62 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[Feb. 



REPORT ON THE GAS FURNACES USED IN THE IRON 



WORKS OF WASSERALFINGEN, BY M. H. SCHOENBERG. 



( Translated for the C. E. and A. Journal, from the Bulk'.in du 



MusC-e de V Industrie.) 



One of the most important modern improvements in the manu- 

 facture of iron we owe to M. Fabre Dufaiire, Wining Counsellor, 

 Director of the iron works at Wasseralfingen in ^yurtenlburg, who 

 lias succeeded in collecting from the chimney the gases which are 

 formed in blast furnaces, wliich constitute the fl.ime which escapes, 

 and to use them as fuel in the refining, puddling, and balling furnaces. 



The use of the furnace fiame for several purposes, as warming the 

 air used for the blast, roasting lime and ore, making coke, and heating 

 steam engine boilers, has been known these seven or eight years. It 

 lias not, however, been hitherto practicable to produce a higher tem- 

 perature than red heat, which was a limit to its application ; while by M. 

 F. Duf.inre's process any degree of heat required may be obtained. The 

 principal distinction of this method is in the mode by which the gas is 

 burned, by the introduction of atmospheric air supplied by bellows, 

 and in the ingenious construction of the furnaces ami fire-places. 



At Wasseralfingen there are now three furnaces in uje worked by 

 gas, but the refining furnace is sujiplied from the southern blast fur- 

 nace alone, which is done by simply introducing a tube to a certain 

 depth in the fire-place of tlie blast furnace. It appears that about a 

 sixth or a fifth of the gas evolved is collected by this method ; and, 

 notwithstanding this subtraction, no diminution is observed in the 

 power of the fiame which escapes. In the refining furnace there are 

 thus produced 175 metrical quintals of fine metal, partly with a radi- 

 ated crvstallizatiou, and partly with a ball-like structure, but all of a 

 silver white. The gas refining is so complete, that the iron is pro- 

 duced higlily decurburetted, and freed from all impurities; among 

 others, from phosphorus and sulphur. The waste, which in common 

 English refining is never less than from 9 to 10 per cent., is not more 

 here, when the furnace is in good order, than 1 to 2 per cent.; and by 

 this process a greater quantity of fine metal is obtained than if pig 

 iron bad been used. It is to be further observed, that the pig iron 

 passed through the furnace here consists only of castings, which, as is 

 well known, have often a good deal of sand mixed with them. 



The operation is so well arranged, and proceeds with such uni- 

 formity, that it rarely meets with those casualties common in the usual 

 process of refining, while the cost of manual labour is also less. 



The results of puddling by gas are not less satisfactory. The 

 puddling furr.ace at Wasseralfingen is supplied with gas from the 

 northern blast furnace, into the fire-]ilace of which are plunged two 

 suction pijies, by which enough gas is collected, to work a puddling 

 furnace and a refining furnace ; but the power of the water-wheel 

 which works the blast apparatus not being great enough, these works 

 can only be supplied alternately. The temperature of the puddling 

 furnace is, from the nature of the process, higher than that of one fed 

 vith wood, coal, or turf; the flame also is clearer, and transparent, so 

 that the workmen can easily watch the operation, and carry it on regu- 

 larly. Ill each of these operations the furnace is charged with Ij or 2 

 metrical quintals of fine metal, previously heated to a red heat by 

 another lurnace; and at the end of an hour and three-quarters, or two 

 hours, the elfect is produced. The waste of fi;!e metal in this process 

 is very small, the mean being only from 1 to 2 per cent. The quality 

 of the iron is excellei t. A feature peculiar to gas-puddling is that 

 the forir.alioa of slag and its reduction goes on simultaneously, so it 

 is never thrown away. The produce of the puddling furnace is 125 

 metrical quintals per week. 



The operation of refining in the gas furnace has, like the pre- 

 ceding, considerable advantages; but the results have not yet been so 

 important as in the preceding cases, and the qu.u^titv ( f waste is still 

 considerable. The draught of the furnace is good, and the temperature 

 suHiriei.tly raised ; so that, unless an accident occur, the produce is 

 l.'iO metrical quintals per week. 



I'rom what has been already said, it will be seen that the results of 

 the, gas furnaces at Wasseralfingen are most satisfactory. Even with 

 castings and rubbish, bar iron of excellent quality is produced, with a 

 waste of not more than from 12 to 15 per cent., and without any con- 

 sumption of costly fuel, or rathei-, by making use of a combustible 

 matter, which hitherto has not been turned to account. 



