50 



REPORT — 1855. 



At the Workt of 



Mean breaking weight of Bars 

 melted by 



Ordinary Coke. Purified Coke 



Diiferenee in favour 

 of Purified Coke. 



Fairbaim and Sons, Manchester... 

 J. andW. Galloway and Co., do. ... 

 Fox, Henderson and Co., Birming- 

 ham No. 3 iron. 



Ditto ditto 2 „ 



Hibbert, Piatt, and Co., Oldham ... 



Monkland 



Joicey and Co., Skinnerburn 



Newcastle 



Elswick Foundry 



427 lbs. 

 547 ... 



455 ... 

 417 ... 

 499 ... 

 578 ... 

 616 ... 

 658 ... 

 695 ... 



512 lbs. 

 620 ... 



514 ... 



459 ... 



552 ... 



641 ... 

 *741 ... 

 *716 ... 

 *8G3 ... 



20 per cent. 

 13 



18 



10 



10 



10 



20 



9 



24 



* Were bars 3 feet 10 inches and 4 feet only in length. 



The following conclusions were an-ived at by W. Fairbaim, Esq., F.R.S., by taking 

 the mean of an extensive series of experiments: — The mean breaking-weight of the bars 

 one inch square, smelted with the improved coke, was 515*5 lbs.; ditto, with ordinary 

 coke, 427'Olbs., equal to SS'Slbs. in favour of the castings produced from the improved 

 coke, or in ratio to 5 : 4. The experiments on the bars smelted with the improved 

 coke, indicated iron of a high order of strength, and might be considered equal to the 

 strongest cold- blast iron. The metal appeared to have run exceedingly close, and ex- 

 hibited a compact granulated structure, with a light gray colour. 



On Alloys. By F. C. Calvert, F.C.S., and Richard Johnson. 



The authors have succeeded in producing many new alloys having a definite che- 

 mical equivalent composition, therefore bringing a large class of products called alloys 

 into the general laws of definite proportion. 



The following alloys of iron and potassium, viz. 



First Alloy, 

 4 equivalents of iron, 

 1 equivalent of potassium, 



Second Alloy, 



6 equivalents of iron, 



1 equivalent of potassium, 

 ■were prepared with the view of rendering iron less oxidizable when exposed to a damp 

 atmosphere, no kind of coating having been discovered which will resist the constant 

 friction of water, — as in the case with iron steamers. But all the alloys which they 

 have produced up to the present time, with the exception of one, are oxidizable, 

 although some of them contain as much as 25 per cent, of potassium, the most elec- 

 tro-positive metal known, and the one most likely to render iron in that electro-chemical 

 state less liable to combine with oxygen. The above alloys of potassium and iron were 

 remarkable for their great hardness. 



The authors have also succeeded in producing two new alloys composed of iron com- 

 bined with aluminium. These two alloys are composed as follows : — 



First Alloy. 



1 equivalent of aluminium, 

 5 equivalents of iron. 



Second Alloy. 



2 equivalents of aluminium, 



3 equivalents of iron. 



The last alloy presents the useful property of not oxidizing when exposed to a damp 

 atmosphere, although it contains 75 per cent, of iron. 



