Piston rings were really bad in the early days.
Remember, this was all iron, not steel. The mass production of steel didn't get going until the 1880s. It's amazing that railroads predate steel.
Remember, this was all iron, not steel. The mass production of steel didn't get going until the 1880s. It's amazing that railroads predate steel.
So what you got may have been called cast iron but what it actually was might be pig iron, gray cast iron, ductile iron, and even a bit of steel and possibly carbides mixed in. Properties varied - sometimes by a lot.
If you know even a bit about metals then when you hear "cast iron piston ring" you imagine that ring to have certain properties that match a specific type of cast iron. But in those days every single ring might vary significantly entirely due to the ore load the foundry happened to get, how they melted/cast it, how it was cooled, etc.