462 



NATURE 



\March 22, 1877 



IRON AND STEEL INSTITUTE 



Address of the President, C. William Siemens,.D.C.L., 

 F.R.S. 



•T^HE Iron and Steel Institute opened its London Session on 

 -*- Tuesday, and yesterday Dr. C. W. Siemens gave his presi- 

 dential address. 



Dr. Siemens, after referring to the origin and progress of the 

 Institute, touched upon several topics of interest to those con- 

 nected with the iron and steel industries. 



Speaking of Education, Dr. Siemens said : — Intimately con- 

 nected with the interests of this institution, and with the pros- 

 perity of the iron trade, is the subject of technical education. 

 It is not many years since practical knowledge was regarded as 

 the one thing requisite in an iron smelter, whilst theoretical 

 knowledge of the chemical and mechanical principles involved 

 in the operations was viewed with considerable suspicion. The 

 aversion to scientific reasoning upon metallurgical processes ex- 

 tended even to the authors who protessed to enlighten us upon 

 these subjects ; and we find, in technological v/orks of the early 

 part of the present century, little more than eye-witness accounts 

 of the processes pursued by the operating smelter, and no at- 

 tempt to reconcile those operations with scientific facts. A great 

 step in advance was made in this country by Dr. Percy, when, 

 in 1864, he published his remarkable "Metallurgy of Iron and 

 Steel." Here we find the gradual processes of iron smelting 

 passed in review, and supported by chemical analyses of the 

 fuel, ores, and fluxing materials employed, and of the metal, 

 slags, and cinder produced in the operation. On the continent 

 of Europe the researches of Ebelmann, and the technological 

 writings of Karsten, Tunner, Gruner, Karl, Akermann, and 

 others, have also contributed largely towards a more rational 

 conception of the processes employed in iron smelting. 



It must be conceded to the nations of the Continent of 

 Europe that they were the first to recognise the necessity of 

 technical education, and it has been chiefly in consequence of 

 their increasing competition with the producers of this country, 

 that the attention of the latter has been forcibly drawn to this 

 subject. The only special educational establishment for the 

 metallurgist of Great Britain is the School of Mines. This insti- 

 tution has unquestionably already produced most excellent 

 results in furnishing us with young metallurgists, qualified to 

 make good careers for themselves, and to advance the practical 

 processes of iron making. But it is equally evident that that 

 institution is still susceptible of great improvement, by adding to 

 the branches of knowledge now taught at Jermyn Street, and I 

 cannot help thinking that a step in the wrong direction has 

 recently been made in separating geographically and administra- 

 tively the instruction in pure chemistry from that in applied 

 chemistry, geology, and mineralogy. If properly supported, 

 the School of Mines might become one of the best and largest 

 institutions of its kind, but it would be an error to suppose that, 

 however successful it might be, it could be made to suffice for 

 the requirements of the whole country. Other similar institu- 

 tions will have to be opened in provincial centres, and we have 

 an excellent example set us by the town of Manchester, which, 

 in creating its Owens College, has laid the foundation for a 

 technical university, capable of imparting useful knowledge to 

 the technologist of the future. 



Technical education is here spoken of in contradistinction to 

 the purely classic and scientific education of the Universities, 

 but it must not be supposed that I would advocate any attempt 

 at comprising in its curriculum a practical working of the pro- 

 cesses which the student would have to direct in after-life. This 

 has been attempted at many of the polytechnic schools of the 

 Continent with results decidedly unfavourable to the useful career 

 of the student. The practice taught in such establishments is 

 devoid of the commercial element, and must of necessity be an 

 objectionable practice, engendering conceit in the mind of the 

 student, which will stand in the way of the unbiassed application 

 of his mind to real work. Let technical schools confine them- 

 selves to the teaching of those natural sciences which bear upon 

 practice, but let practice itself be taught in the workshop and in 

 the metallurgical works. 



