WILLIAM SIEMENS, F.R.S. 309 



In the discussion of 



THE PRESIDENT'S (MR. I. LOWTHIAN BELL) 

 ADDRESS, 



DR. SIEMENS * said he had not thought of making any remarks 

 of his own, but the President in delivering his address had, as 

 usual, given them a good deal to think about, and he was rather 

 sorry that the discussion had turned only upon one of his remarks, 

 though indeed to discuss all the points raised would fill up the 

 whole time of their meeting. With regard to one question that 

 had been touched upon, Sir John Alleyne had already mentioned 

 that he had tried, with tolerably successful results, the furnace for 

 puddling that he (Dr. Siemens) had brought before the Institution 

 last year. The chief features of that application were, that the 

 regenerative gas furnace was used, and that the products of com- 

 bustion left at the same side of the heating chamber as that at 

 which the flame entered. Puddling furnaces, similar in arrange- 

 ment, but not rotative, were now largely used. He mentioned in 

 his paper last year the works of Messrs. Nettlefold and Chamber- 

 lain, who had then 10 furnaces at work upon that plan, and they 

 had now 20 ; these were working very successfully, and producing 

 excellent iron and good weight. Of course the question of fettling 

 was the important one as regards the rotative furnace, and what- 

 every they might do, it would be a difficult and delicate question 

 to make good fettling, unless they had a large supply of very pure 

 oxides. At Butterley, they were particularly badly off in that 

 respect, as their ores were of a poor description, though in the 

 end they made good iron. Still, however, they were very poor 

 ores, and their quality was not nearly sufficient to supply pure 

 oxide, or even pure enough to use for fettling their furnaces. This 

 difficulty was less formidable in working ores in the manner he 

 had proposed to do last year. That process, although not yet 

 carried out on a commercial scale, was progressing towards practical 

 results. His sample works at Birmingham were steadily working 



* Excerpt Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute, 1874, pp. 49-50. 



