BLECTROCHEMISTRY—RICH ARDS. 181 
There are also varieties of methods of manufacture of steel, aside 
from the melting together of highly pure materials as in the crucible 
method, which are equally available in most types of the electric 
furnace. The Bessemer converter takes liquid pig iron as it comes 
from the blast furnace and by rapid oxidation by air blast converts 
it into steel. Mr. Heroult has tried to combine the Bessemer con- 
verter with the electric furnace in one apparatus the idea being to 
first oxidize the metal by air blast and then to finish it while electric 
current supplied the necessary heat. I have no information that this 
combination furnace is anywhere in successful operation, but the 
equivalent of the same operation performed first in the Bessemer 
converter and then on the blown metal transferred into an electric 
furnace for finishing is already in regular commercial operation at 
the South Chicago Works of the United States Steel Corporation. I 
have had the privilege and pleasure, thanks to Mr. Heroult, of study- 
ing that operation, in company with Mr. Heroult and the editor of 
Metallurgical and Chemical Engineering. You may find a description 
of the process in the April number of that journal, so I will not repeat 
it here—except so far as to say that 15 tons of the product of the 
Bessemer blow, oxidized to the extent usual in the Bessemer converter, 
was kept melted less than two hours on the basic hearth of the electric 
furnace, treated with two different slags to refine it from phosphorus 
andsulphur, deoxidized or “‘ dead-melted,’’ and then poured into ingots 
of steel intended for axles. The steel produced was of better quality 
than the usual corresponding open-hearth metal, and was produced 
at slightly less total cost. This combination process bids fair to give 
a new lease of life to the declining Bessemer steel industry; its eco- 
nomic importance will appeal particularly to this audience. 
The open-hearth steel furnace is at present the most important 
of the methods of manufacturing steel—‘‘tonnage steel.” It makes 
steel from pig iron and scrap of proper quality, or from pig iron and 
iron ore (mill scale), or from pig, scrap, and ore. It makes its best 
steel on silica hearths from high-grade material low in sulphur and 
phosphorus, and its cheapest steel on basic hearths from almost any- 
thing. The electric furnace can do any or all of these things, and, as 
a general proposition, produce better steel from given materials than 
the open-hearth furnace. Under what circumstances it will pay to 
use the electric furnace instead of the open-hearth furnace would 
take at least one lecture to discuss; we will not go deeply into it here. 
In Europe, countries which have very cheap water power, around $10 
per horsepower year, and fuel costing $4 to $6 per ton, are finding the 
electric furnace the cheaper; with power costing $20 and coal $5, the 
two are about on equal terms; in Pittsburgh, with power at $30 and 
coal at $1, the open-hearth furnace is by far the cheaper for produc- 
