Dead-melt

...but if cast immediately it is found that a much larger quantity of gas separates during solidification, rendering the steel porous, than is evolved if the metal is dead-melted, i.e., allowed to remain melted for an extra half hour or more, presumably from the reaction of the iron oxide interspersed throughout the steel upon the carbon evolving carbon oxide during the earlier period...

A crucible-steel maker who knows his business can, and he will, always dead-melt his steel.

However, most producers either dead-melt their heats or oxygen-blow to burn silicon.

... thirdly, subjecting the molten metal, after the addition of carbon and silicon, to a dead-melt under a neutral flame until the silicon shall be oxidized to the required degree, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

From here to the finish there is practically a dead-melt in a reducing atmosphere.

It was his experience that it was advisable not to rely upon the deoxidising action of elements added at the end of the process, but to make certain of acquiring a satisfactory " dead-melt " in the furnace, and he had not obtained any appreciably better result from the addition of such elements as molybdenum and vanadium.