Turkish Iron Print E-mail
Carlisle Patriot - 18 May 1844
TURKISH IRON. - At the institution of Civil Engineers, on Tuesday week, the
second part of Mr. FAIRBAIRN's paper, which remained unfinished from the
last meeting, was read. It noticed the remarkable richness and purity of the
iron ores of the East, and the superior quality of the Damascus steel,
produced from iron, made apparently in the rudest and most primitive manner;
it was remarkable, that up to the present time, there had been but little
change in the manner of manufacturing charcoal iron, even in England; this
might be accounted for by the small quantity of wood charcoal used for
smelting iron; but it appeared, that with the exception of that which was
sent into Staffordshire and South Wales for mingling with the lean ores of
the coal measures, but little of the haematite, or rich ores of Lancashire,
Cumberland, Cornwall, or Devonshire, was used, although in richness and
quality of metal they equalled those of foreign countries. The paper then
entered at length upon the experiment on the transverse strength of the
Turkish iron, and also of the iron from other rich ores, presenting the
results in tabular form, mingled with those which had been reported on
previous occasions in the Transactions of the Philosophical Society of
Manchester and in the reports of the British Association. These tables were
arranged so as to afford the means of comparison of the strength and other
qualities of various irons, and also for practical purposes, to furnish a
guide for selecting such irons as, by proper mixtures of the different
kinds, should enable unerring results to be arrived at by the founder when
engaged in producing castings for the engineer, the architect, or for
various purposes in the arts, or in construction. Simple rules were also
given for finding the breaking weight of beams cast from the 52 kinds of
iron which had been experimented upon. The importance of the subject of the
paper, the novelty of the application of Mr. CLAY's system, and the
unwearied attention of Mr. FAIRBAIRN, together with Mr. HODGKINSON, in the
numerous experiments they had made, were fully appreciated by the meeting;
and it was announced that the valuable tables would speedily be published
entire in the minutes of proceedings of the institution. A specimen of steel
made from the Turkish ore, and a knife manufactured from it by Mr. DURHAM,
of Regent-street, were exhibited and were much admired.
 
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