August 14, 19 19] 



NATURE 



477 



original observations in the crude form the Office can 

 do the rest. I can assure them that I have never 

 known tlie staff of the Office to be at a standstill for 

 lack of ideas to carry out, and from the freedom of 

 this chair I will be bold enough to say that there are 

 worse services to meteorology than helping to carry 

 out the ideas of the Meteorological Office. 



The Fellow as a Centre of Local Influence. 

 And outside the immediate sphere of the society 

 there is much that is necessary to create an atmosphere 

 favourable for the development of the science. We 

 want people to know that meteorology is not exclu- 

 sively forecasting. No doubt the view into the un- 

 known future is, as Prof. Schuster said in his address 

 to the British Association in 1915, the lure of scientific 

 research, but the long way that has to be travelled 

 in order to make sure of it rewards us with many 

 side-views of common human interest. The discovery 

 of the separation of the atmosphere into troposphere 

 and stratosphere surely belongs to the great achieve- 

 ments of the human intellect, and the meteorological 

 exploration of the globe is worth reciting. So I pic- 

 ture to myself a meteorologist, even in a part of the 

 kingdorn or the Empire so remote that he cannot share 

 the privileges of our monthly meetings, who would be 

 a centre of knowledge of the weather without aspiring 

 to a reputation for foretelling the fortunes of his 

 neighbour's hay or anticipating the prospects of a 

 smooth passage. 



W 



RECEXT IRON-ORE DEIELOPMENTS IN 

 THE united' kingdom.^ 

 HILST the basis of the prosperity of a country 

 is admittedly agriculture, its industrial growth 

 is founded on mineral resources, and its participation 

 in the world's markets is chiefly dependent on the 

 extent to which these raw materials can be applied 

 to home manufactures. 



It is true that the first historical reference to this 

 country mentions the export of tin from Cornwall, 

 and that Great Britain's production and export of 

 copper in the early part of the nineteenth centurv 

 were the largest in the world ; but for its modern 

 industrial pre-eminence it is indebted to its coal and 

 ironstone. 



The cheap manufacture of iron and steel in this 

 country has in the past been greatly aided by the pro- 

 vidential dispensation that the ironstone was so closelv 

 associated in Nature with the fuel required to smelt 

 it that the factor of transportation was practicallv 

 eliminated 



But the gradual exhaustion of the richer black- 

 bands and clay-ironstones of the Carboniferous forma- 

 tion, and the introduction of the acid Bessemer process 

 of steel manufacture, which requires a pure ore free 

 from nhosphoru'? and «ulphur, made it necessary to 

 find other sources of iron-oro suoplv. For manv vears 

 the United Kingdom has been dependent for "30 per 

 'f^nt. of the iron-ore used in its blast furnaces on 



• reign countries. Foreign ore plays even a bigger 



''le than at first sight appears, since it contains 

 50 per cent, of iron as against an average of 30 per 

 cent, for home ores. The importation of haematite, rich 

 in iron and low in phosphorus, from .Spain and the 

 Mediterranean has built up the big iron industries that 

 are engaged in the manufacture of steel bv the acid 

 process in South Wales, on the North-West" Coast, on 

 'ie North-East Coast, and in Scotland, where the 



irts of Cardiff. Port Talbot. Whitehaven. Barrow, 

 Middlesbrough, Newcastle, and the Clyde, situated in 



1 Ab'triir' '^f 1 li>ctiire delivered .T the R 'yal 'c^ool of Mines on May 37 

 ly Dr. F. H. H.itch. 



XO. 2598, VOL. IO3I 



close proximity to an ample supply of labour, enable 

 foreign ore and native coal to be easilv assembled and 

 cheaply handled. 



But it was found to have its drawbacks when the 

 war broke out ; and the scarcity of ship-tonnage, which 

 resulted from the activity of the enemy submarines, 

 raised the cost of imported ore from about 205. (at 

 which best Bilbao ore ruled in British ports in 1914) 

 to an actual price of more than 61. per ton, although 

 (under the cloak of Government subsidies) it figured at 

 a lower level. At one period of the war the supply 

 from these sources threatened to be cut off altogether. 



To meet this situation an increased development of 

 the Jurassic ironstones of this country was decided 

 on. These ironstones, although abundant and cheaply 

 worked, are what the ironmasters term " lean " — that 

 is to say, they are low in iron, a/eraging only 28 per 

 cent, of that metal. Moreover, they have a high phos- 

 phorus- and sulphur-content, and for the most part 

 are rather siliceous. 



The increased production of the domestic phosphoric 

 ores brought about by th"e war raised many difficult 

 problems. In the first place, it necessitated a different 

 metallurgical treatment. This involved the substitu- 

 tion of basic-lined steel furnaces for those of the acid 

 type, with consequent increased supplies of suitable 

 refractory materials. It also involved large additional 

 supplies of fuel for smelting, and of limestone for 

 fluxing the ore in the blast-furnaces. 



Especial difficulties arose with regard to magnesite 

 and magnesite bricks. Prior to the outbreak of the 

 war the magnesite-brick industry was almost wholly 

 in the hands of the Austrians. Possessing in their 

 own countrv extensive deposits of magnesite pecu- 

 liarly suited for brick-making, they devoted both skill 

 and money to the perfecting of their products, with 

 the result that before the war they commanded prac- 

 ticallv the entire custom of the steel trade of this 

 countrv. To make up for the loss of the .Austrian 

 material, arrangements were made by the Ministry of 

 Munitions for the manufacture in this country of mag- 

 netite bricks, and the raw material was obtained from 

 Euboea, in Greece, and from Salem, in Madras. 



To furnish the required dolomite and limestone, new 

 quarries were opened up in this country. 



With regard to labour a fresh supply had to be found, 

 not only to work the new quarries of ironstone, lime- 

 stone, dolomite, etc., but also to build the railwavs 

 required to open them up, to erect extensions to 

 existing, plant, to man the new works, to reline fur- 

 naces, etc., and this in face of the incessant and urgent 

 calls of the Armv to fill the gaps in the fighting line. 



Considerable use was made of prisoner labour. The 

 difficulty with prisoners was to induce them to work. 

 On account of the Armv regulations, work could 

 b" compelled n-'ther bv force nor bv a reduction of 

 rati'^n'5. Th^ difficulty was overcome by the intro- 

 duction of piece-rates, but onlv to a limited extent, 

 as there was no outlet for surplus earnings in the 

 canteens, food supplies having been cut down on 

 account of the £*en'-ral food shortage. On the average, 

 the efficiencv of prisoner labour was about 50 per cent, 

 of that of Brit'sh labour. 



The shortage of quarrymen led to active steps being 

 taken in responsible quarters to supolement and to 

 increase the efficiency of the manual labour at the 

 quarries bv the provision of mechanical appliances for 

 stripping, breaking, and loading the ironstone. 



In these open workings the output per man em- 

 ployed varies with the thickness of the ironstone-bed. 

 the amount of cover to be removed, the use made of 

 mechanical appliances, and the condition of the 

 weather. The weather materially affects the output, 

 especially where hand-labour is concerned. From 



