Hardening of Steel.

Hastings Standard, Issue 190, 7 December 1896, Page 4

Hardening of Steel.

A French technical journal announces a new invention in the field of electrical metallurgy. It is a process which will give an extraordinary hardness to steel. It is reported that the inventor, a Mr Taux, has executed the following experiments before a committee of engineers at Strasburg. A drill hardened by electricity pierced a shell t ft'ice as quick as a drill of the best steel in the ordinary way. The drill was cwsely examined afterwards by means of a strong microscope, and not the least injury could be discovered. An electrically hardened circular saw cut iron bars with surprising ease. With a cold chisel similarly treated, a steel bar, lin. by iin., was cut through, and the operation was repeated five times on the same bar. Then a cast-steel plate, Am. thick, was cut with the chisel, the edge oi which showed neither a fissurt^nor

any other alteration afterwards. An electrically hardened table knife cut iron wire of one-eighth inch diameter just as easy as cotton string. The process is said to consist in the hardening of the red hot steel objects in a conductive bath traversed by an eiectric current. If these tests should be confirmed by further practical experiences, the consequences would be of the greatest importance for the manufacture of tools.