to the edge. General Anossoff died in 1851, and it is said the
cutlery made at his establishment is not of so good a quality as
when he personally superintended its manufacture.
See also Temperikg ; Annealing.
Autoiue Galy-Cayalat's process for casting steel under press-
ure to avoid the formation of air-bubbles, consists in providing
the head of the tlask with a metallic cap, which is fitted and se-
cured so as to be perfectly tight, and, when the pouring is com-
pleted, introducing through a pipe provided with a stopcock a
small charge of an explosive compouud composed of niter 80,
charcoal 20 ; this ignites on coming in contact with the fused
metal in the flask, causing a pressure equivalent to that of a
high head of metal : compressing the fluid metal in the mold
and expelling the bubbles of gas therefrom. See Steel-casting ;
Steel-press.
2. A round rod of steel, having longitudinal stri-
ations, used for sharpening knives.
In the sculptures at Thebes, butchers are
represented sharpening their knives on a
round bar of metal which is suspended from
their girdles or from the hem of the apron,
as shown in the figure This was evidently •
a steel. It was for a long time supposed
that steel or iron was unknown to the
Kgyptiaus, but this is disproved by the
paintings and by later discoveries Some of
the sickles are represented blue and others
red, indicating steel and bronze.
3. A steel is used by curriers in
giving the hue, recurved edge to the
knite wlunvwitli to shave the tlfish
side of the hide upon the beam. The
edge is brought up by the wlietstone
and turniwj-slci'J, and afterward jireserved by the
Ungcr-stecl, whicli the beam-man holds between his
iiugers while rising the
knife. Fig. 5743.
4. An angular piece of
steel, which is struck
with a ilint to produce
sparks in order to ignite
tinder.
The striking of fire by flint
and steel is mentioned by Vir-
gil and PJiny. The Anglo-
Saxon fyr-stan.
Steel -bronze. The
name given to a very
hard and tenacious alloy
used as a substitute for
steel. Its composition
varies but little from that of the usual guii-uietal, —
90 copper, 10 tin, — whicli, iu making a gnu, is cast
upon a copper core of less diameter than the bore.
The piece is then reamed out until it is \ inch less
Fig. 5742.
(j=CO>-
Currier^s Steels.
STEEL-CASTING.
2367
STEEL-PEN.
than the bore iuteuded. Conical plugs of hard
steel are tliL-ii driven through it by hydraulic press-
ure, which colliers upon the na-tal the peculiar ijual-
ities.
It was patented by S. B. Deau, Boston, Mass., May 18, 1869,
anU an orJer \Ya^ given in 187U by the U S. Uriiuance Office lor
some ijuns made by his process. His claim reads : " As a new
manufacture, a bronze gun, in wUicb the metal immediately
surrounding the bore is put in the condition that is produced
by the process of condensation set forth-''
Colonel L'cbatius, director of the Arsenal at Vienna, uses an
alloy of IK) to 92 per cent of copper and 10 to 8 per cent of tin,
and casts under a pressure of 81) tons, producing a very hard,
tenacious metal, but one with little more elastii-ity than ordi-
nary bronze. On cold-rolliug this bronze, cjist under pressure,
into an ingot, its power of resistance, its elasticity, and its hard-
ness were increased. In ca.<ting guns, a double mold with a solid
ibrged copper core 0.05 metre in diameter was used The cylin-
ders obtained were 0.62 metre in diameter and 30 metre long;
they were turned down to 18 metre outside, and the interior
bored out to OS metre. The cylinder was then opened out by
means of conical steel drifts and an hydraulic press, so that it
was enlarged 2 per cent. The bronze produced in this manner
is declared to have all the hardness, hitiiin^'i-iii'nusness, and
power of resistance of steel tubes. Its weiriii;; iiuahiies are as
great, and the cost of bronze guns made iu this way is much
less than steel, if the value of the old bronze be taken into ac-
count.
