220 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



As stated above, I applied to the Advisory Research Council in 

 March, 1918, for funds to help me in this research and made a partial 

 statement of my ideas as set forth on p. 32 of the Report of the Ad- 

 visory Council for the year ending March 31st, 1918. I considered, 

 subsequently, the question of patenting, but came to the conclusion 

 that as the reduction of iron ores to a metallic sponge was well known, 

 and as the electric melting of metallic iron was well known, it would 

 be impossible to patent them in combination. About a year later, 

 however, I learnt that Mr. J. W. Moffatt of Toronto had actually 

 patented in the United States and in Canada the particular combina- 

 tion I had in view; Mr. Moffatt's application being made about a 

 month or six weeks after my own statement before the Advisory 

 Council. 



Recent experimental work on the reduction of iron ores, in pre- 

 paration for electric melting, has been done by Messrs. Trood and 

 Darrah, at Heroult, California, and by Mr. A. T. Stuart of Toronto. 

 Mr. F. T. Snyder of Chicago has devised a process along similar lines, 

 but does not appear to have tested it practically. Information with 

 regard to these processes will be found in Appendix XII of my recent 

 report on the possibility of smelting iron ores electrically in British 

 Columbia^. 



While the experiments of Mr. Kendall and myself are still too 

 incomplete for publication, I may state that they will furnish an 

 important addition to our exact knowledge about the reduction of 

 iron ores, and that it seems quite likely that we may ultimately arrive 

 at some practical process that will be more economical than existing 

 methods. 



' "The Commercial Feasibility of the Electric Smelting of Iron Ores in British 

 Columbia." British Columbia Department of Mines, Bulletin No. 2, 1919. 



