540 



METALS. 



iron." It can be puddled in one-half the time 

 commonly occupied, and the loss is no more 

 than one-fourth that usually taking place. The 

 good qualities of the iron so obtained are owing 

 to its freedom from both sulphur and phospho- 

 rus, as well as to its containing titanium. This 

 iron is said completely to resist the action of 

 chlorhydric acid. 



It being admitted that a small quantity of 

 titanium improves both iron and steel, attention 

 is beginning to be directed toward the titanif- 

 erous iron, or " ilmenite," existing in so vast 

 quantities in Sweden, Norway, Kussia, Canada, 

 and elsewhere, and which, while it is to be had 

 much more cheaply than the iron-sand, holds 

 forty per cent, of an oxide of titanium against 

 but from nine to thirteen per cent, in the latter. 

 There are difficulties in the way of smelting an 

 ore containing so much titanium, but it is pro- 

 posed to mix the titaniferous, in small propor- 

 tions, with the ordinary ores. Mechanics' 

 Magazine, September, 1865. 



Gases contained in Molten Iron and Steel. 

 It has long been known that a disengagement 

 of combustible gases often, if not always, oc- 

 curs at the moment of pouring molten iron or 

 steel into the moulds. This had been supposed 

 due to the decomposition of the moisture contain- 

 ed in the sand of the mould ; but M. Cailletet, in 

 a note to the Academy of Sciences, November 

 13, 1865, presents facts which disprove such 

 supposition. His experiments leave no doubt 

 that combustible gases are liberated from molten 

 iron during its cooling, and when the iron has 

 not come in contact with sand or other body 

 containing moisture ; and those gases he finds 

 to consist mainly of carbonic oxide and hy- 

 drogen. 



The author succeeded best in his experiments 

 by use of a conical vessel, without bottom, but 

 having attached to its upper part an apparatus 

 for collecting the gases. This vessel, previous- 

 ly heated to redness to free it of moisture, is 

 then plunged down into the molten metal ; and, 

 its temperature being still lower than that of 

 such mass, a portion of the latter entering its 

 interior rapidly cools there, and in so doing 

 evolves in all cases the gases which have been 

 named. With these is always mixed some 

 nitrogen, coming in part or wholly from air in 

 the apparatus. 



la case of an English gray cast-iron, smelted 

 with coke, the gases obtained consisted, in 100 

 parts, of carbonic oxide 57.9, hydrogen 33.7, 

 and nitrogen 8.4; and in case of French iron, 

 smelted with charcoal, of carbonic oxide 49.2, 

 hydrogen 38.6, and nitrogen 12.2. M. Cailletet 

 could not succeed in collecting, by the same 

 method, the gases evolved by molten steel, the 

 temperature being so high as instantly to liquefy 

 the vessel used. Collecting those gases, how- 

 ever, by another method, he found them to 

 consist, in like manner, chiefly of carbonic ox- 

 ide and hydrogen. Mechanics' Magazine, De- 

 cember 15, 1865. 



Reduction of Certain Metals ly Zinc. M. 



Poumerede has employed the vapor of zinc as a 

 reducing agent, and by use of it has obtained a 

 number of interesting products. By this means, 

 for example, he has procured in metallic form 

 some of the more difficultly reducible of the 

 heavy metals, as chromium, cobalt, nickel, and 

 manganese, and with ease especially from their 

 chlorides or fluorides. M. Peligot exhibited to 

 the Academy of Sciences, March 28, 1864, 

 specimens of nickel and cobalt thus prepared, 

 and also magnificent crystals of iron. 



New Smelting Furnace for Copper, etc. Gen. 

 Easchette, director of the works of Prince 

 Demidoff, in view of the fact that, in the ordi- 

 nary furnaces with a circular interior, the ores, 

 metals, combustible matters, etc., descend less 

 rapidly about the sides than in the middle an 

 inconvenience which several engineers have 

 proposed to remedy by making the cavity ellip- 

 ticalhas adopted, instead, the oblong form. 

 He makes the throat quite large, and the height 

 of the furnace moderate, that for working of 

 copper ores being thirteen feet. The fire is 

 placed in the foundations, and two rows of 

 blast-pipes, alternating upon the two long faces 

 of the interior, throw in the blast. Three fur- 

 naces of this sort are in operation in the de- 

 partment of the Ural, one being at Perm. Great 

 economy of fuel appears thus to be secured, 

 whilst the slag contains little copper, and the 

 furnaces last longer than the old ones of pris- 

 matic form. M. Raschette is, however, proba- 

 bly too sanguine in supposing, as it appears ho 

 does, that his form of furnace is the best for all 

 possible ores, and for the extraction of all 

 metals iron, copper, gold, silver, lead, tin, 

 zinc, platinum, etc. 



Utilization of Copper SmoTce. During the 

 last fifty years, several attempts have been made 

 in England, and it ajoears also on the Con- 

 tinent, to abate the nuisance of the copper 

 smoke given off from the works in which the 

 ores of that metal are calcined, and that by 

 means of utilizing the chief deleterious prod- 

 ucts the sulphurous gases, including mainly 

 sulphurous acid resulting from the sulphur of 

 the ore ; but, up to a recent period, these at- 

 tempts had all proved ineffectual. The smoke 

 from the great copper-smelting establishments 

 of Swansea has for years had the effect of de- 

 stroying vegetation for many miles over the 

 . country around ; and the copper-smelters of 

 that district have been in the habit of paying 

 large sums as compensation for the damage 

 thus done. 



The roasting of the ores has hitherto been 

 performed either in kilns, grate-furnaces, or 

 muffles. In the first case, the stamped ores 

 are previously mixed with clay or loam, formed 

 into balls and dried. "When muffles are used, 

 the pounded pyrites is spread on plates of fire- 

 clay, and requires to be kept continually stirred, 

 to expose fresh surfaces to the air. It appe.-irs 

 that no method proposed in connection with 

 these processes has yet practically served the 

 desired purposes of abstracting from the fur- 



