88 Fotir-in-Hand in Britain. 



I wonder if I could explain to the general reader 

 how Messrs. Thomas and Gilchrist succeeded. It al- 

 ways seems to me like a fairy tale — I will try. In mak- 

 ing steel, ten tons of molten pig iron is run into a big 

 pot called a converter, and hundreds of jets of air are 

 blown up through the mass to burn out the silica and 

 carbon, and finally to make it steel. Now, phospho- 

 rus has a greater al^nity for lime than for iron when it 

 reaches a certain temperature, and when the air blast 

 brings the mass to the required heat, the million parti- 

 cles of phosphorus, like so many tiny ants disturbed, 

 run hither and thither, quite ready to leave the iron 

 for the lime. These clever young men first put a lot 

 of lime in the bottom of the pot as a bait, and into this 

 fly the ants, perfectly delighted with their new home. 

 The lime and slag float to the top and are drawn off — 

 but mark you, let the temperature fall and the new 

 home gets too cold to suit these salamanders, although 

 the temperature may be over 2,000 degrees, hot enough 

 to melt a bar of steel in a moment if thrown into the 

 pot. No, they must have 2,500 degrees in the lime 

 or they will rush back to the metal. 



But here lay a dif^culty : 2,500 degrees is so very hot 

 that no ordinary pot lining will stand it, and of course 

 the iron pot itself will not last a moment. If ganister 

 or fire brick is used it just crumbles away, and besides 

 this, the plaguey particles of phosphorus will rush into 

 it and tear it all to pieces. The great point is to get a 



