It was soon found that the amount of carbon in steel could be determined by examining the fractures of cold ingots; the fracture due to a certain quantity of carbon is so distinct and so unchanging for that quantity that, once known, it cannot be mistaken for any other. The ingot is so sensitive to the quantity of carbon present that differences of .05% may be observed, and in everyday practice the skilled inspector will select fifteen different tempers of ingots in steels ranging from about 50 carbon to 150 carbon, the mean difference in carbon from one temper to another being only .07%. And this is no guess-work;—no chemical color determination will approach it in accuracy, and such work can only be checked by careful analysis by combustion.
This is the steel-maker’s greatest stronghold, as it is possible by this means for a careful, skilful man to furnish to a consumer, year after year, hundreds or thousands of tons of steel, not one piece of which shall vary in carbon more than .05% above or below the mean for that temper.
The word “temper” used here refers to the quantity of carbon contained in the steel, it is the steel-maker’s word; the question, “What temper is it?” answered, No. 3, No. 6, or any other designation, means a fixed, definite quantity of carbon.
When a steel-user hardens a piece of steel, and then lets down the temper by gentle heating, and he is asked, “What temper is it?” he will answer straw, light brown, brown, pigeon-wing, light blue, or blue, as the case may be, and he means a fixed, definite degree of softening of the hardened steel.
It is an unfortunate multiple meaning of a very common word, yet the uses have become so fixed that it seems to be impossible to change them, although they sometimes cause serious confusion.
The quantity of carbon contained in steel, and indeed of all ingredients, as a rule, is designated in one hundredths of one per cent; thus ten (.10) carbon means ten one hundredths of one per cent; nineteen (.19) carbon means nineteen one hundredths of one per cent; one hundred and thirty-five (1.35) carbon means one hundred and thirty-five one hundredths of one per cent, and so on. So also for contents of silicon, sulphur, phosphorus, manganese and other usual ingredients.
This enumeration will be used in this work, and care will be taken to use the word “temper” in such a way as not to cause confusion.
It has been stated that crucible-cast steel is made from ten carbon up to two hundred carbon, and that its content of carbon can be determined by the eye, from fifty carbon upwards, by examining the fracture of the ingots. The limitation from fifty carbon upwards is not intended to mean that ingots containing less than fifty carbon have no distinctive structures due to the quantity of carbon; they have such distinctive structures, and the difficulty in observing them is merely physical.
Ingots containing fifty carbon are so tough that they can only be fractured by being nicked with a set deeply, and then broken off; below about fifty carbon the ingots are so tough that it is almost impossible to break open a large enough fracture to enable the inspector to determine accurately the quantity of carbon present; therefore it is usual in these milder steels, when accuracy is required, to resort to quick color analyses to determine the quantity of carbon present. Color analyses below fifty carbon may be fairly accurate, above fifty carbon they are worthless.
As the properties and reliability of crucible-steel became better known the demand increased, and the requirements varied and were met by skilful manufacturers, until, by the year 1860, ingots were produced weighing many tons by pouring the contents of many crucibles into one mould; in this way the more urgent demands were met, but the material was very expensive and the risks in manufacturing were great. About this time, stimulated by the desire of enlightened governments to increase their powers of destruction in war by the use of heavy guns of greater power than could be obtained by the use of cast iron, and for heavier ship-armor to be used in defence, Mr. Bessemer, of England, now Sir Henry Bessemer, reasoned that if melted cast iron was reduced to wrought iron by puddling, or boiling, by the mere oxidation, or burning out, of the excess of carbon and silicon from the cast iron, that the same cast iron might be reduced to steel in large masses by blowing air through a molten mass in a close vessel, retaining enough heat to keep the mass molten so that the resulting steel could be poured into ingots as large as might be desired. At about the same time, or a little earlier, Mr. Kelly, of the United States, devised and patented the same method. Both of these gentlemen demonstrated the potencies of their invention, and neither brought it to a successful issue.