358 THE SCIENTIFIC PAPERS OF 



hearth furnace a regenerative gas furnace and he applied heat 

 to it for several hours, until a thick crust of metallic iron was 

 formed all over the surface. He then added, on the surface of 

 that, pig iron, perhaps in the proportion of about 25 to 30 per 

 cent, to the amount of iron contained in the ore, and that pig 

 metal as it melted acted upon the crust of metallic iron formed in 

 the furnace, melting it gradually, and constituting with it a bath 

 of steel, which, after being adjusted and mixed with the requisite 

 amount of manganiferous material, was tapped into ingots and 

 worked in the usual manner. In that case he did not touch the 

 ore from the time he charged it into the furnace to the time of 

 tapping it from the furnace as liquid steel, and he believed a more 

 direct process could not well be conceived. But that process of 

 converting rich ore into steel was not applicable to poor ores and 

 to ores containing a great deal of such materials as phosphorus 

 and sulphur, which would undoubtedly go into the ingot metal if 

 they were left in contact with it at a high temperature. There- 

 fore, they must draw a broad line of distinction between the 

 process of making iron and that of making steel. In dealing 

 with poor and impure ores they could still make steel from 

 them, but, in that case, they must eliminate the earthy matter, 

 the sulphur, and the phosphorus, at a low temperature, and then 

 re-melt the material at a high temperature. That was an extra 

 operation, which ought to be paid for by the difference in the cost 

 of the ore. In that case, if they dealt with those impure ores, 

 they had to go so far on the road of making wrought iron as to 

 take the metal out of the furnace and squeeze it or roll it in order 

 to get rid of the cinder. Then it was in a proper condition to 

 transfer it, either to the re-heating furnace to be worked up into 

 wrought iron, or into the bath or open hearth furnace to be 

 converted into steel. With regard to his friend's process (and he 

 supposed he would allow him now, on his side, to make some 

 objections), his objection to it was that it was an additional 

 process, which necessarily would cost money to accomplish, and he 

 doubted very much whether the iron resulting from his refinery 

 furnace would work in a Bessemer converter. 



Mr. I. L. Bell, M.P. : I said this was doubtful. 



The President: Mr. Bell admits it; therefore, it had to be 

 treated and used as iron, or that iron would be melting material 



