S/A WILLIAM SIEMENS, F.R.S. 237 



chequerwork will stand for months, and the arches for years, of 

 constant working. 



In conclusion, I wish to express to you my sense of the dispro- 

 portion that exists between the magnitude of the task I have 

 brought before you, and my ability to accomplish it in all its rami- 

 fications. It may be granted that the regenerative gas furnace 

 itself has passed beyond its experimental stage, but much has yet 

 to be done in working out the applications of the system to the 

 useful arts, and the modifications and improvements in processes 

 which it frequently involves. 



Much, also, has yet to be done before the method of producing 

 cast steel, in one direct process from the ore, can take its place as 

 the recognised system of making steel on a large scale from the 

 purer iron ores, a position that I firmly believe it will assume, 

 sooner or later. It is my earnest hope that, in bringing the 

 subject before your Society, I may induce some of its members to 

 forward this result, by taking up particular branches of the 

 scientific inquiries upon which I have only been able to touch 

 lightly in my present communication. I have much pleasure in 

 acknowledging the assistance I have received in working out 

 this subject from Mr. William Hackney, my principal superin- 

 tendent, and Mr. Willis, the chemist in charge at my experi- 

 mental works. 



ON PUDDLING IRON, 

 BY C. W. SIEMENS, F.R.S. 



[Paper read before the Chemical and Mechanical Sections of tlic British 

 Association at Norwich, 1868, and ordered to be printed in extenso 

 among the Reports.] * 



NOTWITHSTANDING the recent introduction of cast steel for 

 structural purposes, the production of wrought iron (and puddled 

 steel) by the puddling process ranks among the most important 

 branches of British manufacture, representing an annual produc- 



* Excerpt Journal of the British Association, 1868, pp. 58-71. 



