356 THE SCIENTIFIC PAPERS OF 



were almost entirely free from that ingredient, whereas other 

 charges made of richer and better ore, contained phosphorus in 

 somewhat more tangible proportion, owing no doubt to the 

 presence of cinder which had not been sufficiently removed before 

 the iron was consolidated. Mr. Bell, in criticising the process 

 which he (the President) had submitted and criticising it very 

 fairly, and contrasting it with the method of treating iron rich in 

 phosphorus which he (Mr. Bell) proposed observed that, in 

 dealing with Towcester iron, he (Dr. Siemens) found it necessary 

 to mix richer oxides with it, and that that would put the process 

 altogether out of consideration in dealing with similar ores in the 

 blast furnace, but it must be remembered that Towcester ore could 

 not be smelted in the blast furnace by itself either. It was a very 

 valuable ore as an admixture with other ores, on account of the 

 large proportion of alumina which it contained, but all attempts to 

 smelt it by itself in a blast furnace had hitherto practically failed, 

 and, therefore, it was but reasonable that they should find it 

 necessary to mix other ores with the Towcester ore. Then his 

 friend, Mr. Bell, said that he (Dr. Siemens) required forty-two 

 rotators to produce the metal yielded by one of his great blast 

 furnaces.- That was very true, and if the two apparatus produced 

 the same results he would say at once the blast furnace had the 

 advantage ; but it must be remembered that the blast furnace pro- 

 duced pig metal, whereas the rotator produced wrought metal, and 

 that probably forty-two puddling furnaces were required, in 

 addition to the blast furnace, in order to produce the same result ; 

 therefore he, at any rate, had the advantage of one. 



Mr. I. L. Bell, M.P,, remarked that he had been talking of 

 steel. 



The President said he would come to that presently. There- 

 fore, as far as wrought iron was concerned, the number of apparatus 

 required was certainly not greater, and it must be remembered 

 that the results which he had placed before the meeting were by 

 no means final results (that they were tentative results, and that 

 they hoped to do a great deal better), whereas with the blast 

 furnace, after the powerful mind of his friend Mr. Bell had 

 been given to it for so long a time, he supposed they had very 

 nearly reached finality. Then, his friend found fault with his 

 consumption of coal, three tons being required to produce a ton of 





