METALLURGY. 03 



iron. Aside from other circumstances, this may be due to 

 the fact that the boshes are steep, the hearths more cap- 

 acious, the tops smaller, and the fronts are closed. It 

 should be remembered, too, that the Austrian furnaces 

 smelt well roasted ores with good dry charcoal and hot 

 blast. 



' Besides improving the lines of their furnaces and using 

 hotter blast, the iron-masters of Russia are urged by Prof. 

 Jossa to reform their methods of manufacturing charcoal. 

 At present, the usual yield with the different methods is 

 as follows : With the Ural meiler, 50 to 64 per cent, for 

 fir, and 40 to 52 for green wood (i. e., oak, birch, &c.) ; in 

 the Suksunk meilers, 58 to 76 per cent, for fir, and 51 to 

 60 per cent, for green wood ; in Tyrolese meilers,. 60 to 72 

 per cent. ; and in kilns, 60 to 72 per cent.* Even though 

 the yield is greater in kilns, their use is not advocated, 

 because of higher first cost and more expensive maintenance, 

 as compared with meilers, and because as high a yield can 

 be reached with the latter. In order to obtain the best 

 results in meilers, the use of wood felled at the wrong time 

 must be abandoned, and the unskilled labour must be re- 

 placed by efficient men. In order to accomplish that end 

 it would be well to found charcoal workmen's schools, as 

 the Swedish Konteret has done. By using other fuel for 

 mills and forges, and placing them in a position to obtain 

 coal or peat, the charcoal supply for the furnaces might be 

 increased. Peat, too, might be used as a' blast furnace fuel, 

 as is done at Vordernburg, Austria, where two parts of 



* These percentages evidently refer to the volume of charcoal obtained from a given 

 volume of wood. Reducing them to the number of bushels of 2,743 cubic inches, 

 obtained from a cord of 123 cubic feet, and making no allowance for interstitial space, 

 we obtain the following results : 



The Ural meiler yields 40 to 51 bushels per cord of fir, and 32 to 44 bushels per cord 

 of green wood. The Suksunk meiler produces 49 to 65 bushels per cord of fir, and 41 

 to 48 bushels per cord of green wood. The Tyrolese meiler and the kilns give 48 to 61 

 bushels per cord. 



From these results we should presume that the calculation was made on the actual 

 volume of wood, interstitial space being deducted. Assuming the space between sticks 

 at 40 per cent, of the volume of a wood pile, the Ural meiler<j yield 19 to 30 bushels, thc- 

 Suksunk raeilers 25 to 39 bushels, and the Tyrolese meilers and kilns 29 to 37 bushels 

 per cord. 



