WILLIAM SIEMENS, F.R.S. 



437 



\\h ther he had been rightly informed the previous day that the 

 iron treated by the basic process contained no more than one-tenth 

 per cent, of silicon ? If this were so, it showed that they had 

 managed to obtain a brand of iron that did not exist on the other 

 side of the Channel, and it was very interesting that they should 

 know exactly the cause. Could iron be produced there containing 

 phosphorus, '2% per cent. ; silicon, -^ per cent. ; and man- 

 ganese, '2"1 per cent. ? Such iron appeared to him to be most 

 exquisitely suited for carrying out this basic process, and it was of 

 the greatest interest to know whether they found it necessary at 

 the Rhenish Steel Works to obtain such a chemical composition 

 in order to be successful in the process. 



HERR MASSENEZ, in replying to Dr. Siemens, stated that it was 

 not at all difficult to make the iron described, in Germany. They 

 had at Ilsede very large quantities containing no more silicon 

 than one-tenth per cent., and with white iron of that kind they 

 might well work the basic process They made iron con- 

 taining just the quantity of silicon, manganese, and sulphur 

 mentioned by Dr. Siemens ; all that was necessary was to add 

 a sufficient quantity of limestone to the ore 



In the discussion of the Paper 



"ON MACHINERY FOR STEEL-MAKING BY THE 

 BESSEMER AND THE SIEMENS PROCESSES," 



By BENJAMIN WALKER, M. Inst. C.E., 



DR. C. WILLIAM SIEMENS * said the author had wisely confined 

 himself to the manipulation of steel after it had been produced. 

 If he had attempted to deal with processes, his paper would have 

 assumed dimensions far beyond the scope of what could be dealt 

 with at one time, and there would also have been chemical con- 



* Excerpt Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Eng ; neers, Vol. 

 LXIII. Session 1880-1881, pp. 22-24. 



