INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. clxxvii 



Much importance attaches to the results obtained abroad 

 by M. Euverte, in the direction of solving the problem of 

 the manufacture of steel from cast irons containing phos- 

 phorus. At the last meeting of the Soclete cles Ingenieurs 

 Civiis, the following points, in relation to the experimental 

 work conducted under the direction of this gentleman at 

 the Terre-Noire Works, w T ere made public, and are of great 

 interest to all concerned with the metallurgy of iron and 

 steel. After inviting attention to the recent improvements 

 in Bessemer practice, M. Euverte remarked upon the superior 

 results obtained by the substitution of ferro-manganese for 

 spiegel-eisen, in the production of steel from ores containing 

 a high percentage of phosphorus. [The ferro-manganese re- 

 ferred to is an alloy of iron and manganese, manufactured 

 by a patented process at the Terre-Noire Works, and con- 

 tains as much, at times, as 69 per cent, of the latter met- 

 al.] The experimental pig-iron, in these trials, was first 

 puddled with great care, and melted down in a Siemens- 

 Martin furnace, and the ingots were rolled into rails. Al- 

 though not entirely successful, these experiments indicated 

 that, although it was not possible to eliminate the phos- 

 phorus by any rapid process like the Bessemer, it was quite 

 possible, under certain well-defined conditions, to allow the 

 phosphorus to remain in the steel without exercising any 

 practically injurious effect upon its qualities; and it was 

 proved that even with tolerably large amounts of phos- 

 phorus introduced into the steel in a Siemens -Martin fur- 

 nace, the operation, when completed by the addition of ferro- 

 manganese (containing 42 per cent, of metallic manganese), 

 yielded a malleable steel of good merchantable qualities ; and 

 a repetition of similar experiments warranted the conclusion 

 that "phosphorus may be introduced into cast steel, pro- 

 vided the carbon is eliminated, and the less carbon there 

 remains, the more phosphorus may be left." If these ex- 

 periments are substantiated in practice elsewhere, and are 

 not found to be dependent upon locally favorable circum- 

 stances, we may soon have to record the extending familiar- 

 ity on the part of iron manufacturers with the art of work- 

 ing irons and steels containing phosphorus, and the ultimate 

 realization in the near future of the problem that has so long 

 perplexed the metallurgist, 



