.S7A' \\-lI.UAM SIEMENS, F.R.S. 319 



process, considerable ebullition ensued, and he should be afraid 

 that the )> tiling mass would go between the rotating lip of the 

 vessel and the standing part of the furnace, and cause it to stop. 

 Mr. Hackney had alluded to experiments carried on in America 

 I iv Mr. Blair, who appeared to have found that, if the ore and 

 rarhon were heated to a sufficient temperature, and left to them- 

 selves, the heat retained in the mass would be sufficient to 

 complete the reduction of the ore. Dr. Siemens maintained that 

 that was an entire fallacy. Although the ore might be hot enough 

 for the reaction to commence, a very large influx of heat would be 

 required, during the operation, to make the whole of the oxygen 

 contained in it combine with carbon. Mr. Lowthian Bell had 

 already proved the fallacy of the assumption that ore, under such 

 circumstances, would combine with carbon and form itself into 

 spongy metal. He had himself paid considerable attention to the 

 reduction of ore, in order to obtain material for the bath, and he 

 had experienced great difficulty in reducing ore into spongy metal. 

 The iron, in that spongy condition, took up sulphur very readily, 

 and sulphur vitiated the steel produced from it. These failures and 

 difficulties induced him to resort to another mode of obtaining 

 metallic iron from the ore, by passing the ore, in a heated condition, 

 through a rotating chamber, and there treating it with reducing 

 material, not at a temperature to produce sponge, but at a melting 

 temperature at which cohesive wrought metal was at once produced. 

 That part of the process was as yet in an experimental stage, and 

 he could not at present reply to Mr. Williams's inquiries regarding 

 it ; but before long it would be at work on a complete scale, and 

 he would then be in a better position to speak definitely regarding 

 it. The chemical process of making steel might be varied almost 

 ad libitum, and that variety was undoubtedly the best which, 

 from impure ore or impure pig metal, would produce material of 

 comparatively high quality. Hitherto phosphorus and sulphur 

 had been regarded as the enemies of steel, but recent experience 

 had shown that they might be innocent constituents under certain 

 conditions. If phosphorus was contained in the metal used for 

 steel-making, it was necessary that the metal should contain very 

 little carbon ; in fact, the carbon should be reduced to a mere 

 trace ; and manganese should be introduced in order to produce a 

 malleable metal. This was being carried out very successfully in 



