Iron spike

“ Billy looked at him questioningly.
“That was rather technical, wasn’t it, Billy? You see, I was talking to a technical man. Just between you and me, meteoric iron comes down from the sky, from what we call shooting stars. Sometimes large pieces are found. I suppose that much of it falls into the sea. It is the purest iron that has ever been found.”
“What about magnetic iron?” asked Dr. Crandon. “Where does that come from?”
“At the present time,” answered Mr. Prescott, “most of it comes from Sweden and Norway. It makes the best kind of steel. ”

“ The instant the tinder comes into contact with the vital air it begins to burn with great intensity; and, communicating the inflammation to the iron-wire, it too takes fire, and burns rapidly, throwing out brilliant sparks, which fall to the bottom of the vessel in rounded globules, which become black in cooling, but retain a degree of metallic splendour. The iron thus burnt is more brittle even than glass, and is easily reduced into powder, and is still attractable by the magnet, thought not so powerfully as it was before combustion. ”

“ It is so, and that is one of its worst properties. Every liquor, and even a moist air corrode it. But the rust of iron is not pernicious: on the contrary, it is a very useful medicine.
Geo. I have heard of steel drops and steel filings given for medicine.
Tut. Yes; iron is given in a variety of forms, and the property of them all is to strengthen the constitution. Many springs are made medicinal by the iron that they dissolve in the bowels of the earth. These are called chalybeate waters, and they may be known by their inky taste, and the rust-coloured sediment they leave in their course. ”

“ This multiple-port scintillation counter is used for iron-kinetic studies. The tracer dose of iron-59 is administered into the arm vein and then the activities in the bone marrow, liver, and spleen are recorded simultaneously with counters positioned over these areas, and show distribution of iron-59 as a function of time. When the data are analyzed in conjunction with iron-59 content in blood, information can be obtained about sites of red blood cell production and destruction. ”

“ Wrought iron will occasion scintillations, somewhat of the same appearance, and steel, also, in greater abundance; and hence both are employed in sundry compositions. But the particular character, beauty, and brilliancy of Chinese fire must be attributed, first to the iron, and secondly to its peculiar state of combination with carbon and oxygen; for, we have said, that malleable iron, (which is deprived in a great measure of these substances in the operation required for its preparation) , produces an effect far inferior to cast iron. ”

“ Pig-iron, or, as it is sometimes called, crude iron, being saturated with carbon and oxygen, and containing also a portion of scoria, is too brittle for any other purpose than castings. Many of these, such as stoves, grates, mill-irons, plough-irons, and kitchen utensils, are commonly manufactured at blast furnaces, and in many cases nearly all the iron is used for these purposes. In such cases, the metal is taken in a liquid state, from the hearth, in ladles. ”

“ If enemies stand around in groups, they make the iron easy to break.
“When we want steel for chisels, for example, we invite Tungsten to come in; when we want certain parts for automobiles we call in some Vanadium pygmies.”
“So,” said Mr. Prescott, “while we need the giants to make the pig iron, the real value of the iron and steel depends on the pygmies.”
“That’s about the size of it,” said Mr. Farnsworth.
“Anything the trouble with you, young chap?” asked Dr. Crandon. “You haven’t spoken for ten minutes. Feel bad anywhere?”
“No,” answered Billy. ”

“ If he were gifted with reasoning powers he would say, "It is quite true that I can only see the iron while it is red-hot, but I know that for iron to be red-hot on the earth's surface is an exceptional and abnormal condition of a very temporary or intermittent character. No doubt, every piece of iron may have to be red-hot once, or more than once, but the total duration of such phases of incandescence is quite insignificant under ordinary circumstances when compared with the periods in which the iron is cold and invisible. ”

“ Wrought iron is softer than cast iron, and, being pure iron, is more liable to be corroded by the action of the atmosphere and products of combustion of the powder; it possesses also considerable ductility. The tensile strength of wrought iron, which under the most favorable circumstances is double that of the best cast iron, depends on the character of the crystalline structure, and the manner of applying the tensile force, or in other words, wrought iron offers the greatest resistance to a force of extension when the structure is fibrous, and the force acts in the direction of the fibres. ”

“ Ordinary cast iron, while strong and hard enough for many purposes, still is brittle by reason of the large proportion of carbon and other impurities which it contains. These impurities may be burned out in the puddling process, and the nearly pure iron thus obtained, called malleable or wrought iron, has a toughness enabling it to resist far greater strains than cast iron can stand. Intermediate between the two irons, and containing one per cent of carbon, more or less, is still another product, steel, which may be made even more tenacious than wrought iron, or even harder than cast iron. ”

“ The strength of iron is at its maximum in the smallest mechanical structures.
2. The quality of the metal is improved as it is subjected to greater pressure and condensation.
The extent to which this improvement may be carried has never yet been ascertained; every fresh manipulation improves its quality. The tenacity of wrought iron is best displayed in a wire, drawn out until it is not thicker than a human hair. Large masses of wrought iron are weak and spongy in geometrical progression with the mass, and the crystalline or molecular form increases with the mass. ”

“ The latter salt, under the combined influence of hydrogen and heat, is reduced to metallic iron, which assumes the appearance of a fine black powder. When the experiment is completed the glass vessel is closed, and the iron, thus protected from contact with the air, can be preserved indefinitely; but if it is exposed to the air by breaking off the end of the receptacle (fig. 311) , it ignites immediately, producing a shower of fire of very beautiful effect. Iron thus prepared is known under the name of pyrophoric iron. Iron is acted upon in a very powerful manner by most acids. ”

