Birmingham age-herald., 1895-06-10
AN ABLE PAPER
By President William B. Phillips Before tito Alabama Scientific and Industrial
 Association

In his address as retiring president of
 the Alabama Scientific and Industrial so-
 ciety, reference to which was made in the
 AgeHerald of yesterday. pr. William
 B. Phillips spoke of the tendency in this
 district towards the purchase of blast
 furnace materials on analysis. and in
 cidentally the sale of pig iron on the
 same principle. The purchase of some
 blast furnace materials on analysis has
 been the practice here for some years,
 but with the exception of some kinds of
 brown ores and limestone the analysis
 basis has not been in general USE. The
 depressed condition of the iron trade
 during the last two years has brought
 about a demand from consumers that
 more detailed information concerning
 the composition of the different grades of
 pig iron shall be furnished by the seller.
 Variation in the nature of the stock re-
 suits in variation in the nature of the iron, and when there is so slight a mar
 gin of profit, as has been the case har1
 for quite awhile, accurate grading b.
 comes a necessity.
 If any one thing has been proved dur
 ing the last two years in this district 1t
 is that the old method of grading by color strength, granulation and face can
 be depended upon only if the stock fe-
 mains the same and the burden uniform.
 With fast driving and large outputs this
 becomes more and more difficult and our
 furnace men have to choose between in-
 creased make with irregularities in the composition of the iron and restricted
 make with closer inspection of the pro-
 duct. Rogers, Brown & Co. of Cincin-
 nati, one of the largest firms engaged ln
 the pig iron brokerage trade, have re-
 gently established their own laboratory for the use of their customers, in order to satisfy them as to the quality of the
 iron sold. pr. Phillips did not think that
 the southern furnaces could afford to
 neglect this marked tendency of the trade, as it seems to him to be perma-
 nent feature of the iron business and not
 mere fungus, thriving on the hard times. It is a new shoot and not fun-
 gus
 Another very interesting part of the address was the brief mention of the
 methods proposed for the concentration of the low grade soft ores of the dls- trict. There is very large amount or ore here that carries so much siliceous matter as to render it useless for the blast furnace. It can be mined cheaply and if some method of concentration could be applied to it we could double our available ore supply.
 Of the two methods proposed by wash ing and by rendering the ore magnetic
 and then separating the sand over
 magnetic concentration, Dr. Phillips
 spoke more particularly of the latter, as he had been at work on 1t the last two years A little more than two years ago Messrs. Mccormack and Barton noticed that soft ore became magnetic when raised to red heat and exposed to the ac- tion of coke oven gases, and 1t occurred to them that in some way this principle could be used, for the concentration of the low grade ores here. Dr. Phillips said that his own connection with the
 process had been to study it in all it's
 details and to ascertain if it could be used commercially After numerous ex- periments in the laboratory and in 8 small kiln erected at Ensley. the Tennes-
 see Coal, Iron and Railroad company had agreed to erect a kiln of 120 tons
 capacity near the Little Belle furnace, Bessemer. This kiln is of the Davis-
 Colby type, with modihcations to suit the purpose in view, and is now in sue
 cessful operation. Ore carrying 45 per cent of iron and 30 per cent of sand is now being transformed into ore carrying 50 per cent of iron and 13 per cent of sand, and is being delivered to the ma chine in quantities of seventy-five to 100 tons per day of tWenty-four hours. The various details of the process are being most carefully studied, such as the nature of the producer gas used in mag netizing, the temperature best suited to the end in view, the size of the ore that should be charged into the kiln the length of time necessary for the com pletion of the reaction, and other things that seem to modify the conditions of uniform and successful work.
 While pr. Phillips spoke cautiously,
 his becomes one to whom has been com mitted the details of a process involving so many and such important questions as are bound up with the utilization of the low grade ores of the district, still he spoke encouragingly, and we shall await with interest whatever may be authorized in connection with this mat Ger.