S/A WILLIAM SIEMENS, F.R.S. 307 



en. -r^etic in order to weld the particles of iron t <>.;' ( her, while at 

 the same time the earthy material with the ore was fused and 

 !'"r;i u.'d a slag with the fluxing material employed. If that opera- 

 tion was normally carried out, the iron formed collected in what 

 he might call a grisly condition small masses hanging together 

 and slightly rolling over each other whereas a lake of perfectly 

 liquid cinder formed at the bottom, and after that liquid cinder 

 had been tapped off, more rapid rotation was given, and the mass 

 formed readily into one or several balls of metallic iron. In that 

 process the two actions of the formation of the metallic iron and 

 of the fusion of constituents of the ore were carried on simultane- 

 ously, and that was an essential condition to the making of good 

 and clean balls, and in this the process differed essentially from 

 the processes of Chenot and others, in which spongy iron envelop- 

 ing earthy matter was first formed which absorbed sulphur, and 

 could not, therefore, yield pure metal. Now, with regard to the 

 fuel question, he had certainly appeared to be very bold to 

 prognosticate such results as he had done, but the action in the 

 furnace had hardly been fully understood, or his results could 

 hardly have been questioned. They had there the ore and the 

 carbon mixed together in a state of reaction ; that reaction pro- 

 duced currents of carbonic oxide which rose to the surface, where 

 complete combustion took place, and the whole of the carbonic 

 oxide was consumed under the most favourable circumstances 

 possible, because it was consumed at the moment of its generation 

 without being first taken through a cooling tube or exposed to 

 loss of any kind, and it was burnt by a current of intensely hot 

 air by oxygen heated to at least 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, perhaps 

 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Therefore, the carbonic oxide thus 

 formed by chemical reaction which was lost in the blast furnace 

 was consumed under the most favourable conditions of the furnace, 

 and the heat thus developed accounted fully for all the heat that 

 was necessary for bringing up the material to the state of heating 

 required, and for melting the slag, the regenerators acting as fly- 

 wheels for taking up an excess of heat at one part of the process, 

 and yielding it at another. Theoretically speaking, '32 cwt. of 

 carbon would be necessary for the production of a hundredweight 

 of metallic iron, but. the result which he had to put forward as 

 being practically attainable and virtually attained by himself, 



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