This leads to deterioration of agriculture and lessens the production.
The combination of ductility, which lessens the tendency to break when overstrained or distorted, with a very high limit of elasticity, gives it great value for shafting, the merit of which is measured by its endurance of the repeated stresses to which its rotation exposes it whenever its alignment is not mathematically straight.
Manganese by itself rather lessens than increases the malleableness and, indeed, the general merit of the metal, but it is added intentionally, in quantities even as large as 1 5 to palliate the effects of sulphur and oxygen.
The advantage of this combination is that, by simplifying the conditions with which the composition of the pig iron has to comply, it makes the management of the blast furnace easier, and thus lessens the danger of making " misfit " pig iron, i.e.