The plan has been adopted for the Austrian ordnance. The
first cost of the steel-brouze cannon is placed at less than half
that of a Krupp steel piece, and very much below that of a
Whitworth compressed-steel gun. which, at a rough estimate,
is about 20 per cent more expensive than Krupp's.
Fig. 5744.
Slfe^F^l:
n
-ayi
Ui
Steel-Refining Furnace,
screws vi' The upper part of the fiieUchaniber _; is provided
with a slide, on whieh the fuel is deposited, and lias a cover v,
made gas-tight by an annular space conbtiniiig water or sand,
a is the fire-grate The furnace i> is reverberatory.
In Fig 5746, A is the fire-chamber : C a crucible chamber,
from which the products of combustion pass to a second cruci-
ble-chamber E Each chamber is provided with apertures at
top, closed by plugs / / The crucible-covers are also provided
with plugs, the construction being such that the metul can be
Fig. 6746.
Apparatus for maknig Cast-Sleet Castings.
Steel-cast'iug. Fig. .'1744 is an app.-iratus for
niakiiig c:oiupiess,eJ cast-steul castiiig.s. Tlju iiietallio ]
molds are so arranged tliat the top part serves as the j
follower of a press, and is operated upon by screws. \
The top fits closely into the luatri.x, and is provided !
with ingates for the metal, wliieji are closed by
slides when the mold is full. The ju-essure is ap-
]ilicd to the metal while in a melted state, by means
of the screws, with suffieient force to e.xpel the air
and gas from and solidify the metal. See also Steel-
I'RESS.
Steel'er. (S/)ipK-riti}iti7i().) The foremost or af-
tennust plank in a stra'ke, which is dropped short of
the stern or .stern-post of a ves.sel.
Steel-fur'nace. A nietallurgic furnace in which
ore or iron is treated for the production or refining of
steel.
Steel is produced from bar-iron in furnaces in which the bars
are built up with charcoal and heated. See CEiMENT.\Tlox-FUR-
NACE.
Other furnaces operate upon ore of certain kinds to produce
steel directly.
Again, other furnaces operate upon steel of a certain quality
which i.s broken up and heated in crucibles. See Cast-steel.
Fig. 574.5 is a furnace for melting and refining steel. .\n open
hearth D of refractory material is inclosed in a metallic pan,
which is supported and made adjustable vertically by means of
Steel-Furnace. ^
readily inspected during the process, and the crucibles removed
from or iihued in the furnace at any stage of the process with-
out interrupting the operation
Steel-head'ed Rail. A railway-rail having an
upper surface or tread of .sVcc/ welded on to a body
of iron. The steel is usually so disposed in the
fagot as to form the head when the rail is rolled.
See R.iiL.
Steel-mill. 1. A mill with metallic grinding-
surfaces, usually of steel, but sometimes of cast-iron,
as being cheaper and sufficient for the purpose.
Coffee and spice mills are instances.
2. (Mining.) A steel wheel revolving in contact
with a flint, to make a light In a mine. A device
used before the invention of the scifdy-lamp. See
Fig. 2952, page 1314.
Steel-pen. Jletallic pens, or at least graving
instruments, would ap]iear to be coeval with the in-
troduction of metal. The first implement of the pen
kind was probably a sort of Hint stylus, with which
the primitive race whose remains are founil in the
bone caverns of France traced the rude outlines of
the mammoth and the reindeer uiion the bones of
animals. Jletallic ])ens or gravers appear very early
in history, those of iron being refei'ied to by Job and
by Jeremiah. These may have been either gravers
or ehi.sels. See Pen.
The ordinary pen of the Egyptians and of the ancients in gen-
eral was a reed, cut and split as in the modern practice. This
is still employed among the Orientals Pee ('en.
The quill-pen was first introduced in the si.xth century A. D.,
but did not entirely supplant the reed until long afterward.
