes required, provided that we increase the size and power of our machinery to the extent necessary to deal with such large masses of metal. A few minutes' reflection will show the great anomaly presented by the scale on which the consecutive processes of iron-making are at present carried on. The little furnaces originally used