IV NOTES BY THE EDITOR. 



ployed to determine the exact moment of complete decarboniza- 

 tion, rendering the product more uniform in quality, and less de- 

 pendent on the skill and attention of the workmen. In the sec- 

 ond process above named, oxygen gas, disengaged from nitrate of 

 soda, passes up through the molten metal, removing, it is claimed, 

 not only the carbon, but the sulphur, silicium, phosphorus, and 

 other impurities. It can render available very inferior qualities of 

 iron ore, and there is an ample supply of the nitrate in various 

 countries. In the third process mentioned (see p. 17), steel is 

 made directly from the ores, even very impure ones, by the em- 

 ployment of the intense heat from pulverized fuel, w^ith the pow- 

 dered ores in connection with proper fluxes; occupying only 8 

 hours from the crude ore to the finished steel bar, instead of the 

 several days of the usual processes, and at 50 per cent, less cost ; 

 making steel of any required quality, and combined with any de- 

 sired alloy. Chrome iron is coming into extensive use, on ac- 

 count of its exceeding hardness ; the ore is very abundant in Del- 

 aware and Pennsylvania. From the high temperature of the 

 Siemens regenerative gas furnace, steel may be made on its 

 open hearth by the mutual reaction of pig and wrought iron upon 

 each other, in this way utilizing waste material unsuitable for the 

 Bessemer process, and applicable in many localities deemed un- 

 favorable to the production of steel. In the Ellershausen process, 

 (seep. 122), two new metallurgical principles are carried out: 

 namely, 1. That cast iron thoroughly intermingled with oxides will 

 not melt ; 2. That any impurities in the mixture thus effected are re- 

 moved by reheating. The practical application of these consists 

 in forming a conglomerate of the liquid cast iron, as it runs from 

 the blast furnace, with a sufficient amount of oxide (crude ores 

 pulverized), and subsequently heating this conglomerate to a weld- 

 ing heat. This process, which is considered by prominent iron 

 masters as the most important yet discovered for lessening the 

 cost and improving the quality of their manufiictures, is fully de- 

 scribed in the " Pittsburgh Gazette," for Jan. 26, 1869. 



In an address by George Robertson, President of the Scottish 

 Society of Arts, in Nov., 1867, occur the following remarks on the 

 effect of trade unions on the prosperity of the countr}', much of 

 which may be applicable in the United States at the present 

 lime. 



*'It appears to me that, in interfering so much with individual 

 labor, these unions tend to undo a great deal of what the intro- 

 duction of machinery has done to make England great and pros- 



