A/A' WILLIAM .sy/-;.i//-;.VA, /-'.A-.A. 217 



fan -I (last, sufficiently to effect the fusion of tool-steel upon the 

 op.'ii hearth in protecting the metal by a layer of glass, but that 

 the rapid destruction of the furnace, the cost of fuel, and other 

 diilk'iilties attending the operation, were such as to render the 

 process, commercially, of doubtful value. 



RKCKNKKATIVI: (IAS FURNACE. The regenerative gas furnace 

 is so manifestly suitable for the operation of melting steel, both in 

 pots and on the open hearth, that my attention was directed from 

 the first towards this object. The early experiments conducted 

 by my brother and myself at Sheffield failed, however, partly on 

 account of certain irregularities, arising from defects in the furnace 

 which have since been removed, but chiefly in consequence of the 

 want of determination on the part of the manufacturers and their 

 workmen to persevere with us to the attainment of the proposed 

 results. 



ATTWOOD. In 1862, Mr. Charles Attwood took a licence to 

 apply the regenerative gas furnace to the melting of steel upon 

 the open hearth in connection with certain chemical processes or 

 mixtures of his own. I supplied the design of a furnace which 

 answered the purpose, except that the quality of steel produced 

 was not such as Mr. Attwood desired. This circumstance decided 

 him to carry out his process in closed pots heated in the same 

 furnace. 



LE CHATELIER. In 1863, my friend, M. Le Chatelier, Inge- 

 nieur en Chef des Mines, elaborated a process for producing steel 

 from cast-iron by puddling, and melting the hot puddled blooms 

 in a bath of cast-iron prepared in a regenerative gas furnace, upon 

 a bed of 'bauxite, of the following composition : 



Silica 13 to 17 per cent. 



Alumina GO to 65 



Peroxide of iron . . . . 4 to 8 



Water in combination . . . 15 to 17 ,, 



This material presents the advantage of being exceedingly in- 

 fusible and of containing no materials that could impart hurtful 

 ingredients to the steel. A furnace of great heating power was 

 constructed by Messrs. Boigue, Rambour and Co., at their works 

 near Montlu9on, in France, under my superintendence, and would 



