130 president's address — SECTION B. 



Since it has forced upon him an economical feehng of abrogation with 

 respect to the employment of carbonaceous fuel, the practical man can 

 no longer idly foster his mental comfort at the expense of wood, coal, 

 or coke. Instead of cultivating ease of mind in terms of carbon, he 

 is constrained to scheme and plot in terms of air, silica, iron, and sulphur, 

 and is obliged to put more science into his work, also to commune more 

 freely with his professional fellows. 



The pneumatic idea has perforce riveted the attention of the 

 metallurgical fraternity firmly to the oxidation theory. In the words 

 of Sir Roberts- Austen (y), it is indeed being " felt that, as the eighteenth 

 century has closed with a clear statement as to the true nature of 

 oxidation, the nineteenth century has seen its magnificent application 

 in the Bessemer process." The words, however, have a wider meaning 

 than the speaker knew he conveyed. The Bessemer idea is not now 

 limited to what, in the more restricted sense, is interpreted as the 

 " Bessemer process." Its application has grown to most comprehen- 

 sive limits, transcending even the boundaries of steel and copper. 

 One need only point to the progress being made in the utilisation of 

 the same fundamental metallurgical principle in the domain of lead, 

 in the refining of the precious metals, and related departments. Witness 

 the revolution already wrought in lead-smelting by the Huntington- 

 Heberlein, Savelsberg and Carmichael- Bradford processes and their 

 followers (of which an exceedingly important one for copper is that of 

 McMurtry). Languid half-way imitations these, it is true, of the 

 genuine Bessemerising method, as far as the atmospheric energy dis- 

 played is concerned, but. nevertheless, potential stepping-stones to 

 something more complete and conclusive — possibly the final commercial 

 realisation of the proposals of Hannay (w). Germot-Catelin (x), and 

 others for the pneumatic treatment of sulphide lead ores with the direct 

 reduction of the metal. Note the renewed interest bestowed on the 

 question of the pm'ification of metals by means of forced oxidation ; 

 as, for instance, expressed in Rose's suggestive researches on gold 

 bullion and cyanide precipitates (y). It is not too much to say that, 

 without the precedent of the surpassing success of the pneumatic 

 treatment applied to copper and iron sulphides, these promising depar- 

 tures from established beaten tracks in other metals would have been 

 delayed very many years. 



But the study of metallurgy is becoming increasingly more elaborate 

 and theoretically refined, and in this connection the pneumatic idea 

 has materially assisted in elevating the general scientific level of the 

 art. It is, furthermore, incidentally drawing the metallurgists of the 

 day persuasively into an interested appreciation of modern corollaries 

 of the oxidation theory in the department of physical chemistry. This 

 fundamentally essential branch of our mother science is now demanding 

 a degree of attention for the best metallurgical work from which further 

 progress will allow of no relaxing ; and, aside from all material, practical 

 benefits, this superior subjective advancement is in itself a tremendous 

 gain. 



(v) Pres. Addr. Iron and Steel Inst., 1899. (iv) Proc. Royal Soc, 1893, et seq. 

 (x) Echo des Mines, 1902. (y) Trans. Inst. Min. and Met, 1904-5, vol. XIV. 