Belgium is the only country in v.diich M. Fabre Dufaure's process 

 has not been introduced, while in other places it has been extensively 

 used. In England, at Messrs. Kill's works, at Merlhyr Tydvil ; in 

 Germany, at the iron works of the King of Bavaria, Grand Duke of 

 Baden, Fiinces of Furstenburg and Signuiringen, Duke of Anhalt, the 



Saxon Iron Company, Count Einsiedel in Prussia, &c. ; in France, at 

 Lucelle ; in Hungary, at the works of Count Andreasky and M. Inglo; 

 in Russia, at those of the Prince de Bukna and Count Malzon; in 

 Sweden, at Mr. Ekmann's; and in Italy, at the works of Doigo, on the 

 Lago di Conio. 



At one of the last meetings of the French Institute, M. Dumas read 

 a letter from M. Girouvelle, giving some further particulars not con- 

 tained in M. Schoenberg's report, as to the process used by M. de 

 Fabre Dufaure in the iron works of Wasseralfingen. The practice 

 is to carry into the refining furnace the pig iron delivered from the 

 high furnaces, and not cold iron, as is usually done. The object is to 

 save the caloric employed in the fusion. The puddling furnace pro- 

 duces ]0,tJOO kilos, or about 9i tons of iron per week. At this time a 

 third blast furnace is being constructed, and steam engines are being 

 put up, to work the gas plan on a large scale. M. Fabre Dufaure's 

 first experiments began in lb'37, and took place on refining cast iron; 

 and the processes used by him at Vv'asseralfingen were kept secret 

 until the present time, by desire of the King of Wurtemburg, viho 

 was unwilling that they should be known immediately in other 

 countries. 



After making this communication, M. Dumas reminded the academy 

 that he had rec:eived about two months ago specimens of iron obtained 

 in France by gas puddling in blast furnaces, by means of the process 

 adopted at the iron works of Treveray, by the proprietors, Messrs. 

 D'Andelarre and Lisa, and by the engineers, Messrs. Thomas and 

 Laurens. He added, that the puddling furnace set up at Treveray 

 has worked very well, and has already sent produce into market. In 

 this furnace is refined iron, which is produced in the same way 

 as bv the common puddling furnace used in Champagne. The gas 

 of a single blast furnace iirodncing 5 cwt. of iron per day is enough 

 to feed it ; a result which proves that all the cast iron produced may 

 be converted into bar without farther fuel, while such a result cannot 

 be deduced from the work at Wasseralfingen, where the quantity of 

 iron produced even at present is much smaller than the quantity of 

 cast iron afforded by the two blast furnaces at those works. W. Dumas 

 states the advantage of the Treveray gas plan to be an improvement 

 in the quality of the iron, which has all the properties of charcoal 

 iron, a considerable diminution of waste, and a great saving of fuel. 

 It is to be further observed, that no effect is produced on the blast of 

 the furnaces from the shafts in which the gas is collected. M. Dumas 

 remarked to the academy a passage in M. D'Andelarre's letter, that 

 the idea of using combustible gases for the same purposes as other 

 fuel had been lung since suggested by M. Thenard, in his public 

 lectures ; and the impoitance of these processes, which promise much, 

 lies principally in the apparatus, which has enabled them to be suc- 

 cessfully used. 



THE ROYAL EXCHANGE. 



We had hoped that the silly, nonsensical fuss of " first-stone- 

 laying" was nearly gone out of fashion. The ceremony of the kind 

 which has just taken place at Cornhill must have been a somewhat 

 expensive one; and so far perhaps may augur well, as an indication 

 that no cost will be grutlged in decorating and finishing up the new 

 Royal Exchange, not forgetting sculpture to the pediment of the por- 

 tico. Still, the money which has been so idly squandered away, might 

 have been laid out with some little degree of reason, had it been 

 applied to the erection of a temporary model, formed of timber and 

 canvass, of the portico itself, executed on the intended scale, as has 

 been sometimes done in France. A full-sized model of that fafade of 

 the Exchange— which might have been allowed to remain until that 

 part of the structure shall be actually commenced — would have enabled 

 us to judge what efi'ect the portico will have upon the Bank, and other 

 buildings in its immediate vicinity. It would have been better still, 

 had the money expended upon a mere brief and unmeaning ceremony, 

 been ap,iropriated as the nucleus of a fund towards a new facade to 

 Guildhall, since nothing can be more detestable than the present one. 



/Jnffmcei-j' Co™p«(/'m.— !t is announceil that the Ch.w.ilicr de AVcobekmg, 

 Ihe eriKinecr of the railways between Aiunich and Augsburg, Fiirih and 

 Kurcniburgh, is about to istue a circular, inviiint; all llu' celebrated rail'.vay 

 enginecri> lo assemb'e at Munich, in the cour.-e of the present year, (ur the 

 lairpose of muiually communic.uing iidurmaiion on the consiruciion and 

 working of railways. We very much doubt the utility of such a meeting. 



