November 4, 191 5] 



NATURE 



257 



a peace standard, about 600,000 tons of ore a year 

 must be obtained from fresh sources to replace im- 

 ports in time of peace; (c) that, allowing that the 

 Teutonic Powers might succeed in increasing their 

 internal production by 100,000 tons, and obtain 50,000 

 tons of manganese ore from Turkey, if the Allied 

 Fleets could prevent all manganese ore from outside 

 from reaching Germany and Austria, these countries 

 would be faced with a shortage of 250,000 tons of 

 nirmganese ore in the first year of the war, and with 

 a shortage of 450,000 tons per year afterwards, in- 

 creased to 500,000 tons per annum once the Darda- 

 nelles are forced. 



"The Germans will doubtless find means of dis- 

 using with the use of manganese ore as much as 

 ^sible, and they may devise methods of utilising 

 the manganese silicate, rhodonite, of which they 

 aj)pear to possess a considerable quantity ; but it 

 seems inevitable that the shortage of manganese ore, 

 once it is felt, will hamper seriously the German iron 

 and steel industries." 



Dr. Fermor's conclusions, if correct, would mean 

 that the German production of iron and steel must 

 have been seriously diminished in the first year of the 

 war, and that this diminution will be very greatly 

 accentuated in succeeding years. Before producing 

 evidence on this point which will, I think, be found 

 to be decisive as to the issue between Dr. Fermor and 

 myself, I should like to explain the reasons for the 

 conclusion with regard to manganese at which I 

 arrived in my article of July 15. 

 That article dealt with ten munition metals, and it 

 is not possible within its limits to give more than 

 eoncise survey of the evidence bearing on each par- 

 luular metal. I may say, however, that the detailed 

 evidence which is so clearly and ably presented by 

 Dr. Fermor with regard to manganese was available 

 to and was considered bv me, and that, excluding for 

 the moment his brief reference to mancaniferous iron 

 ore, if ^ this were all the evidence which had to be 

 taken into consideration, I should have drawn the 

 same conclusion as he has done — i.e., that the enemy 

 countries, and in particular Germany, could not supply 

 their manganese ore requirements from internal re- 

 sources.' There is, however, another factor which 

 appeared to me on examination to be not only 

 important, but vital. Dr. Fermor has also considered 

 it, but evidently dismissed it as unimportant when he 

 writes : — " I must note that in making the above 

 calculations I have excluded figures for manganiferous 

 iron ores from both the German and the world's 

 figures as confusing the issue." It is with this factor 

 that I rnust deal, for I came to the conclusion that it 

 was decisive. 



Although Germany prior to the war was a larcre 

 and regular importer of manganess ores, she was by 

 no means insensible of the technical value of her own 

 deposits of manganiferous iron ores as a source of 

 supplv of manganese for steel production. In support 

 of this assertion, it will be sufficient if I Quote the 

 following sentence from an article by Dr. Scheffer, of 

 ' rtmund.* which, it will be observed, was published 

 rtly before the outbreak of war: — "Die Mehrzahl 

 IT Arb»iten die sich mit Manganerzen und Deutsch- 

 lands Versorgung mit diesem Rohstoff befasst, 

 hpschafticren sich nur mit der Man^anversorgung 

 Deutschlands aus dem Ausland ohne dabei zu beriick- 

 sichtigen dass zur Erzeugung einer Reihe mangan- 



1 I nm much oWiged to Br. Fermor for his explanation of the figures of 

 American produ-;tion. which is perfectly correct, for th*- information he gives 

 of the mineralogical composition of the Indian ores, and for pointing out my 

 Oipission of the Brazilian manganese ore*. 



« .<r/rtA/ unti Ehen, J'lly 23, 1914, pp. 1246-1254. Other articles are 

 published in " Gluckauf," 1913. 



haltiger Roheisensorten auch Eisenerze mit einem 

 entsprechend niedrigeren Mangangehalt verwendet 

 werden konnen und dass diese manganhaltigen 

 Eisenerze im Inlande in grossen Mengen gefordert 

 werden." ' 



Germany's production of manganese and mangan- 

 iferous iron ores for the years 1908-1911, taken from 

 Scheffer's paper, is appended in the following table :— 



The main source of the home supply is the Sieger- 

 land. 



The figures show that while the output of man- 

 ganese ores is infinitesimal, there has been a large 

 and almost steady output of the higher grade 

 manganiferous iron ore, and a decided increase in the 

 very large production of low-grade ore, the total out- 

 put being in 191 1 more than 3,000,000 tons. Calcu- 

 lation of the manganese tonnages of (6) and (c) gives 

 the following figures for 191 1 : — 



Tons 



(fe) Mean value of 21 per cent. Mn gives ... 60,490 

 {c) Mean value of 6 per cent.* Mn gives ... 167,515 



Total 228,005 



Taking now the German steel production in 1913, 

 the figures are as follows : — 



Tons 



Total steel produced ... ... =18,960,000^ 



Steel exported ... = 4,3cx3,ooo 



Home consumption of steel 



= 14,660,000 



Assuming an average manganese percentage 

 o*75 in the finished steel, this will absorb 



Tons 

 109,942 



Amount available =228,005 



of 



Excess 



118,063 



From this it is clear that the tonnage of manganese 

 contained in the ore as mined is more than double 

 that required to he present in the finished steel. The 

 excess would be available for deoxidising the fluid 

 steel if it could be applied in a suitable form. Even 

 here, however, it would not all be lost, for in 191 1 

 the German blast-furnaces smelted more than 662,000 

 tons of matiganiferous slag from open-hearth and 

 puddling furnaces. With these facts before me, I had 

 to consider whether the German manganiferous iron 

 ores could be made available for steel manufacture in 



3 In the above article ores containing; more than 30 per cent, of manganese 

 are regarded as " manganese ores," while those containing both iron and 

 manganese, the latter being present to the extent of anything between 2 and 

 30 per cent., are regarded as manganiferous iron ores. They contain technical 

 values both in iron and manganese. The mineralogical concept of manganese 

 and mang.iniferous iron ores is different ; but we are only concerned with the 

 metallurgical use of the terms. 



* This is rather less than the mean value, but the estimate is purposely 

 mide conservative. 



s Dr. Fermor gives this as i9'29 million tons in his first table, but this is 

 the total iron production. 



no! 2401, VOL. 96] 



