New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-09-19

crate the metal in reguiinc or metallic state.
This process Of depriving metallic oxides Ut their
ores of iron, "copper" lead, zinc, &c. consists mainly
in heating them, after suitable preparation with car
bon, and thereby deoIidizng them. 10 reduce me
iron then we have only 70 heat It with charcoal. But
since the ore contains large quantity Of earthly mat.
ter the parcles of iron when reduced, would be held
in this porous earthly matter Ike water In sponge,
and, although reduced, the metal would remain in an
unavailable form. How we separate the earthly
natter Not by mechanical, but by chemical means.
II we mix with the ore something which will form
resdy fusibe compound it'll the earthly matter that
ernby matter will lquify, and the particles OF melted
iron viii fall through the liquid and collect together
into mass Lime is used for this purpose. Ii 10 a.
though sponge filed with water dissolved on the ap
plcation Of gentle heat, the water in the sponge
forming the lower stratum, and the matter OF the
sponge itself light oily liquid, floating the water
process which they carried extensively in the
neighborng iron districts. In huge towers which stud
the country thick almost az leaves in Valambroea,
day ard night and from years end to years end toi-
ing engines pour thousands Of tuns Of the materials
We have enumerated-iron ore, coke and lime.
Blast engines force streams of compressed air
into the enited materials, and the mass slowly sink
ing in the tower mes into two sras the one the Stag
the other the iron. The former flows of from an
UPPER opening and the latter is drawn OF at intervals
from holes made in the lower part OF the furnace The
molten metal is conducted along channels made IN
sand and slowly filing rough molds connected with
these channels gradually sodes and constitutes the
pig iron of commerce. Let us pause awhile to ask
our readers if they have ever seen the tapping OF
of blast furnace at night II they have not we ten
them that within hours journey there Is sight the
eauty and majesty of which they have no conception
The appe arance Of the furnace alone is impressive
The huge flames struggling up, like the painting breath
Of an imprisoned monster lighting up the heayens with
their ftful glare and keeping time in their ckerng
with the grooming blast with which the ire Is urged,
form picture which when examined near will not be
soon forgotten. But what compare with the beauty
of the casting process Ii is night and the eye sees
the beautiful network of mOlds with which the earth Is
covered The furnace is tapped, and out gushes the
liquid fire. quietly at first, and afterward more slowly
it finds its way into the various ramications OF the
impressed sand and in few minutes the whole ground
is covered with glowing fre-sreams. But let US APP
proach. Harkl How the stream Kisses as it travels
on And see thousands thousands of bright atoms
shoot into the air from surface of the metal burn with
beautiful scntillaon, and fall kissing down, hail
| ing fount of fire."
hut 10 return to our facts The coke, we have seen
constitutes both the fuel from which the necessary
heat is produced, and the reducing agent, by which
the oxide of iron is deoxodized; the lime makes the
earthly matter fusible and enables the iron to separate
itself therefrom If object were to give some
what full account of the iron manufacture should
stop here to discuss the many important questions
which present themselves at this pointthe enormous
quantity of air which each day poured through these
huge furnaces the deeply-nterestlng chemical changes
| which it undergoes as 1T filters through the merry
column, and the remarkable products which have
| SEN Payfar and others; the prOdigous quantity Of
heat which is carried off by the blast of cold air, and
theeconomy which has resulted from the heating Of
theMr before its introduction into the furnace the
change in the fuel which has followed the use of the
hot blast and the change in the characters of the iron
| produced which has followed that; the notifications
in the lime fux which different require, and the
consequences which result from too fusbe or too IN
fsabe slag the objects to be attained by the mix
ture of Ores and the necessity for the application OF
minute chemical knowledge to the perfectng ola man
ufacture so simple in general principle so obscure In
| its details; but all these things we must leave unno-
| ticed and confne ourselves to such particulars as
have q direct bearing on the process proposed by Mr.
Bessemer. .
The method of manufacture we have roughly des-
crbed produces on but not pure ron that has never
been produced but by the chemist, and but few eyes
have ever seen il. The iron produced Is cast iron,
| which consists mainly Of iron, but is contaminated
with a great variety Of impurities, from which 1t s
difficult 10 free it, just in the fermenting of grape
Juice the principal change is the conversion OF sugar
into caIbonic acid and alcohol during the occurrence
of which sdry small decOmpOsitiOns and transforma-
tous take place giving rise to products on which the
flavor or Jouquet of the wine depends So the reduc
ton of iron from its ore, although obtain product
containing Ieihaps IS per cent OF iron the remaining
per cent consists of long array OF foreign ingredients
all existing in some form of combination in the mate
rails employed these have been so affected during the
reduction of the iron to have assumed a state in
| which they could combine with iron and hence we
discover that the iron drawn from the furnace inva-
rably contaminated with them. Although small in
quantity the effect which these impurities have upon
the physical properties Of the iron Is truly wonderful
One per cent of phosphorous or scarcely larger pro-
| the iron containing it. The principal element which
in the blast furnace enters into combination with iron
is carbon or charcoal. The metal is capable of com
bining with per cent of its weight of carbon, and
many kinds of cast iron contain nearly this quantity
Steel is compound of iron and carbon containing les
carbon than cast iron; and the production of steel from
cast iron is simply the removal OF portion OF the
| carbon.
If cast iron from the bast furnace consisted of iron
and carbon only, the production Of steel and wrought
contains, beside iron and carbon, the following impu
| rites some or all of them: silicon, sulphur, phOs.
| phorus; and, in minute quantity aluminium, calcium
| and potassium The conversion of cast iron into
wrought iron consists in the removal of these nnpuri.
ties This publication consists in the ordinary manu-
acture in submitting the iron to the action of air and
also TO mechanical kneading and squeezing process;
these effected in the refinery and pudding and Is
these processes which Mr. Bessemer proposes to super
sede by his invention.
We ask the readers careful attention to the follow
ing: namely that the impurities in cast iron consist
substances all of which combine with oxygen at q high
temperature; carbon forming carbonc acid; sulphur
sulphurous acid; phosphorus phosphoric acid silicon
silcc acid tsica, the matter of sand; and 80 of
the rest Now the exposure of the cast iron to heat
and air containing OXYGEN is sufficient TO cause the
substances to form oxygen compounds either volatile
easily fusbe and incapable of entering into comb-
nation with metallic iron. But since these impurities
are dused in small quantity through the Of the
iron it is with great difficulty that air can be brought
but at great troubles first in the refinery and after
ward more completely in the pudding process. The
melted cast iron exposed In the refinery strong
heat in contact with air, and large proportion of the
oxide; the silicon becomes oxdized siicc acid sil-
ca and the iron also Oxidzing supplies base ioxide