.fob refers to three modes of writing ■—
Printed (traced) in a hook. Pn'bably on a sheet of linen,
bark, or a palm-leaf: for this was before the invention of parch-
ment by Eumenes II. of Pergamos (197 n.c ). The use of the
papyrus was local, though very ancient, and Pliny (" History
STEEL-PEN.
2368
STEEL-PLATE ENGRAVING.
of Nature," Lib. XIII. ch. 11) was much mistakea in stating
tbat it WHS atit used before the couquefit uf Kj;>pt by Alexander
ttie (Jrtiit, 332 b. c. Hulls of papyrus iut-t-ribtrd by a reod peu
and a pigment are found iu the niuniuiy envelopes, aud were
coiiiinun iu ancient times Bark is referred to by I'liny us com-
mon. I'.ilm leaves aiv yet used iu youtberu Asia fur this pur-
pose, tlic writinj? beiuf? done with an iron pen or pointed in-
strument, wliich etelies through one of the layers of cellular
uiatter ou tlie leaf; coloring matter is then rubbed into the
chanuels made by the stylus.
Graven with an iron pen and lead. If this be the con-ect
mode of analyzing the seutencc, it refers to the mode of writing
bv a pointed instrumeut on a leaden tablet. Pausanius (LiU
XII. ch, 31), giving an account of the Boiotians, who lived uear
fount Helicon, staU-s that " thev showed me a leadcu table near
to the fountain, on which Ilesiod's works were written; but a
great part had perished by the injuries of tiuie."
In the rock- f'orecer. Chiseled or engraved inscriptions on
tablets of stoue or on the vertical fices of rocks aud cliffs. It
seems hardly necessary to multiply instances of the carving of
inscriptions on rocks. Tlie Egyptian hieroglyphics are as old
as Osymaudya-s (2100 n. c). The sarcophagi of Egypt and
Plia'uicia are elaborately carved with inscriptions in their re-
spective characters.
Thompson t" The Land and the Book'"), in speaking of the
Pass of Dog Kiver, says : —
" In tliis gi-aud, wild gorge is an assemblage of ancient me-
mentos to be found uowucre eL^e in a single group, so far as I
know.
" That old road, climbing the rocky pass, along which
the Plucniciau, Egyptian, Assyrian, Persian, Greek, Roman,
Arab, Frank, and 'I'urk have marched their countless hosts for
4.000 years, has much to tell the student of man's past history, |
could we but break the seal and read the long roll of revela-
tions. Those faintly cut emblems of Sesostris ; those stern,
cold soldiers of (.'haldea; tho^^e inscriptions in Persian, Greek,
Latin, and Arabic, —embody a chain of history which we long
to solve." See Pen.
The original flexible iron-pen of modern times was an experi-
mental affair probably, and is mentioned by Cham her laquu,
lljSij. The first steel-pen iTi regular use was made by Wise,
in Li)ndon, in 1803, and lor several years thereafter. Under grout
discouragement he persistently carried round his wares, and
graduiilly broke the ground for the Hawkinses, Gillotts. and Per-
rys who succeeded him. To him is due the credit of being the
orignial inventor of the modern steel-pen.
Wise's pL'u was made with a barrel, by which it was slipped
upon a straight handle. In its portable form it was mounted in
a bone case for the pocket.
Uerry's first pens were of steel, rolled from wire, the material
costing 7 shillings a pound. 5 shilhngs each was paid tbe work-
man for making them; this was afterward reduced to 36 shil-
lings per gross, which price was continued for several years.