After referring to the question of Labour, Dr. Siemens spoke 

 in some detail on that of Fuel, Fuel, in the widest acceptation 

 of the word, may be said to comprise all potential force which 

 we may call into requisition for effecting our purposes of heating 

 and working the materials with which we have to deal, although 

 in a more restricted sense it comprises only those carbonaceous 



matters which, in their combustion, yield the heat necessary for 

 working our furnaces, and for raising steam in our boilers. 



The form of fuel which possesses the greatest interest for us, 

 the iron smelters of Great Britain of the nineteenth century, is 

 without doubt the accumulation of the solar energy of former ages 

 which is embodied in the form of coal, and it behoves us to 

 inquire what are the stores of this most convenient form of fuel. 



Recent inquiry into the distribution of coal in this and other 

 countrie? has proved that the stores of these invaluable deposits 

 are greater than had at one time been supposed. 



I have compiled a table of the coal areas and production of 

 the globe, the figures in which are collected from various sources. 

 It is far from being complete, but will serve us for purposes of 

 comparison. 



The Coal Areas and Annual Coal Production of the Globe.' \ 



Great Britain 



Germany 



United States 



France 



Belgium 



Austria 



Russia 



Nova Scotia ... 



Spain ... 



Othtr Countries 



This table shows that, roughly, the total area of the discovered 

 coal fields of the world amounts to 270,000 square miles. 



It also appears that the total coal deposits of Great Britian 

 compare favourably with those of other European countries ; but 

 that both in the United States and in British North America, 

 there exist deposits of extraordinary magnitude, which seem to 

 promise a great future for the New World. 



According to the report of the Coal Commissioners, published 

 in 1871, there were then 90,207 million tons of coal available in 

 Great Britain, at depths not greater than 4,000 feet, and in seams 

 not less than i foot thick, besides a quantity of concealed coal 

 estimated at 56,273 millions of tons, making a total of 146,480 

 millions. Since that period, there have been raised 6oD millions 

 of tons up to the close of 1875, leaving 145,880 millions of ton>, 

 which at the present rate of consumption of nearly 132 miHi>i!s 

 of tons annually, would last i, 100 years. Statistics show that 

 during the last 20 years there has been a mean annual increase 

 in output of about 3I millions of tons, and a calculation made 

 at this rate of increase would give 250 years as the life of our 

 coalfields. 



In comparing, however, the above rate of increase with that of 

 population and manufactures, it will be found that the additional 

 coil consumption has not nearly kept pace with the increased 

 demand for the effects of heat, the difference being asciibable to 

 the introduction of economical processes in the application of 

 fuel. In the case of the production of power, the economy 

 effected within the last 20 years exceeds 50 per cent., and a still 

 greater saving has probably been realised in the production of 

 iron and steel within the same period, as may be gathered from 

 the fact that a ton of steel rails can now be produced from the 

 ore with an expenditure not exceeding 50 cwt. of raw coal, 

 whereas a ton of iron rails, 20 years ago, involved an expenditure 

 exceeding 100 cwt. According to Dr. Percy, one large works 

 consumed, in 1859, from 5 to 6 tons of coal per ton of rails. 

 Statistics are unfortunately wanting to guide us respecting these 

 important questions. 



Considermg the large margin for fur'.her improvement 

 garding almost every application of fuel which can be sho 

 upon theoretical grounds to exist, it seems not unreasonable 

 conclude that the ratio of increase of populatijn and of outpi 

 of manufactured goods will be nearly balanced, for many years 

 to come, by the further introduction of economical processes, .- 

 and that our annual production of coal will remain substantial" 

 the same within that period, which under those circumstano 

 will probably be a period of comparatively cheap coal. 



The above-mentioned speculation leads to the further coi 

 elusion that our coal supply at a workable depth will last for 

 period far exceeding the shorter estimated period of 250 years, 

 especially if we take'into account ,the probability of fresh dis- 

 coveries, of which we have had recent instances, particularly ' 



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