IRON AND STEEL. 



635 



300 C., or perhaps even to 500-600 C. Far- 

 ther, to produce a given variety of steel or 

 iron, the process of conversion must be inter- 

 rupted when the refining has reached the de- 

 sired point. This may be determined by ob- 

 serving the character of the gases and sparks 

 which escape from the furnace, much as in 

 hearth refining. 



Prof. Roscoe has recently stated that, during 

 a certain phase of the Bessemer process, the 

 flame arising from the molten metal exhibits 

 a complicated but highly characteristic spec- 

 trum, including the sodium, lithium and potas- 

 sium lines. It is proposed, accordingly, to ap- 

 ply the spectroscope to the examination of the 

 gases evolved from the melted steel, in order 

 to determine the point at which the required 

 effect is produced, and so to arrest the opera- 

 tion at the right moment. The accounts we 

 have met with do not state, however, the form 

 or character of the spectrum which is regarded 

 as affording the desired test. 



The cost for furnace repairs, in the Bessemer 

 process, is less than was anticipated ; but the 

 waste product 20 to 30 per cent., when the 

 iron is made into bars demands consideration, 

 no use having yet been found for this impure 

 product. But, compared with the puddling 

 process, that of Bessemer is yet merely in its 

 infancy. Upon the subject of this process, 

 Prof. G. J. Brush remarks : " A wide field is 

 open for the application of Bessemer's process 

 in this country, where pure iron ores, fully 

 equal in quality to those of Sweden and Nor- 

 way, occur in such abundance." 



Desulphuration of Iron. Prof. Eichter, of 

 Leoben, Austria, has studied the various means 

 of depriving iron of sulphur. One of the best, 

 hitherto, he regarded as being that of the ad- 

 dition of binoxide of manganese ; but this being 

 infusible, there is doubt whether it can be 

 thoroughly incorporated with the iron ; and 

 the latter may also be deteriorated by impuri- 

 ties' which the commercial oxide is liable to 

 impart to it. The fact of the powerful oxidiz- 

 ing action of litharge (protoxide of lead) sug- 

 gested to the author the employment of this 

 material ; and upon trial of it he found that it 

 not only removed the sulphur in the puddling 

 process, but that it oxidized also the phosphor- 

 us contained in the iron. The experiments 

 were made near Wolfsberg, in Carinthia, with 

 7 cwt. of pig iron, which contained so much 

 sulphur that it was impossible to convert it 

 into bar ; to this mass were also added 3 Ibs. 

 of sulphide of iron, and \ Ib. of phosphide of 

 iron. After complete fusion of the whole, 

 3 Ibs. of litharge were introduced, and the fu- 

 sion continued. The success was complete ; 

 the puddled bar proved neither hot nor cold- 

 short, and could be forged into iron for scythes; 

 whilst a similar quantity of cast iron, puddled 

 without litharge, crumbled to pieces under the 

 hammer. The author supposes that in some 

 instances metallic lead may be preferable to 

 litharge. 



PJwsphorui in Cast Iron. Capt. H/Caron, 

 director of the French Imperial Laboratory, in 

 a note presented to the Academy of Sciences, 

 states that the many attempts he has made to 

 eliminate the phosphorus from cast iron have 

 thus far been unsuccessful ; and he has even 

 established that the iron absorbs a great part 

 of whatever phosphorus it may find around it 

 at the moment of its formation, especially if 

 the slags be .silicious. Having several times 

 treated ores free from phosphorus with char- 

 coal to which phosphate of lime and silica had 

 been added, he had always found in the iron 

 almost the whole of the phosphorus which the 

 phosphate could yield. Thus, in reducing a 

 carbonate of iron from Benndorff in a crucible 

 Ikied with charcoal mixed with phosphate of 

 lime, the quantity of the latter being so calcu- 

 lated as (theoretically) to introduce 1 per cent, 

 of phosphorus into the cast iron, the results of 

 six experiments gave the actual quantity of 

 phosphorus taken up by the latter at from .92 

 to .82 of 1 per cent. 



No way, then, appearing to exist for remov- 

 ing phosphorus from cast iron, and the two 

 materials always combining when they meet 

 (in fusion), it becomes important to remove 

 from the process all sources of the hurtful met- 

 alloid ; and one important point, too often 

 overlooked, is that of the chemical- composi- 

 tion of the fuel employed. Almost every wood 

 contains phosphorus ; and to such extent that 

 its charcoal will impart to an ore free from this 

 element at least .2 per cent. In this propor- 

 tion phosphorus is not hurtful ; but when it 

 rises to about .7 per cent., its injurious proper- 

 ties begin to be manifest. Hence, fuel should 

 be used which cannot yield to the cast iron 

 this proportion of the element. Now, differ- 

 ent woods contain different proportions of 

 phosphorus, depending both on the soil and 

 on their species. For example, the oak from 

 La Roque-les-Arts, whose ashes contain but 

 .008 of phosphoric acid, could not be replaced 

 by the hornbeam of the Somme and the Nieve, 

 whose ashes contain from .09 to .1 of that com- 

 pound. The two woods yielding about the 

 same amount of ashes, it is evident that the 

 oak which could introduce only about .12 per 

 cent, of phosphorus into the iron, would be 

 preferable to the hornbeam, which might intro- 

 duce at least 1 per cent. Technologiste, Oct., 

 1863. 



Action of Manganese in the Working of Iron 

 for Steel. Capt. Caron has also communicated 

 to the French Academy of Sciences the results 

 of a series of important experiments, made 

 with a view to ascertain the part actually 

 played by manganese in the manufacture of 

 steel. Manganese does not carry off the phos- 

 phorus of the iron ; but in presence of man- 

 ganese the sulphur will disappear, even with- 

 out refining ; and in the process of refining, sili- 

 cium is also in great part removed. He states 

 that the results of practice confirm these con- 

 clusions: for the minerals previously cited by 



