?5S 



NATURE 



[November 4, 19 15 



place of the customary ferromanganese or silico- 

 spiegel. It has to be borne in mind that whereas in 

 peace time in any given case that particular process 

 iiolds the field which happens to be the cheapest, this 

 is not the dominating consideration in war. If a 

 commodity is essential for war purposes, and if the 

 raw materials are available, it must be produced, 

 ■whatever it costs. This being so, it appeared to me 

 that while considerable departures would have to be 

 made from ordinary practice, there was no insuperable 

 difficulty in the technical problem of smelting the 

 manganiferous iron ores in such a way as to render 

 them available for steel production. It would not be 

 advisable at the present time to say what my reasons 

 were for coming to this conclusion, but I think my 

 view would be supported by steel metallurgists 

 generally. 



Germany, however, has another source of man- 

 ganese, the mineral rhodonite, which corresponds 

 when pure to MnSiO,. From this can be produced 

 various grades of manganese silicon alloys by reduc- 

 tion in the electric furnace, as the following analyses 

 show * : — 



These products have the advantage over ferro- 

 manganese of being low in carbon, and yet possess 

 a strong deoxidising power. Their use is specially 

 advantageous in incorporating both manganese and 

 silicon in steel. I was not able to obtain any figures 

 showing the extent to which Germany was manu- 

 facturing these alloys before the war, but it appeared 

 to me to be very protable — indeed, almost certain — 

 that a considerable production, for which preparation 

 would have been made, was to be expected in war 

 time. Taking these facts into consideration, the con- 

 clusion appeared to me to be warranted that the 

 German miners and metallurgists would, under the 

 stimulus of necessity, be able to render their country 

 independent of the import of manganese ores, and I 

 therefore placed manganese in the category of metals 

 that Germany would be able to produce from internal 

 resources. 



Dr. Fermor has come to the opposite conclusion. 

 Much the same view was stated, though even more 

 strongly, by a writer in the Times early in the spring 

 of this year, who predicted that, owing to deficiencies in 

 manganese supply, the German steel industry would 

 collapse in June, 1915. Fortunately, the issue between 

 Dr, Fermor and myself can be settled by what is, 

 after all, the most satisfactory method, viz., the 

 appeal to facts. I will give them briefly. The source 

 of my information is the " Statistik des Vereins 

 Deutscher Eisen und Stahl Industrieller," published 

 in Stahl und Eisen (August 5 and September 23, 

 1915). There is, in my opinion, no reason for regard- 

 ing the figures as incorrect. They are published in 

 the oflficial technical organ of the German iron and 

 steel industry. They contain evidence of the setback 

 caused to that industry by the outbreak of war, 

 evidence which is supplemented in an article by Dr. 

 Schrodter frankly admitting the difficulties with which 

 it has had to contend, '^ and they show that those 

 difficulties have been successfully surmounted. 



Statistics of production of the various types of steel 

 in each district are given, and may be consulted by 

 those interested. For my purpose, however, it i? 



6 Bureau of Mines, USA., Bulletin 77, pp. 145-46. 



7 "Die Eisen Industrie im ersten Ktiegs Jahr," pp. 798-800. 



sufficient to quote the monthly output of cast iron and 

 steel from the outbreak of war for a whole year :— 



These figures tell their own tale, and require but 

 little comment. Confining our attention to steel pro- 

 duction, the output for August, 1914, the first month 

 of the war, was only 36 per cent, of the average yield 

 in peace time — very little more than one-third. It 

 appears to have taken the Germans only two 

 months to overcome their technical difficulties,, 

 as is evident from the October figures, which 

 represent an enormous increase over those of 

 August — rather more than 50 per cent. Apart 

 from slight fluctuations, the figures thereafter 

 show a steady increase, until those of the last month 

 of the war are more than double those of the first 

 month, and represent a rate of production rather above 

 72 per cent, of the peace rate. There are no signs 

 here of an expiring industry; on the contrary, I ven- 

 ture to think that an unprejudiced examination of the 

 figures shows us that it has been getting month b\- 

 month into a stronger position. It may be urged that 

 a drop of 28 per cent, represents a not unimportant 

 shortage. But I must point out that this is calcu- 

 lated on the total production in peace time, when, 

 as in 1913, 22-6 per cent, was exported. This con- 

 dition no longer holds. Subtracting this amount, wc 

 obtain a difference of only 54 per cent, between the 

 peace and war figures of production ; in a few months 

 this will have vanished if war requirements demand 

 it. I estimate that before the end of this year 

 Germany will be producing steel at the rate of 

 between 14,000,000 and 15,000,000 tons per annum, 

 and that that rate can be increased if necessary. 



The foregoing is an achievement to which I, for 

 one, cannot refrain from paying my tribute of admir.i- 

 tion, even though I ventured to predict it. It is in 

 the fullest sense of the phrase an important technical 

 success for German metallurgists. How has it been 

 done? Dr. Schrodter will not say. What he docs 

 say is : — " Die Erzeugung unserer jetzt auf heimische 

 Rohstoffe angewiesenen Eisenindustrie ist so gross 

 dass sie nicht nur alle Anforderungen von Landheer 

 und Fiotte erfiillt, sondern auch die notwendigcn 

 laufenden Mengen an Eisen fiir Friedenszwecke und 

 dariiber hinaus bis zu einem gewissen Grade den 

 Bedarf fiir unsere benachbarten neutralen Lander zu 

 liefern vermag. Diese erfreulicher Tatsache ist 

 offenkundig. Wie wir uns in unseren Rohstoffcn 

 decken ist unser und unserer Metallurgen Geheimnis 

 das wir der verbiindeten Welt unserer Feinde 

 preiszugeben natiirlich keinen Anlass haben." 



I think, however, there can be little doubt that tlie 

 utilisation of the German manganiferous iron ores 

 supplies the answer. 



Austria has also surmounted her technical difficul- 

 ties in steel production.* Her output is very much 



» stahl und Eisen, 1914, pp. 818-19. 



NO. 2401, VOL. 96] 



