ON THE ADVANTAGEOUS USE OF A GASEOUS ESCAPE. 75 
On the advantageous use made of the gaseous escape from the Blast 
Furnaces at the Ystalyfera Iron Works. By James PALMER 
Buopp. 
[A Communication ordered to be printed entire among the Reports. ] 
_ 1 am glad of the opportunity of laying before the distinguished scientific and 
practical men who are gathered together at this meeting of the British As- 
_ sociation, what | believe to be one of the most important practical improve- 
_ ments that has yet been introduced into the iron trade, and the application of 
_ which will, if my views are correct, probably lead to a radical change in the 
_ smelting of iron ores, and the manufacture of iron in this country. 
' Asa practical man, I shall first treat of practical results, and I think my- 
_ self fortunate that I have to bring this subject forward in a locality where I 
am inevitably brought in contact with many who are intimately acquainted 
_ with the details of the iron trade. I have had the pleasure to exhibit to many 
_ members of the British Association, the improvements I shall describe in ope- 
‘ration on a large scale at Ystalyfera, and I shall feel pleasure in affording any 
others, who take an interest in the subject, full opportunity for investigation, 
_ If I venture to suggest, beyond my positive results, the practicability, or I 
- think I might say the certainty of an enormous ceconomy, by the further de- 
_ velopment of the system I have partially introduced at Ystalyfera, I do so 
only because the facts and results arrived at irresistibly point onward to greater 
_ improvement and ceconomy. 
The iron trade of Great Britain is so enormous in extent, that any ceconomy 
in its processes which admits of general application, becomes of national im- 
portance. Even if the saving on the current expense be small as a tonnage, 
the multiple of the annual quantity of iron produced is so great as to make the 
total gigantic. Thus, taking the annual produce of iron in Great Britain in 
_ round numbers to be 1,500,000 tons, or about 500,000 tons made in En- 
gland, 500,000 tons in Wales and Monmouthshire, 500,000 tons in Scot- 
land, a saving of even 1s. per ton on the cost of production amounts to the 
large sum of £75,000 a-year. 
_ There is no detail of the iron trade that has appeared to me to be more a 
standing reproach to its management, than the non-utilization in this country 
of the enormous escape of combustible and incombustible gases, heated to a 
very high temperature, that is constantly taking place from the tops of blast 
furnaces. Some of these enormous crucibles yield 150 tons, in Scotland even 
200 tons of iron a week, and these devour internally from 300 to 400 tons of 
oal weekly, and respire 4000 and 5000 cubic feet of air as blast a minute. 
These great craters vomit forth murky volumes of smoke and flame, which 
pass wastefully and uselessly away to contaminate the atmosphere. So great 
and obvious a source of heat has not failed however to attract the attention 
of ingenious men, but more especially so, since it was found advantageous to 
heat the blast of air before injecting it into the furnace. The use of hot-blast 
at the tuyéres, could not fail to suggest the application of some part of the 
ste heat about the furnace to the purpose of giving the desired temperature, 
ich is the moderate one of 600 degrees of Fahrenheit only. 
Unfortunately these attempts took two wrong directions ; one series of 
attempts consisted in either ranging iron pipes around the tunnel head, in 
ich the blast was to be heated by the flames as they escaped, or in coiling 
es round the interior of the furnace, so as to be heated by contact with the 
ited materials themselves ; or blast pipes were built into the masonry, so 
s to receive heat by transmission without being however in contact with the 
