SILICON STEEL.
Steel containing two to three per cent of silicon was put upon the markets, and great claims were made for it.
It is exceedingly fine-grained and hardens very hard; it is brittle, much more liable to crack in hardening than ordinary steel, and it is not nearly so strong as carbon steel.
It is made cheaply enough as far as melting goes, but it may not be melted dead, and therefore sound, because long-continued high heat will destroy it; therefore the ingots are more honeycombed than well-melted carbon steel ingots. The steel will not bear what is known as a welding-heat in steel-working; it is hot-short; for this reason the bars are more seamy than is usual in carbon steel. Added to this the hot-shortness makes it so difficult to work that the labor cost is high. Altogether, then, silicon steel is expensive, and it presents no extra good qualities in compensation.