METALLURGY. (!RON, STEEL.) 



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The following are some of the conclusions 

 ; l.y l>r. K..I. Mall from hi* studies of the 

 i carbon on iron : 1. That in iron contain- 

 PIT c.-m. of carbon tin- tenacity of the 



otal increases by hardening either in oil or in 

 \\ai"T. with tin- temperature nt which llic metal 

 Is quenched, with a view to hardening, a maxi- 

 mum tensile -in -n^ili being reached at a tempcr- 



ii re of about 1,:{(M" ('. Tliis temperature once 

 |i .1. Ic. \\v\er. the tenacity of tho metal di- 

 iiiini-hcs. although tin- extensibility increases. 

 J. By raising the percentage of carbon from ()! 

 in- maximum (emu it y is attained not at 

 I.:|IMI ('., but at a much lower temperature 

 ul>"iil 1,(MH)' below the inciting point of iron 

 oxide, which, moreover, was not present. 3. By 

 farther considerably increasing the percent age 

 f carbon, this point of maximum tenacity ap- 

 ntly disappears, and the annealed metal has 

 nearly as high a tensile strength as the same 

 metal which has been quenched in oil from any 

 temperature up to a bright-red heat. Beyond 

 this temperature. <>r when quenched in water, 

 the hardened metal became so hard and brittle 

 that it could not be gripped by the jaws of the 

 testing machine. 



In an address before the Iron and Steel In- 



ilute Dr. Wedding said that the progress of 



the metallurgy of iron in Germany had been 



practicable only with the help of science. Chem- 



istry. physics, and mechanics have furnished 



he foundations for successive improvements. 



metimes new processes or devices have been 

 irectly deduced from the results of scientific 

 inquiry: sometimes it has been the function of 

 science, to seek the principles underlying prac- 

 tical improvements, and thus to render their 

 further development possible. In the matter of 



ting the tendency now is, departing from 

 'ormer rules, not to draw conclusions from 

 ingle results, perhaps of a purely accidental 

 Character, but to make observations systemat- 



"ly. in series, and upon as many samples as 

 iblc, for the elimination of accidental errors; 

 and also to establish the most suitable methods 

 of testing, so that even if errors be involved 

 hey need not vitiate comparisons when the same 



ethods have been employed. This latter tend- 

 ncy may be asserted likewise for the special 

 ranch of analytical chemistry which deals with 

 the ores and products of iron. Here also are re- 

 rted not so much the invention of wholly new 

 methods as the determination of the sources 

 and limits of error which are and always will bo 

 in\ olvcd in the different methods employed. In 

 the laboratory of the Rothe Krde, near Aachen, 

 there are made in a year, by 2 or 3 chemists and 

 6 or 7 assistants, 26,500 chemical determinations 

 and 62.000 bending and tensile tests, so that 

 about 90 chemical determinations must be made 

 daily. Phosphorus can be determined in thirty 

 minutes, carbon in thirty, manganese in one 

 hundred, silicon in sixty, and sulphur (cadmium 

 method) in thirty. Thus it has been made prac- 

 ticable to maintain a continuous control of the 

 running of works, and even, for instance, to 

 wait before tapping a heat in tho open-hearth 

 furnace until its sufficiently complete depho*- 

 phorization has been chemically ascertained. The 

 microscopy of iron is constantly widening its 

 field. The method of examination of carefully 



ground .-i-eiion-, instead of the MirfHces of fract- 

 ure, has been increasingly employed. The aid 

 of photography ha- !> n invoked to make the 

 results obtained by .-ingle observers li 

 of all. 



In a paper on The Future Situs of the Princi- 

 pal Iron Production of the World," Mr. Kdward 

 Atkinson, having shown that while tin- world's 

 demand lor j ri)1 , lt nd steel in likely to continue, 

 as it does now, to tax the capacity of all pro- 

 ducing count rie-. the I'mlnl Mates" is the great- 

 est consumer. The enormous men-use in de- 

 mand will require tho utmost effort of 

 duct ion at every point where the raw materials 

 can be assembled at reasonable cost, and where 

 furnaces can be operated to advantage on either 

 continent. Supremacy in production mii-t pi 

 to the point where the facilities for working 

 tho mines are best and the cost of assembling 

 the materials at the iurnace is loii!-t. Such a 

 point appeals to exist in the southern Appala- 

 chian region, the northwestern strip of which, 

 from Pennsylvania to Alabama, as described in 

 a letter from Mr. George B. C'owlam, of Knox- 

 ville. Tenn.. and Mr. Goldsmith B. West, of Jack- 

 sonville, Fla., is an unbroken coal field, 30,000 

 square miles in area, containing from 2 to 5 thick 

 workable seams of excellent coal. A valley strip 

 of nearly equal area extending along the south- 

 eastern side of this coal field is a broad belt^of 

 persistent and heavy seams of fossil-iron ores, 

 which run a little more than 40 per cent, of me- 

 tallic iron, rather high in silica and phospho- 

 rus, containing considerable lime, and well 

 adapted to furnace work. The southeastern rim 

 of the valley strip is another belt of hydrutid 

 ores, brown hematite or limonite, running up- 

 ward of 50 per cent, of metallic iron of desira- 

 ble qualities. The mountain strip southwest of 

 this valley contains large beds of very high 

 grade iron ores, mainly magnetite Bessemer ores. 

 Seven distinct beds large enough to be worked 

 have been traced in different parts of this strip. 

 The topography of the region is favorable to its 

 development by a system of cross lines. The 

 report by Carroll D. Wright, Commissioner of 

 Labor, shows that as between the Northern and 

 Southern States a great difference in the cost of 

 iron and coal exists in favor of the South, al- 

 though it is partly com} ensated as to the ore by 

 the comparatively higher percentage of iron in 

 the Northern States. Tables giving the cost of 

 a ton of pig iron in 7 establishments in the 

 Northern States. 5 in the Southern States, and 1 

 in Great, Britain, show it to be from $13.07 to 

 $16.50 in the Northern States, from $9.16 to 

 SKUU in the Southern Slates, and $10.21 in the 

 British establishment. As between 9 establish* 

 ments in the United States, 8 on the Continent 

 of Europe, and 8 in Great Britain, the cost of 

 producing a ton of steel rails is from $24.79 to 

 $27.68 in the United States, $18.71 to $24.52 on 

 the Continent, and $18.58 to $21.90 in Great 

 Britain. While reasons are pointed out for which 

 the cost of labor, after all the materials have been 

 assembled, should be less relatively per ton 

 of steel rails in the United States than on tho 

 Continent or in Great Britain, the actual results 

 show a difference as against the United States 

 of $3.78 in favor of Great Britain and $3.49 

 in favor of the Continent. 