Joseph Gillott, originally a Sheffield cutler, and af:erward a
workman iu light steel articles, as buckles, chains, and other
articles of that ^ass, gave a great impulse to the steel-pen
manufacture, 18'.2. Previous to his entering the business the
pens were cut out witli shears aud liuished with the file. Gil-
lott ad.ipied the stamping- press to the requirements of the
manufacture, as cutting out the blanks, foruiing the >lits, bend-
ing the metal, and impressing the makers' name on tlie pens. He
also devised improved modes of preparing the metal for the ac-
tion of the press, tempering, cleansing, and polishing, aud, iu
phort, many little details of manufacture necessary to give them
the required flexibility to enable •them to compete with tlio
quill-pen One great dilficulty to be overcome was their ex-
treme barduess aud stiffness; tliis was etfeoted by making slits
at the side in atldition to the central one, wliich had previously
been solely used. A farther improvement, that of cross-grind-
ing the points, was subsequently adopted- Tbe first gross of
pens with three slits was soUl for ^7. In 1830 the price was
$ 2.00 ; in 1832, $ 1.00 ; in lS<il. 12 cents, and a common va-
riety for4 cents, a grosh. About l,3U0 tons of steel are annually
consumed, the number of pens produced in England alone being
about l,00(),onO,OOU.
The steel used is a very fine quality of spring-steel, supplied
to the [len-makers in sheets 5 feet long by 18 inches wide.
These are cut into strips of certain wiuths according to the size
or pen required, packed in east iron air-tight boxes placed in a
furnace and kept at a red heat for about 12 hours ; they are
then removed to a cooling niufile, and very gradually cooled.
The striii-* are then piclded to remove the scale, and afterward
cleansed by rolling in revolving tubs with emery. They are
next passed through a series of rolls to reduce them to the
proper thickness, wliich varies greatly in different styles of pen.
After rolling, each strip, for first-class work, is gaged witli a
gage which indicates differences so small us the l,(X)Oth of an
inch, ami those varying from the true thickness are thrown
out. The strips are fed by hand to presses having dies, which
cut out tlie blanks. Another operator takes the flat blanks
and feeds tlicm to a fly-press, whicli cuts the perforation or
perforations and the siile slits. After piercing they are placed
in sealed iron boxes, heated and annealed for 18 boui-s. Each
blank is then stamped in another pass with the maker's name
and the device, if any. The metal, now very soft, is shaped to
the proper curve by means of fly-presses of heavier construc^^
tion ; bajrel-pens are passed through two presses successively.
They are then hardened. For this purpose they are placed in
small iron pans and lieated to a regulated degree of heat ; this
operation is conducted with great nicety. When the exact heat
has been attained, the pans are taken out of the furnace and
emptied into a Uiuk containing oil ; by this means they are
suddenly cooled and rendered extremely brittle. Having been
cleansed they are next put iu a revolving iron barrel and heated
over a tire, letting down the temper aud rendering them elastic.
In onler to whiten them, if this is desired, they are placed in
revolving barrels with emery, otherwise they remain of u brown
or blue color.
To this succeeds grinding, which is effected by passing the
pen liglitly backward and forward several times over a small
revolving emery-wheel, an operation requiring great deUcacy of
mani[)ulation.
The central slit is then made by a fly-press, provided with
nicely adjusted gages for holding the pen, and two cuttei-s with
sharp, smooth, .strong edges, one of which cuts into the nib oil
; each side. The points in tho better class of pens are now
rounded, and the pens poUshed. They are next colored by
I heating, as in tempering, and then lacquered or varnished.
Some are coated with copper, aluminium, silver, or gold. Fi-
! nally, iu some establishments, each pen is examined with a
! magnifier to find out defects which may have previously escaped
observation. Tbe defective ones are thrown out, aud the re-
mainder are then ready for being placed un cards or boxed.
Steel-plate En-grav'ing. Tliis art does not
net't'.shaiily ilill'iT essentially IVuin copin-Tplate en-
graving ; the ehungo, however, in the material oper-
ated upon has led to various iiioditieations in the
proce.sii wliieli could not have occurred with copper ;
to wit, the inherent capacity of the metal for hard-
ening and softening.
