308 THE SCIENTIFIC PAPERS OF, 



process gave a ready means of melting metal which was called 

 steel, but which might with equal propriety be called homogeneous 

 iron ; and if a bar of iron was melted into a homogeneous mass, 

 the probability was the result would have been a metal not differ- 

 ing greatly from Bessemer metal. In order .to melt this metal, 

 when not resulting directly from the Bessemer process, recourse 

 must be had to another process, such as he had before mentioned. 

 Speaking from his own experience, a ton of scrap steel could be 

 melted with less than a ton of common slack, either on an open 

 hearth or in crucibles ; and this was in his opinion a satisfactory 

 answer to Mr. Struve's objection to steel rails, the cost of re- 

 melting the steel by this process being as small as that of re-rolling 

 iron rails. 



Mr. Fowler (President), inquired whether, if the Bessemer metal 

 could be melted and used for tires, there was any reason why the 

 same metal should not be re-made into rails ? 



Mr. Siemens had merely stated a fact within his own experience, 

 but he saw not the least objection to re- convert the Bessemer rails 

 into cast-steel rails, which would certainly be improved in quality 

 by the transformation. 



In the discussion of the Paper 



"ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF IRON SHIPS, AND 

 THEIR PRESERVATION FROM CORROSION AND 

 FOULING BY ZINC SHEATHING," by S. J. MACKIE, 



THE CHAIBMAN (Mr. C. W. Siemens *) said, as to the import- 

 ance of the subject treated in the paper there could be no doubt. 

 It was a national question to overcome the difficulties which still 

 attached to the use of iron vessels. Iron had been so completely 

 proved to be the better material in naval construction that the 

 Government had largely adopted it ; and yet there was one defect 



* Excerpt Journal of the Society of Arts, Vol. XV. 1866-1867, p. 369. 





