The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-08-23

| the most stubborn and annoying embarrass-
ment that improvements have TO encounter
is editorial advertising in the New York
Tribune
Some months ago this great authority on
metallurgy egregiously puffed, in leading
column, the wonderful invention of DR..
Field, by which all other iron and steel pro-
cesses were to be superseded, by which the
furnaces of Great Britain we're to be shut up,
and by which some of the most miraculous
things unknown to science were to be per-
formed Among others, ''iron castings wero
to be made "five times rs strong as those
produced by the old processes'-a simple
physical impossibility, which the inventor even
did not attempt The utter absurdity of the
1gi6une's representations and the indecency
of its grasp after favor and capital, simply
disguised iron masters, and thus embarrassed
the development of DR.. Fields process 1t
was, however, thoroughly and faithfully tried
at last by the inventor himself, aided by all
the skill and facilities of two of our largest
iron works, and although it had some little
merit, it was of insufficient value to warrant
its adoption at either of these works. In
common with numerous kindred inventions
"a mere flux to remove some of the inn
purities from iron-it has already sunk out
of sight as an invention of limited utility and
Importance.
The 7a36une has now fastened itself
around the neck of another discovery of
some promise-the use of the Codorus ore,
found in Pennsylvania in purifying iron
In its own convincing manner, it bids for the
favorable consideration of the iron trade, by
asserting that the standard processes are now
to be superseded No modern iron or steel
process has been superseded, heretofore, by
a new discovery; they have modified and i'm
proved each other. Blooming, pudding, ce-
mentation, crucible- melting, Bessemerizing
and the Siemens-Martin and all other
established processes, instead of dis
placing each other, are all increasing
and growing up together. In many
cases the new processes enlarge the
field of the older ones, and in no case has
any process reached perfection; but all of
them are the constant subjects of experiment
tai improvement. This being the general
law of the development of iron metallurgy,
the authority quoted attempts to establish its
latest speculation by promising that the gene
raj law. shall now be reversed. The standard
process, yet in its youth is to be entirely
wiped out by one in it's infancy-by pro-
cess which, although barely developed in one
town, is subject to no difficulties of varying
materials and skill, but produces "a perfect
steel with no risk of failure"
The goodwill and confidence of manufac-
turers thus being secured, our contemporary
proceeds to give metallurgists some Informs
ton, of which one sample, we think, will an
swer every purpose. A perfect steel, it SAYS.
is produced by the ordinary pudding pro-
cess--'which is simply physical impossibiiity
The pudding process decarburizes melted
pig-iron and reduces it to pasty ball of NAL
leable iron. Certain grades of pudding iron
are sometimes called "puddled steel" or sssem
steel, but the term ''steel' is universally held
to apply only to malleable product that has
been cast from liquid state, and is hence. in
character and structure, essentially differ
ent from any possible product of the pudding
process. Such being the actual state of the
art, the Tribune assures railroad men
and metallurgists that it is a simple process,
with which they are perfectly familiar"
And, finally, in order that no single feature
of the discovery may escape its handling,
the Tribune recommends the new steel for
rails, on the ground that Colonel Boyer, of
Pottsville, who has no interest in this dis
covery, and never visited the mines till Mon
day, finds it to be an excellent stool steel.
In every other rail process, the chief effort is
to make the metal as unlike tool steel as DOS
sible, but then the idea of tool-steel rails is
not very startling when once we have fami-
liarized ourselves with pudding cast-steel,
increasing the strength of cast-iron five fold
by fux, and the general upsetting of our
previously acquired knowledge and devices.
Seriously, American industry should be pro-
tected against the clumsy caresses of it's
friends.