86 Fou7'-in-Hand in Biiiain. 



per cent, is fatal to the production of good steel by the 

 Bessemer or open hearth processes. Do what you will, 

 this troublesome substance persists in remaining with 

 the iron. If there be phosphorus in the iron-stone you 

 smelt, every atom of it will be found in the resulting 

 iron ; and if there be any in the limestone, or the coke 

 or coal used, every atom of it also will find its way into 

 the iron. 



It is essential, therefore, that iron-stone should be 

 found practically free from phosphorus ; but unfortu- 

 nately such ore is scarce, and therefore expensive. The 

 great iron-stone deposits of England are full of the 

 enemy; so are those of America; hence, both countries 

 depend largely upon ores which have to be transported 

 from Spain and other countries. One authority esti- 

 mates that if all the high phosphorus ores in Britain 

 could be made as valuable as those free from the ob- 

 jectionable ingredient, the saving per annum would go 

 far to pay the interest upon the national debt. Many 

 have been the attempts to devise some tempting bait to 

 coax this fiend to forego his strange affinity for iron, 

 and unite with some other element ; but no, his satanic 

 majesty would cling to the metal. 



Messrs. Thomas and Gilchrist, in studying some 

 highly creditable experiments made by my friend 

 Lothian Bell, Esq. (for he was upon the right track), 

 discovered an oversight which seemed to qualify the 

 results which he reached, and to render his experiments 



