NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 105 



which is to include them, viz., keraunography, from keraunos, Greek 

 for thunder. 



NEW PROCESS OF REFINING IRON AND STEEL BY INDUCED 



ELECTRICITY. 



At a recent meeting of the Franklin Institute, Mr. A. L. Fleury, of 

 Philadelphia, gave some account of a new process attempted by him 

 for refining iron and steel by induced electricity. 



After noticing the well-known fact that we are able, through the 

 decomposing power of electricity, to destroy the chemical affinity by 

 which certain substances are united, he stated " that Sir Arthur Wall, 

 of England, was the first who used galvanic electricity for the purifi- 

 cation of iron. Some twelve years ago he fully demonstrated the 

 value of electricity as a refining agent, and had it not been for the 

 trouble, expense, and danger connected with his process, it would 

 doubtless have found a speedy introduction. Mr. Wall used a large 

 number of Smee's batteries and polar platina plates, in order to pre- 

 cipitate the positive impurities on the negative pole while the metal 

 was in its melted state, in a manner similar to the ordinary galvan- 

 izing process." 



Mr. Fleury's experiments had been made with a view of simplify- 

 ing the process devised by Mr. Wall, 



" The use of the now celebrated Ruhmkorflfs induction coil (an 

 apparatus not yet discovered at the time when Mr. Wall secured his 

 English patent) presented some new and different effects from those 

 of the ordinary galvanic battery. While the galvanic current de- 

 stroys the old and produces new chemical affinity, the interrupted 

 secondary current simply destroys the same, without producing the 

 before-named effect of the continuous current. Before describing my 

 experiments with induced electricity, I have to digress to another 

 subject, which, though it may seem somewhat abstract, is still closely 

 connected with the same. 



" Wherever we notice a cellular or fibrous texture in organized 

 matter, we invariably find the presence of nitrogen. In the plant 

 as well as in the animal fibre, nitrogen appears as the most necessary 

 constituent. Why should not nitrogen have something to do with 

 the fibrous condition of metals ? The celebrated chemist, Frerny, 

 in Paris, has lately proved beyond a doubt, that nitrogen is a neces- 

 sary constituent of steel. I may perhaps succeed in proving that 

 nitrogen is also necessary for the formation of the tenacious fibre in 

 iron and other metals. I simply mention here this abstract idea 

 because it seems to be somewhat connected with the experiments 

 which I come now to describe." 



Mr. Fleury then gave an account of a series of practical experi- 

 ments he had undertaken, with a suitable induction apparatus. One 

 of the most successful was upon a lot of old cast-iron, of which nine 

 hundred pounds at a time were placed in a double puddling furnace, 

 without cinders, and heated to the usual degree. The broken sec- 

 ondary electric current was passed through the heated metal from side 

 to side by means of two platina points, for about ten minutes only, 

 during the stage of fermentation the so-called " coming to nature " 



