492 Chronicles of Science. | July, 
METALLURGY. 
Various attemps have from time to time been made to obtain mal- 
leable iron or steel directly from the blast furnace. A few only of 
these experiments can be regarded as having been successful. At the 
present time arrangements on a very large scale are being made in 
immediate connection with the Barrow Hematite Iron Works of 
Messrs. Schneider and Hannay, to receive the cast-iron directly from 
the blast furnaces into the “ converters ” of the Bessemer process, and 
thus produce steel without allowing the melted mass to cool. On the 
Continent this is adopted in many of the larger iron-producing esta- 
blishments, and we hear of several works about to be erected in this 
country, by which, without doubt, steel will be produced at a cost but 
a little exceeding that of cast-iron. 
M. Lamy has been carefully studying the conditions of iron pro- 
duced in the blast furnace. He notices a loss sustained from the cast- 
iron meeting with an oxidizing heat and atmosphere in the hearth, 
causing part of it to pass into slag. Again, in refining, the iron is 
fused under an oxidizing flame, by which about 10°\, is scorified. In 
puddling, the process is carried on in an oxidizing atmosphere with a 
further loss. M. Lamy estimates the total loss in converting pig-iron 
into wrought-iron as not less than from 15°\, to 20°\,. He therefore 
proposes to combine the three operations in one, or rather, as we 
understand it, to carry out the three operations consecutively in the 
same furnace. The apparatus proposed consists of two distinct parts ; 
one placed above the other. The upper furnace is the blast furnace 
in which the iron is smelted from its ores; this part differs from the 
ordinary blast furnace in the body and boshes being formed of distinct 
truncated cones—connected by their bases—but separated from each 
other by an opening, which the inventor calls the pyrote. The twyers 
are in the upper part of the boshes, and the blast is directed down- 
wards. The hearth is formed of a slightly inclined plane, which leads 
to the lower apparatus. This is essentially a turbine of wrought-iron 
attached to, and moved by, an axle protected by solid masonry ; this 
works on a platform furnished with several ranges of perpendicular 
knives, which are for dividing the metal driven out by the centrifugal 
force of the turbine. On each side are two fireplaces, arranged so as 
not to give off oxidizing gases. 
When the furnace is charged, the blast is turned on by the upper 
twyers, and thus a high temperature is produced in the boshes. The 
oxidizing atmosphere is changed into a reducing one by the conver- 
sion of the carbonic oxide into carbonic acid. The iron ores, therefore, 
in descending, only meet with reducing gases, and the product 
perfectly liquified flows along the inclined plane to the crucible, and 
may, if the object is to get cast-iron, be tapped in the usual manner. 
When wrought-iron is to be made, the melted cast-iron is directed on 
the centre of the turbine, which is in motion, and air and superheated 
steam are turned through twyers fixed at the lower part of the furnace. 
The cast-iron is divided by the centrifugal motion, and is brought 
into contact with an oxidizing atmosphere, the air acts on the carbon 
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