338 THE SCIENTIFIC PAPERS OF 



a somewhat lower temperature. Now, Mr. Snelus said, in opposi- 

 tion to that view, that they could never finish a Bessemer blow 

 under those circumstances. He did not quite agree with him. 

 there. In finishing a Bessemer blow, the carbon first went out, 

 because the temperature was comparatively low, and towards the 

 end of the blow he expected very little carbon combined with 

 oxygen, when iron was chiefly acted upon, producing intense heat, 

 a fusible silicate which in its turn would react upon the carbon to 

 a certain extent. They all knew that carbon, which might exist 

 in a proportion, say, of t^ths per cent, in pure metal at that tem- 

 perature, would not be able to exist in the same percentage in the 

 presence of oxide of iron, and it was all a question of how much 

 oxide of iron was necessary to push out the carbon. According to 

 this view, the amount of carbon remaining in the Bessemer metal 

 after the blow would depend upon the amount of oxidation of the 

 iron which had taken place, but he should be much surprised to 

 learn that the Bessemer metal at the end of the blow was entirely 

 without carbon. 



In the discussion of the Paper 



"ON THE PERMANENT WAY OF RAILWAYS," 

 By R. PEICE WILLIAMS, M. Inst. C.E., 



DR. SIEMENS * said there seemed to be a great divergence of 

 opinion with regard to the quality of steel composed of different 

 percentages of carbon. Mr. Riley, who had given considerable 

 attention to these questions, no doubt could have supplemented 

 the information by further chemical details, which perhaps he did 

 not like to do because there was at present doubt as to the specific 

 effect produced by other materials, such as phosphorus, sulphur, 

 silicon, &c. Dr. Siemens might perhaps be able to supply some 



* Excerpt Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 

 Vol. XLVI. Session 1875-1876, pp. 203-205. 



