304 THE SCIENTIFIC PAPERS OF 



fuel resorted to in all cases. With regard to the elimination of 

 sulphur and phosphorus, he had to draw a particular line of dis- 

 tinction between the ore-reducing process carried on at Landore 

 and the process which he now had only partially substituted in 

 aid of it. In the furnace, such as was worked at Landore, and at 

 several other places, it was possible that the elimination of phos- 

 phorus and sulphur proceeded only at the same ratio in which it 

 would proceed in the Bessemer converter, but there was this differ- 

 ence that the operation took eight hours, whereas the Bessemer 

 process was completed in a quarter of an hour ; therefore, it was 

 probable that a larger proportion of sulphur and phosphorus was 

 evolved in the ore reducing process, and that, he believed, was the 

 case in actual practice. In drawing a distinction betAveen the two 

 processes, he did so without the least intention of depreciating the 

 Bessemer process, which, in many ways, he admired excessively, 

 but as drawing attention to an essential difference between the two 

 processes. "With regard to the price of bauxite, he could hardly 

 speak with confidence as yet. The mineral was found in large 

 quantities in the south of France, in Austria, and also in Ireland ; 

 and as there was no present use for it, the probability was that it 

 would be obtained cheaply, and the process of converting it into 

 material for the lining was certainly not an expensive one not more 

 expensive than that of fire-brick making. He had not been aware 

 that Mr. Snelus had turned his attention to lime for linings ; in 

 the paper, allusion had been made to lime also, and they had, 

 especially in the ore-reducing process, used lime bottoms to some 

 extent. Hitherto he had not been able to obtain lime in such a 

 form as to resist permanently the effects of scoriae, but it was 

 quite possible ; and he might say that he was now engaged upon 

 a course of experiments at Birmingham, with a view to substitute 

 lime, in some cases at any rate, for bauxite in forming a lining. 

 Mr. Snelus had also alluded to a point in the furnace which cer- 

 tainly required explanation whether the parts of the furnace 

 throat, where it entered out into the rotating chamber, were not 

 very rapidly attacked ? He (Mr. S.) had some little misgivings 

 on that, but he found that experience proved decidedly more 

 favourable than anticipation ; those parts (pointing to some on 

 drawing) had now stood for five or six weeks of working, and they 

 certainly were none the worse for it. It had to be borne in mind 



