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A NEW PROCESS OF CASTING IRON AND OTHER METALS UPON LACE, EMBROIDERIES, FERN LEAVES, AND OTHER COMBUSTIBLE MATERIALS.

[Footnote:  Abstract of a paper read before the Franklin Institute, April, 1887.—­J.F.I.]

By A.E.  OUTERBRIDGE, JR.

The art of making charcoal—­if, indeed, so crude a process is worthy of being dignified by the name of an art—­dates back to a remote antiquity, and has been practiced with but little change for hundreds of years.  It is true that some improvements have been recently made, but these relate to the recovery of certain volatile by-products which were formerly lost.

Every one is familiar with the appearance and characteristics of ordinary charcoal, yet I hope to show you this evening that we still have something new to learn about its qualities and the unexpected practical uses to which it may be applied.

We commonly regard charcoal as a brittle, readily combustible substance, but we have before us specimens in which these qualities are conspicuously absent.  Here is a piece of carbonized cotton sheeting, which may be rolled or folded over without breaking, and, as you see, when placed in the flame of a Bunsen burner, the fibers may be heated white hot in the air, and when removed from the flame, the material shows no tendency to consume.  Here, again, we have a piece of very fine lace, which has been similarly carbonized, and displays the same qualities of ductility and incombustibility.

These carbonized fabrics may be subjected to much more severe tests with impunity; and when I tell you that they have been exposed to a bath of molten iron without injury, you will readily admit that they possess some qualities not ordinarily associated with charcoal.  When removed from the mould in which they were placed after the iron casting had cooled, not a single fiber was consumed, but upon the face of the casting there was found a sharp and accurate reproduction of the design, thus forming a die.  This die may be used for a variety of purposes, such as embossing leather, stamping paper, sheet metal, etc., or for producing ornamental surfaces upon such castings.

Some of the carbonized fabrics displayed upon the table are almost as delicate as cobwebs, and one would naturally suppose that when a great body of molten metal is poured into a mould in which they are placed, they would be torn to fragments and float to the surface even though they were unconsumed, yet such is not the case.  I have found in practice that the most delicate fabrics may be subjected to this treatment without danger of destruction, and that no special care is needed either in preparing the mould or in pouring the metal.

By the aid of the megascope, the enlarged images of some of these castings, showing the delicate tracery of the patterns, will now be projected upon the screen, and you can all see how perfectly the design is reproduced.