64 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT. 



steel and iron directly from the ore by exposing the ore, in a 

 finely divided state, to the surface action of intense heat, while 

 currents of rich hydrocarbons percolate through the mass of ore 

 in a transverse direction toward the heated surface. By the 

 passage of the gases the ore is reduced and carbonized, and, 

 the melting surface of the mass being enveloped in an atmos- 

 phere of reducing gas or flame, the reoxidation of the reduced 

 metal is prevented. 



Another Steel Process. Mr. John Calvert, an English engineer, 

 patents a mode of converting iron to steel, the chief peculiarity 

 of which is the minute subdivision of the material by saws or 

 other mechanical means while hot; allowing the particles to fall 

 upon the hearth of a furnace in the presence of an excess of air 

 and other gases, such as may be appropriate for the purification 

 of the particular iron under treatment. It is also to be magnet- 

 ized by electricity or by friction from agitation ; this being sup- 

 posed requisite for producing the proper molecular structure and 

 strength. 



Cast Steel Process. As the Bessemer method consists in the 

 simple oxidization of the carbon contained in iro*n, by penetrating 

 it throughout with a blast of oxygen mixed with nitrogen (air), it 

 is evident that mixing with the iron any substance capable of 

 evolving oxygen would effect the same result. Mr. Bessemer 

 patented this idea ; but the substances, such as the nitrates of 

 soda and potash, most available for yielding ox} T gen to iron, are 

 very destructive to the vessel employed in the process. To meet 

 this difficulty, Mr. John Heaton, now of the Langley Mill Steel 

 and Iron Works, Nottingham, patented, about a year ago, "the 

 plan of placing the salts in pockets within the fire-clay lining of a 

 revolving converter, so that all parts of the whirling mass might 

 be brought in contact with the reagent. It appears that about 

 5 per cent, by weight is a sufficient proportion of the nitrate to be 

 added to the iron for its conversion into steel. Samples of the 

 product are spoken of as showing a fine, silky fibre at the frac- 

 ture. 



Iron Manufacture. In converting cast iron into Bessemer 

 steel, the triple compound of iron, carbon, and manganese is with 

 great difficulty forced into the mass of metal previously treated 

 by the pneumatic process ; for the converted metal has a specific 

 gravity greater than the compound. Mr. James Henderson, of 

 Brooklyn, N. Y., has obviated this difficulty, by charging the 

 blast furnace with a mixture of iron and manganese ores, or in- 

 deed any of the' manganiferous iron ores, such as the red oxide 

 of zinc, and Franklinite, so that there is formed on the hearth of 

 the furnace a molten mass of metal, alloyed with metallic manga- 

 nese in such quantities that it may be run directly into a Besse- 

 mer converter and subjected to the usual process of decarboniz- 

 ation, with this advantage over the ordinary method, that the in- 

 dispensable manganese is thoroughly incorporated, and exerts its 

 beneficial influence from the very beginning, instead of being in- 

 troduced near the end of the pneumatic process. By this mode, 

 it is claimed that Bessemer steel can be furnished much cheaper 



