METALS. 



469 



contest. In a late letter to the London Times, 

 he asserts that in the Heaton process so much 

 heat is taken from the metal in generating 

 oxygen gas by the decomposition of nitrate of 

 soda, that the metal solidifies while in a state 

 of mechanical mixture with the sand and soda, 

 and, instead of obtaining fluid cast steel by his 

 process, Mr. Heaton gets only spongy, porous 

 metal, intermixed with slags and scoria, resem- 

 bling common puddled iron or steel, obtained 

 (on account of the sodic nitrate used) at about 

 twice the cost of the ordinary puddling process. 

 It is admitted that the Heaton crude metal, 

 like every other kind of puddled iron, can be 

 converted into cast steel by melting in cruci- 

 bles, at a cost of 5 to 6 a ton. Though 

 Mr. Heaton employs, to begin with, a pig-iron 

 20s. to 30s. cheaper per ton than that required 

 for the Bessemer process, he nevertheless em- 

 ploys .for each ton of iron converted (accord- 

 ing to Professor Miller's report) about 270 

 pounds of nitrate of soda, worth, say, 36s., 

 thus making the cost of materials several shil- 

 lings per ton higher than that of the high- 

 grade iron employed in the Bessemer process. 

 Professor Miller's report declares that an 

 analysis of the samples of the Heaton metal, 

 taken direct from Mr. Heaton's converters and 

 rolling-mill, discovers numerous and extensive 

 impurities. In one sample of crude steel, al- 

 most 3 per cent, of impurities were found, of 

 which 1.8 per cent were carbon. Another 

 sample of this steel, after it had been cut, 

 piled, heated, and rolled, had nearly 2 per 

 cent, of impurities with 1 per cent, of car- 

 bon. 



The Engineering Magazine, of London, after 

 criticising the process severely, says : "Mr. Hea- 

 ton may be quite sure that his experiments in 

 making steel from common brands of iron are 

 watched with the greatest interest, and, so far 

 as the iron-trade is concerned, with all the 

 hope that is possible in the face of so much 

 conflicting evidence. If his assertions are true, 

 he will, by another year, have added at least 

 ten millions to the value of the iron now made 

 in Great Britain, taking the value of his pro- 

 fessed improvement at 2 10s. a ton only on 

 4,000,000 tons. His mode of treating melted 

 pig-iron is much more expeditious than pud- 

 dling, his plant is inexpensive, and the alleged 

 increase of value of iron treated by his process 

 is even greater than we have just estimated." 



Mr. Frederic Kolm, in his report to the Aus- 

 trian Government,. does not praise the Heaton 

 process. He remarks, that the difference be- 

 tween pig-iron having phosphorus in it (such 

 as Mr. Heaton can employ) and pig-iron quite 

 free from phosphorus, is about the same as 

 the price of sodic nitrate ; and he therefore 

 thinks it better to buy the dearer kind of 

 pig-iron and make good steel from it, than to 

 purify poor pig-iron incompletely at a cost 

 which would bring it up to -the price of the 

 superior iron. 



The further progress of this interesting dis- 



cussion is thus summed up by Van Nostrantfs 

 Eng. Magazine : 



In Mr. Heaton's reply the points are : 1. His plant 

 is very cheap compared with Bessemcr's. 2. The 

 cooling effect Mr. Bessemer refers to is far outbal- 

 anced in his own process by the cooling effected in 

 his converter by the prodigious volume of cold air 

 forced through it for from twenty to forty minutes. 

 Which will carry off most heat, such a volume of air, 

 or the oxygen evolved from 224 pounds of crude 

 nitrate to the ton of steel ? 3. Mr. Bessemer says 

 his steel is a solid homogeneous mass, entirely free 

 from scoria or other impurities, whereas mine is 

 not. owing, he says, to the " mechanical admixture 

 with the sand and soda." This is not the case. 

 The slag, owing to its small specific gravity and 

 to its extreme fluidity, rises to the surface of the 

 molten metal, leaving the subjacent steel free from 

 slag or scoria. It is not the fact that sand is neces- 

 sarily employed ; but, were it so, the proportion of 

 alkali is so great that the slag formed would be, and 

 is, perfectly liquid, and is not mixed in any sensible 

 quantity with the mass of steel in the converter, 

 upon which it floats, as I have already observed. 4. 

 As to the statement that "Heaton obtains only a 

 lump of spongy porous metal, intermixed throughout 

 with slag and scoria," he says: Steel from my con- 

 verters passes at once either into my patent rever- 

 beratory furnace, or into a furnace of Mr. Siemens, 

 and is kept in a molten state and thence run into 

 ingots, as homogeneous and to the full as good as 

 Mr. Bessemer's. Mr. Bessemer knows that his own 

 steel has been proved by Mr. Siemens to be greatly 

 improved by being thus kept for some time in fusion 

 after it has been poured out of his converter as Bes- 

 semer crude steel. It is, therefore, not a fact that 

 my " crude metal can be made into cast steel only by 

 resorting^to the ^ old and costly Sheffield process of 

 melting in crucibles." 5. With reference to the 

 nitrate employed: But the circumstances under 

 which the experiments of Dr. Miller were carried on 

 were purely exceptional, and the proportion of ni- 

 trate usually employed is not, as Mr. Bessemer 

 states, 270 pounds, at a cost of 36s., but 224 pounds, 

 at a cost of 28s. 6d., taking the extraordinary high 

 prices of nitrate that at present prevail. Ten per 

 cent, of nitrates is all that I have found necessary 

 for the production of a ton of steel from inferior 

 brands, and considerably less than 10 per cent., for 

 superior brands. 6. As to quality, Mr. Heaton says : 

 I have but just turned out 40 tons of steel rails di- 

 rect from my converter, without any rem citing, rails 

 of a fine fracture, neither " fibrous " nor " laminated," 

 but quite as homogeneous as Mr. Bessemer's, resist- 

 ing the ordinary mechanical tests for steel rails, and 

 produced at a cost with which no Bessemer steel can 

 compete. Further, such orders are in course of ex- 

 ecution. 



To which Mr. Bessemer replies in another long 

 letter to the Times, substantially this : Heaton's ap- 

 paratus is less perfectly developed, and therefore 

 less costly, but 10 per cent, on the cost of the Bes- 

 semer apparatus does not amount to over 2s. per ton 

 on the steel produced. As to the cooling action of 

 the air, the heat actually produced in the Bessemer 

 vessel is the most intense known in metallurgical 

 operations. That the Heaton metal is not produced 

 in a liquid state, and has therefore to be melted by 

 another operation, in order to be as sound and valu- 

 able as Bessemer's, viz., fteel, is officially stated 

 by Dr. Miller in his report, and by Mr. Heaton. 

 The former says, the product of the converter 

 was poured on the floor in a pasty state, and 

 then oroken up and melted in pots. Mr. Heaton 

 mentions, in his cost sheet, 5. 10s. per ton for re- 

 melting in crucibles. He also told Mr. Bessemer, as 

 a reason why he should not be proceeded against as 

 an infringer of the Bessemer patents, that he did not 

 produce ingots of fluid steel by his (Heaton's) pro- 



