

S/X WILLIAM SIEMENS, F.R.S. 283 



furnace had yet accomplished. With regard to the yield he agreed 

 entirely with the views that had fallen from Mr. Snelus, and 

 which were in conformity with the chemical reasoning the speaker 

 had advanced in his paper on puddling iron. He had showed on 

 that occasion that he could gain 8 per cent, in puddling Cleveland 

 pig in a theoretically perfect manner, and he felt glad to see that 

 results so near perfection had been realised with the Danks furnace. 

 He accorded with Mr. Danks's view that it was not at the expense 

 of the fettling ore that they obtained the increase. In the ordinary 

 furnace it happens that although they had much silicon in the 

 pig metal, a portion of that silicon was burnt off by the direct 

 action of the flame, but in a furnace where there was but little 

 oxidation by flame, very little of the silicon was burnt, and the 

 great bulk of it was oxidised by chemical re-action with the oxides 

 of iron present ; but they must have the oxides present, no matter 

 whether they intended to make iron of them or not, and the 

 dillerence between economical and wasteful puddling was due to 

 whether they retained the iron from these oxides, or whether they 

 wasted it after getting it. In Mr. Danks's furnace, and also in a 

 regenerative gas furnace, if properly conducted and worked, they 

 need not waste the iron, and they could then at least get " weight 

 for weight." 



ON SMELTING IRON AND STEEL. 

 By C. WILLIAM SIEMENS, D.C.L. (Oxon.), F.R.S.* 



[A Lecture delivered before the Chemical Society, March 20th, 1873.] 



ON the 7th of May, 1868, I had the honour of addressing you 

 on the subject of " the regenerative gas furnace f as applied to the 

 manufacture of cast steel," my object being at that time to point 

 to the important part which that furnace was likely to play in 

 such metallurgical processes where intense heat is required. At 

 that time I described a method of producing cast steel upon the 

 open hearth of a regenerative gas furnace by the dissolution either 



* Excerpt Journal of the Chemical Society, 1873, pp. 661-678. 

 t The joint invention of C. William and F. Siemens. 



