The degree of strength is similar to that of the stub, and other Damascus; it being quite certain, that, be the composition what it may, this rending of the cohesive attachment by twisting, will eventually equalise the strength of the whole. The use and introduction of what is called “charcoal-iron,” is one of the shams reared and supported by the hotbed of competition and deception combined: a wish to foist on the purchaser a counterfeit for the real metal. I would not give shop-room to the best barrels ever made from such a compound. I hate a scoundrel and a hypocrite; this iron exemplifies the qualities of both. This worthless compound consists principally of cuttings of sheet iron; of which there is an endless supply in the neighbourhood of Birmingham, from punchings and from one inferior metal and another. After properly cleaning, a quantity is put into a charcoal furnace and melted, cast into a pig, then forged down to a bar, and rolled into rods corresponding with the size of stub twist, which it is intended to represent. The action of the charcoal communicates to it a portion of carbon, which, when stained in a certain way, gives an appearance much resembling that beautiful metal just mentioned (stub-Damascus); but if every means imagined by the inventive faculty of man were employed upon it, it could not be made into really good iron. An iron which is technically termed “weak,” can never be made a strong bodied iron, or an “iron suitable to make steel,” to repeat a former quotation. The original iron from which these scraps generally come, is required to be “weak” iron, for the facility with which it can be rolled into plates; a strong fibrous iron is not necessary. Its greatest strength appears to be as follows: 7-16ths of an inch broad, and 5-16ths thick, solid contents 1·40635 inches, will bear a weight of 10,080 pounds; so that if my calculations are correct, it will bear only a pressure of 4,526 pounds in the tube. The loss of strength by heating or softening, being full 10 per cent. This converted iron, however, will not endure the test of browning by smoke, or, more properly, flame; as the oxygen invariably destroys the appearance of steel in twelve hours after its application. By the old method of staining, it would be as impossible for any man, who was not a judge, to point out the real from the counterfeit, as to discern a copy executed by a clever artist from an original painting by one of the old masters.