New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-05-19
SCIENCE, INDUSTRY, AND INTENTION

cited so much interest among scientific meallurgists
This paper read May "a, 1859, before the lnsttn
ton Of Civil Engineers, and is given without comment,
as extracted from The London Artisan of July last, TO
which it is credited process for which so much Is
claimed in the article, when presented to the American
| public, might WELL in a scientific journal, have been
| accompanied by remarks explaining why metal
urgss entirely dsrust the soundness of the operation
for economically producing iron or STEEL and this not
witbstandng the statement in the paper referred to-
that the process is rapidly extending itself over
Europe 1t is stated that in Sweden several hundred
tuns of excellent steel have been made by it by the
| firm Of Daniel Elfsrand e. Co. of Edsken; and other
manufactures have been started in their immediate
neghborhood. In France, too, the firm of James jack
son Son. near Bordeaux said 10 have introduced
it in their steel works. and about doing at the
blast furnaces in the Landes In the south of France
also il was 10 be tried and in Sardinia and Belgium
preparations were making for working the system.
| Russia had sent to London engineer and pro-
essor Of Chemistry to report upon it, and Prof Muller
Of Vienna, and II. Dumas Of Paris, had visited Swe-
den TO inspect and report the working OF the new
| process.
The paper describes the method of manufacture and
the results obtained in large masses of malleabe iron
and of STEEL both Of which may be run out in liquid
state ard received into mods Of such objects it is
desirable to obtain in these materials. In this way
boiler plates have been made Of steel and also Of mall
| eable iron, the rlates being of unusual size and
strength. cannon also of malleabe iron had been
by casting, and the process recommended as
Of immense importance to the governments Of Europe
in this application. Had these statements been pre-
sented without particular description of the process
and the principles involved they could not fail to keep
| Al al
the new operation created But the article itself con-
tains abundant evidence of the serious difficulties lying
| in the way Of its successful adoption.
The pudding process in the first part Of the paper is
affirmed to be defective by of the surface oxida-
| ton of particles of iron throughout the mass, and
coating Of particles with silicate of oxide Of iron.
These imperfections the author states not wholly
removed in the process of squeezing and hammering
and 20 far as they remain they nure the quality ofthe
ron and also of the steel that may afterward be made
of this iron The extraordinary statements follow that
the other malleabe metals, as gold, silver, copper,
zine tin and lead owe their valuable exemption from
the defects universally found in puddled iron simply
70 the fact that they were purified and refined IN
! fluid state and while still fluid were formed into
ngots, whess>Y D. cohesion Of every particle In the
mass was insured. If, then, the refining OF other
Inaleable metals, while in a fluid state, and their
formation into cast ngos rendered all such metals
more sound and homogeneous than iron, while 1t did
not lessen their ductilty, why should iron forever
| remain an exception TO the general rule J! The idea
| IL novel that the unoxidzable metals are free
from the defects incident the most oxdzabe metal
simply because they were not exposed TO the same
oxidzing action in their preparation. From this intro
ducion we should expect TO find the new process emil
nently free from any tendency 10 oxidize the iron
From the description of it which succeeds 1t worthy
Of notice that the accounts are all given in the past
teuse leaving il to be inferred that nothing doing
at tie time the paper was prepared Gases OF aiiure
are admitted tie of which stated not TO be
/ Il ose which had been commonly assigned. - hemi
cal investigation pointed out the real source OF
| difficulty and AZ well as can be understood from
what follows it would appear that this is the mposs
| bty of getting rid Of the phosphorus and sulphur
present in most pig irons and which seriously nure
the malleable iron and steel prepared from Them Re
sort was therefore had the best kinds of Swedish pig
| iron which made from the purest ores, and the
capacities Of the hematite mines Of England are dis
cussed for producing pig iron that could be applicable
to the process When out from the blast furnaces
the plan TO conduct tie metal into the converting yes-
| sell That which had been found most suitable some
| what resembed the glass retort used by chemists Tor
dstllhtlon IL was mounted on aAes, ana Wiih iileu
with CANISTER" road drift, which lasted during the
conversion of thirty forty charges Of steel and was
| then quickly and cheapy repaired or renewed. The
vessel was brought into an inclined position to receive
the charge Of crude ron during which time the tuyeres
were above the surface of the metal. As soon as the
whole charge was in, the vessel was moved on It's
axes 70 bring the tnyeres below the level of the
metal when the process at once brought into full
activity and twenty small though powerful jets of air
srrung upward through the fluid macs; the air, ex
banding in volume, divided itself into gobues or burst
violently upward carrying with il large quantity OF
the fluid metal which again fell back into the boiling
| mass below.
| The oxygen Of the air appeared in this process,
first to produce the combustion of the carbon
tanned in the iron, and at the time 10 oxidize
the silicon producing silicic acid which, uniting with
the oxide of iron obtained by the combustion Of small
quantity Of metallic iron, thus produced fluid sicae
of the oxide Of iron cnder which was retained in
the vessel, and assisted in purifying the metal. The
increase Of temperature which the metal underwent,
ard which seemed disproportonate b the quantity
of carbon and iron consumed, doubtless owing to
tie favorable circumstances under which combustion
took place. These circumstances appear 10 be the d-
fusion Of the combustibe body throughout the mass,
and the absence Of any intercepting material to ab-
! eOrb the heat generated and b. prevent its being
taken up by themetal." In ten twelve minutes the
mass was thrown into boiling action rising far above
It's natural level forming sort of spongy froth, with
intensely vivid combustion going on in every one Oh
ts numberless, ever-changing cavities. meter was
employed by which Z" the amount Of Decentralization
Of the metal was regulated with great accuracy" Ac-
cnrdnu In the number of cpe feet of air driven In,