Like copperplate, steel may be engraved by various modes,
in tine, stip/ile, mezzotint^ af/ttalint. (f-ee Engravlng, pago
804, where a list occurs of the various modes, each described ia
its alphabetical place.) The prime art of engraving, and tbe one
to which artists refer when speaking of engraving as an art, is
known technically as lhu'ens:iaviiig, in which the work con-
sists of lines of various forms, the characters of skin, hair, fabric,
wood, metal, ground, foliage, water in motion or calm, cloud,
or sky, arc given by various kinds of lines ; the force and prom-
inence being due to the depth, width, and nearness of the lines,
enabling them to hold a greater body of ink in the places where
depth of color is rc(iuired, according to the effects required in
tho picture.
The origin of the art of engraving is very ancient, and ia re-
ferred to in Engraving, page 804; ami Ooppebpl.vte E.ngr.\v-
ING, page G18 ; that of .^(ec^plate engraving can hardly be said
to have existed previous to Jacob I'eikins, of Massachusetts,
the inventor of the iraiis/er-procfss. This is described under
B.VNK-NOTE Engu.vvisg, page 228, and the tranfj'fr-press is shown
and described under that caption. (f'eealsoTit.KNSFER-PREss.} It
was invented by Perkins, and brought into operation by him in
England abour."l837, the firm name of " Perkins, Fairbairn,and
Heath â– ' soon becoming famous in this branch of the art. The
system, however, has never flourished to any notable extent in
England, the Bank of England authorities, it was thought, tak-
ing a dislike to it as a foreign innovation, and preferring a system
which does not jiroduce artistic results, but those of a certain
clear and clean jirecision and unvarying character. They have
also, as mentioned in page 229, adopted siir/ace-prhithtg, as dis-
tinguished from the ordinary copperplate printing (see pages
(il8, GW). The Bank of Ireland adopted the Perkins method.
Nowhere has the transfer system been carried to so great an
extent or peifection as iu the United States, and especially in
the Hureau of Engraving aud Printing, United States Treas-
ury Department. This bureau was organized by S- M, Clark,
under the act of June 11. 18b2, aud has been in charge of O.
B. Mc('artee since August, 18G8. The engraving division ia
superintended by G. W. Casilear. '
To these officers the writer is iudobted for much of the fol-
owing infnrmjition, and for specimen of work on Plate LXIV.
to illustrate the subject.
The process in the U. S. Treasury is as follows : —
A piece of decarbonized steel, one eighth of an inch in thick-
ne.«!3, and somewhat larger than a bank-note, is softened by
artificial means, to make it ready for the engraver, who is ncces-
.â– larily an artist of great skill and experience. The engraving of
' a single die otten occupies many mouths, but, of course, this is
a variable element, depending upon the difficulty and size of
the work The principal engraved work of the bureau consists
of vignette portraits ;ind the ornamental work upon bank-notes,
with which all are familiar. The d en o>ni nation counters, con-
sisting of a variety of oval and circular forms interlacing each
other in a series of lines and elongated dots, thus forming
curious and complex figures, are executed by a geometrical
latfte, a cinuplicated antl ingenious mechanism having almost
kaleidoscopic powers in the production of geometric figures and
designs. This is describeil under Rose-engine, pages li*83, 19S4.
See also Geomktric Lathe, page Ut»3-) When the engraver's
work is completed, being in inia^lio, the steel block, now called
STEEL-PLATE ENGRAVING.
2369
STEELYARD.
a bed-piece or die, is subjected to the hardeninj; process It is
iuclosed iu an irou box tillt-J \\iih chaiToal of buue or ivory . aud
heated to a white he^t, alter wiiiih it is "ithdruwu aud plunged
into a b.ith of oil, a process lamiiiar in the arts Haviuii tiius
been hardened, it is placed upon the bed of a TRAN'.sFr:R-p.iESS
(which see), a decarbnuized cylinder roll adjusfed over it, and
then submitted to pressure, the roll being moved backward and
for.vard until it has received an impresjsion of the original plate
in relievo. (See RoLLER-DlK. Fi-;. 4-iu3.) The roll it.-elf is then
hardened, and is capable, by means of the transfer- press, of
repeating the original engraving upon the .-oftcned steel-plate
from which the notes are to be eventually priuti-d.
