No. 3.] MISCELLANEOUS. 191 



Simple Method of CoNVERxiNii Iron into Steel. — 

 After many years of trials and experiments to convert iron 

 into steel by a short and simple process, the endeavour has been 

 crowned by success. In Cleveland, that north-eastern corner of 

 Yorkshire, where iron ore is as abundant as salt in the sea, ex- 

 citement prevails, and years of prosperity are anticipated ; and 

 it may fairly be assumed that all ironstone districts will be 

 stimulated into activity by this last metallurgical discovery. As 

 is pretty well known, the long-standing difficulty had been to get 

 rid of the phosphorus present in the iron, and many were the 

 ingenious devices put in practice to overcome it. At length Mr. 

 Sidney G. Thomas, F.C.S., commenced a series of experiments 

 on the effect of different materials as a lining for the ' converter ' 

 — the receptacle in which the molten metal is subjected to the 

 blast. Experience had demonstrated that the usual siliceous 

 lining favoured retention of the phosphorus ; but what other 

 could be devised that would resist the intense heat? By per- 

 severance the alternative — a mixture of limestone and silicate of 

 soda — was discovered. This expelled the phosphorus. The 

 preliminary results, necessarily on a small scale, were confirmed 

 by large experiments made at the Blaenavon Iron works, in 

 Wales ; and now the process has been adopted by one of the 

 leading firms in the Cleveland district, by whom it will be fully 

 developed, and the conversion of 'pig' into good steel, free from 

 phosphorus, will become an everyday operation. Shall we see as 

 a consequence modification and quickening in the manufticture 

 of machinery and ships ; and will cheap steel have any effect on 

 the trade of Sheffield and Birminojham ? — Ihid. 



Geological Discovery at Charing Cross, London. — 

 An interesting geological discovery has just been made in the heart 

 of London. In making the excavations at Charing Cross for 

 Messrs. Drummond's new bank, the workmen, at depths varying 

 from fifteen to thirty feet, came upon the fossil remains of several 

 extinct animals. They include elephant tusks and molars (pro- 

 bably the mammoth Elephas jyrimigenius), a portion of what 

 appears to be the horn of the great extinct Irish deer (Megaceros 

 Hihernicus) , along with other remains of ruminating animals 

 not identified. All the remains are those of herbivorous quad- 

 rupeds, but there is among them no bone or tooth of hippopotamus 



