Mr. Adams, of Wednesbury, and the successors of Mr. Clive, of Birmingham, manufacture a considerable quantity both of silver steel and common twist steel for the trade; I make my own laminated steel: the difference in silver steel and common twist steel merely consists in the variety of tortuous twisting the former undergoes, while the latter is rolled out into rods of 6-16ths broad, with the fibres running perfectly longitudinal. The method of making or welding the pieces into a bloom, is in the following way. Having collected a sufficiency of mild steel scraps, such as cuttings of saws, waste from steel pen making, old coach springs, and the immense variety of pieces arising from the various manufactures of tools, they are cut into pieces of equal dimensions, polished in a revolving drum by their friction on each other, until quite bright, and then placed for fusion on the bed of an air furnace. The parts first fused are gathered on the end of a similarly fabricated rod, in a welding state, and these gather together by their adhesion, the remainder as they become sufficiently heated, until the bloom is complete. The steel is then removed from the furnace, and undergoes the effect of a three-ton forge hammer and the tilt, until it forms a large square bar; it is then re-heated, and thence conveyed to the rolling mill, where eventually it is reduced to the size of rod required. I generally have the metal required cut into short pieces of six inches long. A certain number are bundled together and welded, and then drawn down again in the rolling mill. This can be repeated any number of times--elongating the fibres and multiplying their number to an indefinite extent as may be required. [Illustration] The great advantage derived in this instance from air-furnace welding is a chemical one; for while the small pieces of steel are fusing on the bed of the air furnace, the oxygen is extracting the carbon, and leaves the resulting metal mild steel, or iron of the densest description; while the succeeding hammering and rolling and re-welding, produce the mechanical arrangement of making the whole of an extremely fibrous description. The polishing secures a clean metal; indeed, so free from specks are the generality of barrels thus made, that it is scarcely possible to imagine clearer metal. When contrasted with the best of ordinary iron, by a powerful microscope, the closeness and density of grain are strongly apparent.