326 THE SCIENTIFIC PAPERS OF 



obtained at Landore ; but it must be remembered that the coke 

 which had been used hitherto there was very weak coke, and it 

 would be unfair, perhaps, to expect the same difference of results 

 if that anthracite coke were tried, for instance, in the Durham 

 district where coke of a much harder kind was obtained by direct 

 distillation of coal. It would be admitted by the author that the 

 process of making artificial coke from anthracite and binding 

 material was, of course, not new. He (Dr. Siemens), had first 

 seen it in operation many years before at the Creusot Works, and 

 he had then formed a very favourable opinion of the coke produced ; 

 and when about seven years ago he had been requested by the 

 Landore Siemens Steel Company to design two blast furnaces, he 

 designed them with the idea that such coke would be used. The 

 question which had then most occupied his mind was what height 

 he ought to give to those furnaces. It was at a time when the 

 general opinion of iron-masters was very much in favour of high 

 furnaces. Some had suggested 70 or 80 feet furnaces. Others 

 had said that GO feet was the least height that should be employed. 

 His idea had been to make the furnace only 52 feet high, as being 

 the height most suitable to the fuel at his command in the locality ; 

 but he had added another 2 feet, and the first furnace was made 

 54 feet high. Nothing had been changed since in the proportions 

 of the furnaces. The blowing engines worked splendidly, and the 

 Cowper stoves had given no trouble, and yet the result had not 

 been such as he had anticipated. That was due entirely to the 

 weak coke that had been employed, and though before they started 

 those furnaces all the machinery had been ordered for making 

 anthracite coke, their erection had been postponed, as coke of that 

 description was at the time not well known in this country. It 

 had been a very fortunate circumstance, therefore, that Messrs. 

 Penrose and Richards had taken up the question of making an- 

 thracite coke. They seemed to have come to the conclusion that 

 to make hard anthracite coke, besides binding coal, a high binding 

 material, such as pitch, was required ; and he (Dr. Siemens), 

 willingly admitted that pitch was necessary, in addition to binding 

 coal, if it was their intention to make coke very rich in anthra- 

 cite ; but he was not quite so certain, notwithstanding the results 

 which they had recorded, that it was desirable in all ca*ses to have 

 coke containing quite so much anthracite as 60 per cent. He 



