MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 17 



portion of one half. The steel thus produced was veiT soft and 

 of line quality, and was chiefly used for boiler plates. The prime 

 cost of the steel thus manufactured was about £7 lOs. per ton, 

 the same as that of the Bessemer steel ingots made from hematite 

 pig iron. This process was of vast importance in many localities, 

 us it was applicable to the conversion of old materials of wrought 

 iron and steel, could utilize the waste and oftal of other processes, 

 and could be introduced into localities where the ore had hitherto 

 been deemed unfavorable to the production of steel. There need 

 be no rivalry between this and the Bessemer process, as the two 

 worked with different materials. One of its chief applications 

 was that of the conversion of old iron rails into steel. There can 

 be no doubt that, in the course of time, the improvements making 

 in the manufacture of steel would tend to reduce the price of steel 

 almost to the present price of iron. 



WHELPLEY AND STORER's PROCESS FOR MAKING STEEL DIRECTLY 



FROM THE ORES. 



The most ancient process for making steel produced it directly 

 from the ore. Bv this method was made the fine steel of India 

 for Damascus blades. 



In more modern times manj^ methods have been originated to 

 j^roduce steel from foreign and American ores, with but moderate 

 success. The celebrated process of Chenot, in France, was by 

 far the most successful of these, but failed, where all the others 

 have failed, in its economy when compared with other and longer 

 established methods of steel-making, which employed not ore, 

 but either cast or wrought iron. In another important point all 

 have failed, and that is in the production of steel from iron ores 

 containing sulphur, phosphorus, and other impurities, in apprecia- 

 ble quantities. Meanwhile, good steel has not been produced 

 from pig or bar metal by the Bessemer or any other method, 

 Mhen the raw material is so contaminated. 



Messrs. Whelpley and Storer have overcome the objections to 

 the use of impure ores, and easily and surely make good steel 

 from them. 



Their process is simple, and accomplishes in the large way 

 what is done in the laboratory upon small quantities. The ores 

 are first very finely puherized in conjunction with those fluxes, 

 reagents, and metallic oxides, well known to chemists as the proper 

 purifiers. This first step secures the purity of the metal. They 

 then subject this prepared mixture to a current of heated oxide of 

 carbon gas, the same that is generated and used for the reduction 

 of iron ores in all the known processes for making iron and 

 steel. 



Their method of generating the reducing agent is extremely 

 rapid and economical. Oxide of carbon, or the gas of coal im- 

 perfectly or half burned, or oxidized, is the agent of iron and 

 steel making in the German and English smelting furnaces, in the 

 puddling and boiling furnaces for making steel and bar from pig 

 2* 