“ Prescott. “Heat expands iron. If we didn’t keep it cool, the screw wouldn’t be the right size when it is done.
“Cold naturally works the other way. Ever hear about the iron bridge where the parts wouldn’t quite come together, so they put ice on to do the job?” he asked, but he kept right on, without waiting for Billy to answer.
Billy saw other machines boring holes and rounding corners. It seemed as if iron could cut iron into any shape that anybody wanted. ”

“ Well annealed, pure wrought iron, as a rule, possesses very little residual magnetism, while, on the other hand, wrought iron, which contains a large percentage of impurities, or which has been subjected to some hardening process, such as hammering, rolling, stamping, etc., and cast iron, possess a very large amount of residual magnetism. ”

“ This iron we term wrought, and its attraction by the loadstone is manifest to all. But we, by more carefully trying everything, have found out that iron merely, by itself alone, not excited by any loadstone, not charged by any alien forces, attracts other iron; though it does not so eagerly snatch and suddenly pluck at it as would a fairly strong loadstone ”

“ No search was made for other tissues or organs presenting more favorable conditions, for no others were known that had iron in themselves. The liver and the spleen were supposed to receive it from the blood under the complicated form in which it exists there, or under some equivalent form. It was not, therefore, supposed till within a very few years that the two conditions were realized in any organ that were required to secure a slow combustion by iron—that is, combinations resembling ferrous and ferric salts with a weak acid and a source of oxygen. ”

“ Pig-iron contains silicon, sulphur and phosphorus, and these impurities make it brittle so that a cast iron teakettle will break at a blow, like a china cup. Armor of this kind would have been no good for our iron-clad ancestors. When a knight in iron clothes tried to whip a leather-clad peasant, the peasant could have cracked him with a stone and his clothes would have fallen off like plaster from the ceiling. So those early iron workers learned to puddle forge iron and make it into wrought iron which is tough and leathery and can not be broken by a blow. ”

“ Water saturated with fixed air dissolves iron, and makes a pleasant chalybeat.
The calx of iron gives a green colour to glass.
[Pg 107] Iron readily combines with sulphur. When they are found combined by nature, the substance is called pyrites.
The union of phosphoric acid with iron makes it brittle when cold, commonly called cold short; and the union of arsenic makes it brittle when hot, thence called red short.
Iron unites with gold, silver, and platina, and plunged in a white heat into mercury, it becomes coated with it ”

“ Soft iron is characterised by its attaining a fibrous fracture after forging, whilst tough iron preserves its granular structure after this operation. Certain sorts of iron, although fairly soft at the ordinary temperature, become brittle when heated and are difficult to weld. These sorts are less suitable for being worked up into small objects. The variety of the properties of iron depends on the impurities which it contains. In general, the iron used in the arts still contains carbon and always a certain quantity of silicon, manganese, sulphur, phosphorus, &c. ”

“ Pure iron is never obtained commercially, the metal always being mixed with various proportions of carbon, silicon, sulphur, phosphorus, and other elements, making it more or less suitable for different purposes. Iron is magnetic to the extent that it is attracted by magnets, but it does not retain magnetism itself, as does steel. Iron forms, with other elements, many important combinations, such as its alloys, oxides, and sulphates. ”

“ Iron, at a red or white heat, when quenched in a direction parallel to the north and south, also acquires polarity without the touch of the magnet, as if the parts of iron being put in motion by ignition, and afterward recovering themselves, were, at the moment of being quenched, more Susceptible and sensitive of the power emanating from the earth, than at other times, and therefore as it were excited. ”

“ During the melting of the charge the heat is kept as high as possible and the molten iron is “puddled,” i. e., stirred, by the “puddler” or his helper with a “rabbler” or iron bar. In order to take out the phosphorus and sulphur, which for best results should be removed before the carbon is eliminated, the heat of the furnace is lowered somewhat as soon as all of the pig has melted, and some iron oxide is mixed into the “bath” of molten iron and cinder. Most of the phosphorus and sulphur are chemically acted upon and pass into the cinder which covers the iron. ”

“ But if the loadstone draws the dust to itself quickly and readily, we conjecture that the iron ore is rich; if slowly, poor; if it seems altogether to reject it, there is very little iron in it or none at all. In like manner iron dust can be separated from another metal. Many tricks there are also, when iron is secretly applied to lighter bodies, and, being attracted by the motion of a loadstone which is kept out of sight, causes movements which are amazing to those who do not know the cause. ”

“ CHAPTER XI. IRON—NICKEL—COBALT—ZINC—CADMIUM. IRON.
Iron rusts or oxidises very readily, and, consequently, is rarely found in the metallic state in nature; such native iron as is found being generally of meteoric origin or imbedded in basalt and other igneous rocks. It chiefly occurs as oxide, as in magnetite, hæmatite, and in the brown iron ores and ochres. Chalybite, which is carbonate of iron, is an ore of great importance. Iron is found combined with sulphur in pyrrhotine and pyrites, and together with arsenic in mispickel. ”

“ Pieces of iron in the presence of a loadstone (even if they are not * touching the loadstone) run together, seek one another anxiously and embrace one another, and when joined are as if they were cemented. Iron * filings or the same reduced to powder inserted in paper tubes, placed upon a stone meridionally or merely brought rather close to it, coalesce into one body, and so many parts suddenly are concreted * and combine; and the whole company of corpuscles thus conspiring together affects another piece of iron and attracts it, as if it constituted one integral rod of iron ”

“ One has no difficulty in realizing that these flakes, which cut in every direction through the metal, make it structurally weak, especially toward a sudden blow.
No. 1d shows a typical section of wrought iron cut lengthwise of the rolled bar. It will be noted that, as in photomicrograph No. 99b, there are no graphite flakes.
In the process of wrought iron manufacture practically all of the carbon of the original pig iron is burned out, leaving little besides the iron itself and some viscous cinder or slag. ”