Alpha.
Answer.—Steel is a carburet of iron, rendered as free as possible of all foreign matter, such as sulphur, phosphorus, etc. It may be produced by working pig iron, which contains 4 or 5 per cent of carbon, in a suitable furnace until the amount of carbon is reduced to about 1 per cent, the average carbon in good steel. This is a decarbonizing process. In the other process, which is directly opposite to this, iron bars, freed of carbon, are heated in contact with charcoal until they have absorbed the necessary per cent of carbon. The steel, in the form of ingots, is brought to a proper heat and welded together in proper quantity to make a rail of given length and weight. This is then rolled into proper shape by immense rollers, grooved so as to give the right shape to the rail. Bessemer steel rails can be cast in molds.
SETTLEMENT OF THE CAROLINAS.
Burlington, Iowa.
When and by whom were the States of North and South Carolina settled?
Americus.
Answer.—A company of Huguenots, many of them soldiers and men of rank, with Ribault as their leader, while on an exploring tour, entered a harbor, which they named Port Royal, and being much pleased with the country, thirty were chosen to begin a colony. Their object was to search for gold, but failing to discover any they built a rude ship and put to sea in it. In 1650 a settlement was started upon the Chowan River by emigrants from Virginia and England, which was afterward called Albemarle County Colony, and another settlement near Wilmington, made by planters from Barbadoes, was named Clarendon County Colony. In 1670 a colony settled upon the banks of the Ashley River, but ten years later it removed to the present site of Charleston, S. C. These three colonies were similar in origin and under the same Governor until 1729, when the two Carolinas were erected into distinct provinces.
THE GREATEST OF VALLEYS.