president's address — SECTION B. 89 



theoretical defects into the square cross-section, but of which actual 

 practice has established nothing. Ten years of hard, faithful, and 

 excellent service at Mount Lyeli — where the original Stalmann vessels 

 are still in use — have fullv shown the fallacy of these misconcep- 

 tions. 



Mechanical Pro'jress ivitJi Pncumalic Process. — The history of the 

 pneumatic process, applied to copper mattes, now becomes chiefly 

 that of the mechanical portion of the work. The transfer to America 

 has transformed this so trenchantly that the more recent establish- 

 ments more than rival the perfection of operative detail typical of 

 steel-converting plants, and do not stand so very far behind them in 

 point of capacity. The dally Bessemerising of some 67^) tons of 10 

 per cent, matte, which is carried out at the Anaconda plant at the 

 present time, shows to what dimensions the work has grown in a single 

 establishment. The newly lined vessels there weigh 42 short tons, 

 and are handled by GO-ton electric cranes, with 15-ton cranes for the 

 ladles, &c. 



Chemicall^^ however, the period so far reviewed added nothing 

 essential to v;hat was known before from the earlier experimenters : 

 in fact some thing? were forgotten, and impossibilities were imdertaken. 

 Fruitless attempts were made, for instance, to evade the inflexible 

 chemical laws which govern the slag- formation within the converter. 

 The desire that, instead of requiring regular and frequent renewal, 

 the linings should last a week, or longer, led to irrational trials with 

 basic linings. Special alloys or chemical elements were employed to 

 supply heat not obtained, because suppressed or wasted by ignorance 

 of the inherent means at hand for creating it. But the attention of 

 the practician has turned away from these theoretical desiderata. 

 Phosphorus and silicon he now replaces by a stick of wood, a shovel 

 of coal, or a lump of matte at the proper time. The basic lining he 

 eschews, knowing that he must have silica to slag of[ his iron. Generally 

 he has come to the conviction that he cannot force or deviate the 

 chemical routine from its predetermined orbit, and he has thrown his 

 whole soul into the question of handling costs. Hence the perfection 

 of apparatus. Of the general progress along this line only indications 

 can be given here. 



The most significant step in this direction was taken in 1892, when 

 the magnificent plant of the Boston and Montana Copper Company 

 was started at Great Falls, Montana, laid out altogether on simple but 

 grandiose lines, after the pattern of modern steel plants. Gas-fired 

 regenerative tilting reverberatories supplied the matte, direct poured 

 into ladels and transferred to the vessels by powerful electric cranes, 

 which also handled the vessels and the slag. The vessels were of an 

 unprecedented size, of the upright cylindrical shape, 7ft. diameter by 

 T4-|ft. height, of an initial charge of 5 tons of matte, and a final one of 

 11 tons. However, still larger vessels were introduced at Aguas 

 Oahentcs, Mexico, from 1894 on. which measured 16ft. in heigh.t by 

 8ft. diameter : the largest upright copper converters ever built. They 

 converted very low-grade mattes, being heavily lined in this instance 



