May 15, 1879] 



NATURE 



5? 



Cooper, of New York, the father of the American iron 

 trade, and the founder of the Cooper Institute, probably 

 the largest free technical school in the world, the three 

 days of the meeting were given up to the reading and 

 discussion of papers in the thorough and workmanlike 

 manner that has distinguished the Institute from its 

 earliest meeting to the present time. Of prominent 

 interest among these communications was undoubtedly 

 that by Messrs. Thomas and Gilchrist on the Elimination 

 of Phosphorus in the Bessemer converter, describing a 

 series of experiments in continuation of others previously 

 brought before the Institute, made at Blaeravonand Dow- 

 lais in South Wales and at Messrs. Bolckow and Vaughan's 

 steel-works in Cleveland. The essential novelty in these 

 experiments is the use of lime and oxide of iron as a flux 

 in the Bessemer converter, lime being also used as a re- 

 fracting lining in place of the ordinary siliceous sand or 

 ganister. By this comparatively simple change it is found 

 that the highly phosphuretted iron of Cleveland, containing 

 I per cent, and upwards of phosphorus, may be so com- 

 pletely purged from that objectionable metalloid as to 

 yield a steel, or rather, to use the proposed international 

 i nomenclature, an "ingot metal," which in this particular 

 [ compares favourably with that blown from hematite pig- 

 ' iron, the amount of phosphorus ranging from '03 to o'i5 

 per cent, in various samples. 



The presence of a large excess of earthy base, i.e., lime, 

 in the slags, appears to be the essential condition of success, 

 and the formation of such a fluid basic slag at an early 

 stage of the operation is of equal importance, as it enables 

 the oxidation of both carbon and phosphorus to go on 

 simultaneously. The composition of these slags is utterly 

 unlike those obtained in the Bessemer process, as ordi- 

 narily worked, which are essentially similar to manganese 

 augite ; while those of the new process contain from 33 

 to 37 per cent, of lime, and about as much silica ; though 

 not exactly representing any natural mineral, are nearer 

 in constitution to the olivine group of silicates. That the 

 phosphorus is removed as phosphate of calcium, probably 

 diffused through a mass of smolten silicates of calcium 

 iron and manganese, there can be but little doubt, but the 

 point, apart from its practical bearing, is of considerable 

 scientific interest, and it seems not unlikely that micro- 

 scopic investigation might throw some light upon it, 

 unless, indeed, the slags should prove so opaque as to 

 resist this particular method of inquiry. At any rate, one 

 cannot but be struck with the analogous occurrence of 

 apatite in basalts and other igneous rocks containing a 

 low proportion of silica. 



As regards the practical value of the process it would 

 be premature to speak ; many of the points raised in the 

 discussion by way of objection, such as the increased 

 volume of slag produced, a serious nuisance in the com- 

 paratively confined space of a Bessemer casting pit, 

 the possibly small duration of the converter linings, &;c., 

 being obviously only matters of detail. That a very con- 

 siderable success has been achieved in these experiments 

 there can be no doubt, and that the iron smelters of 

 Cleveland as well as those of Luxemburg and Lorraine 

 will be fully alive to the advantages which the new pro- 

 cess promises them is equally certain. At the same time 

 'le hematite iron trade, though not so completely master 

 of the field as formerly, will no doubt be fully able to hold 

 its own, and there will probably be found to be ample 

 room for both east and west coast as steel producers. 

 Some among us may hope as a consequence to hear less o 

 the so-called phosphorus steels produced by dosing phos 

 phorised iron with manganese, now that the more rational 

 method of taking the phosphorus out of the iron may be 

 used, in preference to disguising it. 



The paper by Mr. Snelus covers nearly the same ground 

 as that of Messrs. Thomas and Gilchrist, as it describes a 

 number of experiments made in Bessemer converters with 

 a lime lining first at Dowlais and subsequently Workington 



in Cumberland some years since with substantially the same 

 results. That these experiments were not further carried out 

 is sufficiently explained by the fact of the author being at 

 the head of an establishment producing one of the purest 

 qualities of cast-iron in the country, and therefore his 

 interests were not in the direction of making lower class 

 metal available ; and any one who knows how the West 

 Cumberland Works have progressed under Mr. Snelus' 

 management will find sufficient excuse for his name not 

 being more prominently identified with the new process. 

 The fact of a West Coast man having been the first to 

 demonstrate the feasibility of steel-making from Cleve- 

 land iron is a source of gratification to the local papers, 

 and to those who have neither Cumberland nor Cleveland 

 proclivities, it will be gratifying to know that two of the 

 three authors of the paper in question, namely, Messrs. 

 Gilchrist and Snelus, are graduates of the Royal School 

 of Mines. As a contribution to the working out of the 

 practical details of the process, Mr. Riley's paper deserves 

 notice, although no very considerable principle is involved. 

 The use of lime as a lining for Bessemer and other steel- 

 melting furnaces is attended with some difficulty, as the 

 consolidation of dry quicklime by ramming and subse- 

 quent heating is in many ways an unsatisfactory method, 

 and its conversion to a plastic mass by means of water is 

 not possible, owing to the chemical changes set up by 

 hydration. These inconveniences Mr. Riley proposes to 

 remedy by making the lime plastic with petroleum or 

 other hydrocarbon oils, giving a mass which can be 

 moulded by pressure and consolidated by burning in the 

 same way as ordinary fire-bricks, the small quantity of 

 oil being driven off at the temperature of firing. The 

 material used is the magnesium limestone of Yorkshire, 

 which gives bricks sufficiently hard to resist carriage and 

 a certain amount of hard usage. Of the other papers 

 read, that by Mr. Pattinson, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, de- 

 scribing a new method of determining manganese in iron 

 and iron ores, is of considerable value as giving an exact 

 method of indirect analysis which can be carried out in 

 a short time as an alternative to the rather tedious direct 

 methods of determination at present in use. 



The remaining communications, more particularly those 

 on the various uses of steel, as for example, in ship build- 

 ing by Mr. Barnaby, in bridge building by Mr. Maynard, 

 and in general engineering work by Mr. Adamson, though 

 of interest, are more so from the discussions produced than 

 from any positive information contained. The close of the 

 meeting was marked by the announcement of Dr. Siemens ' 

 munificent offer of 10,000/. towards the building fund of a 

 new house for the Institute and the other societies repre- 

 senting applied science, to be erected in Westminster, a 

 project which has been spoken of for some time, but 

 which will no doubt with such a favourable beginning 

 soon become a reality. It is to be hoped that in erecting 

 a new scientific palace, whether on the Thames Embank- 

 ment or elsewhere, the example of Burlington House 

 will not be followed, where a large and costly pile of 

 buildings has been erected without a single good-sized 

 meeting-room in any one of the houses. 



THE METEOROLOGICAL CONGRESS AT 

 ROME 



THE second International Congress of Meteorologists 

 has just been held at Rome, on the invitation of the 

 Italian Government. At the time of the first Congress at 

 Vienna in 1873, it had been wished that a second should 

 take place in three years' time, but for various reasons 

 the meeting was postponed until Easter, 1879. Dele- 

 gates were present from all the countries of Europe 

 except Turkey, and Gen. Myer of the United States 

 crossed the Atlantic, but, unfortunately, to arrive too 

 late. The actual foreign delegates present were : -(Aus- 



