55° 



NATURE 



[October 5, 1893 



eleven in all, as follows : — On the Manufacture of Basic Steel 

 at Witkowil7, by Paul Kupelwieser ; on the Waste of Fuel, 

 Past, Present, and Future, in Smelting Ores of Iron, by Sir 

 Lowthian Bell, F. U.S.; on Iron and Steel at the Chicago 

 World's Fair, by H. Bauerman ; on Iron and Steel Wire, and 

 the Development of its Manufacture, by J. P. Bedson ; on the 

 Sampling o'f Iron Ore, by T. Clarkson ; on the Tudhoe Works 

 of the Weardale Iron and Coal Company, by H. W. Hollis ; on 

 the Liihrig Coal Washing and Dry Separation Plant at the North 

 Bitchburn Coal Company's Randolph Pit, by James I'Anson ; 

 on Carbon in Iron, by Prof. Ledebur (Freiberg) ; on Suggested 

 Improvements in connection with the Manufacture of Steel 

 Plates, by William Muirhead ; on the Last Twenty Years in the 

 Cleveland Mining District, by A. L. Steavenson ; on the Pro- 

 duction of Wrought Iron in Small Blast Furnaces in India, by 

 T. Turner. 



Mr. Kupelwieser's paper was first taken, and gave an interest- 

 ing account of the basic ]irocess, which the author has intro- 

 duced with considerable success at Witkowitz. It is of course 

 well known that the cheapest process of steel manufacture is 

 that carried out with the Bessemer converter ; the Siemens 

 furnace comes next. Although the basic process was origin- 

 ally devised for the use of the Bessemer converter, it has had 

 considerable application with the open-hearth furnaces. The 

 basic process is, however, dearer than the old acid system of 

 manufacture, and some of the most beautiful mild steel pro- 

 duced is made in the open-hearth furnace with a basic lining. 

 The latter, again, is more costly than the old acid lining, and 

 vpe have therefore the following gradaiion^; as to cost; — First, 

 the acid Bessemer, or original process ; next, the basic Bessemer ; 

 then the acid open-hearth, and finally the basic open-hearth ; 

 the latter being the dearest of the four. It is obvious therefore, 

 that when circumstances permit it, that the Bessemer converter 

 should be used in place of the open-hearth, but there is an objec- 

 tion to the Bessemer converter in the fact that it acts so much 

 more quickly ; the slower working open-hearth furnace giving 

 time for tests to be made, and the product is consequently more 

 certain. Mr. Kupelwieser has introduced a combined process 

 in Witkowitz, which many members of the Iron and Steel In- 

 stitute saw in work, when the Institute meeting was held in 

 Austria. The pig-iron obtained in Witkowitz contains too 

 much phosphorus for use in the ordinary Bessemer process, 

 while it does not contain sufficient phosphorus for the basic 

 process. As a further complication, a supply of cheap scrap 

 was not obtainable at the works. The way in which the author 

 got over his difficulties is highly ingenious, and is well worth 

 study by English steel-makers. The pig-iron is run from the 

 blast furnace into the ladle, and transferred immediately to the 

 converter, which has an acid lining. The blast is then turned 

 on, and the blow kept up till the pig-iron is de-siliconised : an 

 operation that requires about five or six minutes to perform. The 

 silicon being removed, manganese and a considerable amount 

 of carbon remain ; the metal is poured into a ladle, and taken to 

 the open-hearth furnace, where the process of steel-making is 

 completed. This method of operation has the great advantage 

 that the molten metal, when run into the open-hearth furnace, 

 which is basic lined, does not destroy the lining, as it has be- 

 come completely de-siliconised. The lim'j required for work- 

 ing the charge is considerably diminished, and the amount of 

 iron taken up by the slag is taid to be less, as also are the ex- 

 penditure of fuel and cost of wages. We do not propose follow- 

 ing the author into his figures as to the cost of production, but 

 the balance in favour of his method is \os. per ton as compared 

 with the cost of conversion in the open- hearth furnace from the 

 commencement, whilst it is said to be no dearer than the basic 

 Bessemer process when carried out on a large scale. Perhaps 

 the chief point of interest to Englisli steel-makers is the working 

 of the metal from the blast furnace direct ; a thing which has of 

 course often been considered by steel-makers in all parts of the 

 world. It is always difficult, and often fallacious, to make com- 

 parisons unless the whole conditions on both sides be similar, 

 and it is certain that those conditions existing at Witkowitz have 

 not their exact counterpart in this country. It is not surprising, 

 therefore, to find that during the discussion of the paper high 

 authorities differed. Mr. James Riley did not by any means 

 approve of the author's suggestions : basing his objection prin- 

 cipally on the waste that would take place in the process. On 

 the other hand, Mr. Snelus and Mr. Whitwell — both high 

 authorities — supported the author. There is of course the un- 

 deniable \Qs. a ton, which is sufficient vindication of the pro- 



NO. 1249, VOL. 48] 



cess as carried cut in Witkowitz. Whether the ICJ. would still 

 be to the good in English steel works, is a matter that is open t^. 

 question. " 



Sir Lowthian Bell next read a paper on the waste of hea^ 

 past, present, and future, in smelting iron ores. This con- 

 tribution was largely of a historical nature. Its scope is suffi- 

 ciently indicated by the title, and it would be a useful in- 

 tellectual exercise for students to follow its reasoning. 