As the diffL-rent portions of a note are upun >eparate rollers,
great care 1.^ required in assembling the various iuipre.-sions,
each being in turn adjusted above tlic portion of tlie plate
where its design is to occur. This is originally a matter o"
treme delicacy, requiring t-istc and care of no ordinary de;
but as necessity occurs for making other ex.ict copies
same engraving, a register is kept of tlie exact position
roller relatively to the surface of the plate tor subsequen
i^uidance. The notes are printed in sneets of four, so tlia
the necessity for this accuracy occurs even in the firs
plate, as it afterward recurs in the preparation of succeed-
ing plates of the same denomination.
Flute LXIV. illustrates several fejitures in bank note en;
ing: the vignettes executed in line-work by t-tching, gr
and ruling-machine originally, although the plate from u
the impression is taken is the result of the transfer proces
scribed. At the bottom is a specimen of the work of the
en^ine^iind is known technically as u counter, forming a s
label, or escutcheon, according to shape, on which a nu
lis '•500" or "l,OliO,'' is worked, as familiar, especially
smaller denominations, to all of us.
The securities of the government are printed on disii
paper, made by J. M. Wilcox, of Glen Mills, Delaware Cc
Penn-^ylvania- The essential feature of this paper is a loci
fiber imbedded in the body of the paper at the time of its
focture on the Fourdrinier machine (1, Plate XXXV'II.
the localization of different tibers upon particular sec-
tions of the printed notes of various denominations, the
raising of notes to a higher denomination is prevented.
Tills mode of making p:iper belongs exclusively to the
govennnent, and as it nece-siuites large and expensive
uiachiuery, it furnishes an additional safeguard.
The mode of trimming and separating the currency
is tlie invention of Mr. Larmon, the engineer of the
bureau.
The most important feature introduced into steel-plate
engraving since the invention of the transfer-process by
Perkins is an adiptation of the process by G. U'. Casilear,
the superintendent of engraving, to the reproduction of
engraved letters and script by rolling in the separate let-
ters of a word from a roller-die which has all tlie letters
of the alphabet on its periphery. It was formerly the
practice to engrave each line of lettering, which «as
then taken up on a roller and transferred to the plate,
as described with artistic de>igos ; but, by Mr. Casilear's
method, a complete alpliabet of any required style, plain, or-
namental, or script, is engraved on a plate and taken up on a
roller, which is then used, one letter at a time, to produce any
word or line required upon the plate which is to furnish the im-
pressions. A force of two men is now sufficiL*nt to do the
work formerly done by twelve, and in a more accurately uni-
form manner.
Other improvements have originated in the bureau, among
which may be cited devices to prevent the alteration of num-
bers; an automatic register atljusted to every press and to the
paper machinery, to keep an accurate account of every sheet
worked ; a process for water-proofing notes and fractional cur-
rency ; the adaptation of power to the numbering-marhine ; an
improved medallton-machine which rules with greater precision
and celerity than by previous methods ; a peculiar process by
which the seal is attached by Surfvce-printing (which see).
It may be added that the note itself is the joint product of
peculiar paper and of impressed designs of the ordinary plate-
printuig process and of the surface process; the rose-engine
work is capable of being worked either way ; and by an adapta-
tion of Mr. Ca.-^ilear the medallion work can be made of a com-
pound series of crossing lines, giving a network appearance and
a texture which produces very happy effects. See SuRF.iCE-
PBIMING.
The conduct of the bureau, in a commercial point of view,
and the security of its plates and impressions, might well fnrm
the subject of some paragraphs, but this work deals rather with
the mech'iniral and artistic branches of the subject than with
the financial and policing features. In regard to the first it
may be stated, as an instance in relation to one series of gov-