448 THE SCIENTIFIC PAPERS OP 



In the discussion of the Paper 



" ON THE USE OF MILD STEEL FOR SHIP-BUILDING 

 IN THE DOCKYARDS OF THE FRENCH NAVY," 



By M. MARC BERRIER-FONTAINE, 



DR. SIEMENS * remarked : The paper that has just been read 

 before the Institution is one of very great interest to naval 

 architects, because it brings before us the practice developing in a 

 neighbouring country, in which steel was used at a very early date 

 indeed for naval construction. If I may be allowed to discuss the 

 end of the paper first, I would refer to the remarks of the author upon 

 the liability of steel to rust ; and I would here draw attention to 

 a veiy exhaustive discussion which took place only a week or more 

 ago at the Institution of Civil Engineers. There an alarming 

 account was presented, showing that steel rusted more rapidly 

 than iron ; but after two evenings' discussion the prevailing- 

 opinion arrived at was that with steel of a proper character this 

 was not the case ; and the facts brought before the Institution left 

 no doubt upon the subject. Now, with regard to the French 

 practice, I wish to mention that the open-hearth process used in 

 the production of steel plates in France differs essentially from the 

 process that has been more generally adopted in this country. 

 There the Siemens-Martin process is used, and steel is made by 

 the fusion of scrap steel or scrap iron with pig metal, and the 

 final addition of spiegel, whereas in this country the process with 

 which my name is more exclusively connected whereby steel is 

 produced by the use of ore and pig metal only is practised by 

 most of the large works which carry on that manufacture ; and I 

 am disposed to consider that there is an essential difference be- 

 tween the two kinds of steel ; for you get a more refined and 

 homogeneous metal by employing only very little scrap and using 

 the ore instead of the scrap process. This difference may account 

 for the less favourable results which the French Navy appears to have 



* Excerpt Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects, Vol. XXII. 

 1881, pp. 139, 140. 