Mr. Bauerman's paper on the iron and stsel exhibits at the 

 Chicago Exhibition was of the usual nature of such papers. The 

 principal wonders to be seen were referred to by the author, 

 but it is unnecessary for us to follow him in his description. 

 The same remark applies to Mr. Sleavenson's paper, with the 

 reading of which the first day's sitting was brought to a close. 

 In the afternoon a very instructive and pleasant excursion was 

 made to the Weardale Steel and Iron Company's works at 

 Spennymore, where members had an opportunity of seeing the 

 gigantic operation of cogging and rolling ingots, which are 

 characteristic of the modern steel works. 



The first paper taken on the second day's sitting was Prof. 

 Ledebur's contribution on carbon in iron. This met with a 

 mixed reception, the opinion of some members appearing to be 

 that it was hardly worthy of the time allotted to it, although 

 international courtesy forbade them blankly saying so. We 

 think such an opinion can only be due to a cursory study of the 

 paper, which appears to he one of considerable value, and 

 especially suitable for the Transactions of the Institute. There 

 is some controversial matter in this memoir, but its value is that 

 it brings together in a very compact form many of the leidiog 

 lacts involved in the subject upon which it treats, and although 

 there is not much in it that is new — in fact, the matter consists 

 of that already known — yet many of the details are, as was 

 slated by Mr. Hadfield, the result of the author's own research. 

 The paper is well worth the consideration of metallurgists, and 

 we think there are few who would not benefit by their memories 

 being refreshed, even if the facts were not altogether new. 

 Prof. Ledebur holds that there are four states of carbon in iron. 

 The first is the graphitic state ; the second, that which the 

 author described as the temper-carbon ; the ihird is a carbide 

 carbon or cement carbon ; and the fourth hardening carbon. It 

 will be evident that in stating this the author opened up matter 

 largely of a controversial nature, and in the discussion which 

 followed, Mr. Snelus, Mr. Hadfield, Prof Roberts-Austen, 

 Mr. Stead, Sir Lowthian Bell, Prof. Thomas Turner, and Mr, 

 Edward Riley took part. It is unnecessary to say that with 

 all these gentlemen engaged in the discussion there was some 

 clashing of opinion. Mr. Hadfield stated a most interesting 

 fact, in that from a malleable iron casting he had obtained 

 three per cent, of graphitic carbon ; but we believe the casting 

 showed all the physical qualities of having been well annealed.' 

 The result is of course not difficult to conceive, but the fact is 

 none the less of interest. The action of silicon in regard to 

 carbon in steel also occupied the attention of the meeting during 

 this discussion, but we did not notice that any new facts were 

 brought forward. 



Mr. Bedson's paper on iron and steel wire was a very able 

 contribution on a most interesting s.uhjv-c>. The author is of 

 the fourth generation of wire-makers, the Ijusiness in which he 

 is engaged having been handed down to him from his great- 

 grandfather ; whilst his father added some of the most important 

 improvements to the machinery and process of wire manufac- 

 turing. The immense superiority of basic steel over that pro- 

 duced by the acid process w.is strongly insisted upon by the> 

 author ; a fact which called forth some rather sharp remarks 

 from Mr. James Riley, who protested against the acid Siemens 

 steel being left unmentiuned, as by far the greatest quantity of 

 steel wire was manufactured from that metal. Mr. Bedson's 

 paper was a long one ; but if it had been even more extended, 

 his audience would noi have objected to it. For our own part, 

 we should have been glad to have seen some mention made of 

 the extraordinary tenacity in steel produced by drawing into 

 wire. 



The next paper taken was that of ^^r. William Muirhead^ 

 Unfortunately this contribution was written in such a way that 

 the author's meaning was somewhat obscure. From the word- 

 ing of the paper we gathered that Mr. Muirhead would abolish 

 the cogging process by which the ingot is broken down in rolls 

 to manageable dimensions for rolling. This operation was 

 originally performed by the steam hammer, and the cogging 

 rolls were undoubtedly a great improvement, enabling work to. 



