62 



NATURE 



May 1 6 1895 



more than iweiuy years ago, have been utilised by Mr. H. S. 

 Davis for the determination of the ))anillax {.Astronomical fournal. 

 ^o- 343)' •'^i'' pairs of coniixirison stars were employed, and 

 the ciimbined results give the value o"-465 + o'a(4, correspond- 

 ing approximately to a distance of >j CassiopeiiV from the earth of 

 43.1 13,000,000.000 miles, or 7i light years. Though the ne« 

 value exceeds previous ones, it is not considered improbably 

 large if the Rutherford plates are subject to no systematic error. 

 Using Griiber's values of the orbital elements, the combined 

 masses of the components is two-tenths as great as thai of the 

 sun, and the distance between the components 19 astronomical 

 units, the relative orbit thus being about the same size as 

 that :of Uranus. These numbers, however, may require 

 some modification, as Dr. .See has recomputed the elements 

 of the orbit, with the results slightly differing from those 

 adopted by Mr. Davis. Dr. See states that during the next ten 

 years the position angle will increase from 204" to 251", while 

 the distance will diminish from 4"-52 to 3''-33. 



A Belgi.\n -Vstronomicm. Society. — .\ Societe Beige 

 d' Astronomy has been founded at Brussels. The object of the 

 Society is to popularise astronomy and the sciences connected 

 with it (geodesy, meteorology, terrestrial physics, &c.), and to 

 encourage research into the domains of those branches of 

 knowledge. The President of the Society is M. F. Jacobs, and 

 among the Council are (General Tilly, Prof. Dusausoy, Prof 

 Cloemans, .M. Lagrange, Prof Pa.squier, Prof. Rousseau, and M. 

 Terby. Two of the .Secretaries are M. Stroobaut and M. 

 Vincent, both observers at the Royal Observatory, Brussels. 



THE IRON AND STEEL INSTITUTE. 



'T'HE annu.il spring meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute 

 •*• was heUI on Thursday and Friday of Last week, in the 

 theatre of the Society of Arts, under the chairmanship of the new 

 President, Mr. David Dale. The following is the list of the 

 papers set down for reading : — 



"On Metal Mi.\ers, as used at the Works of the North- 

 Ea.stem .Steel Com|)an)-," by .Mr. Arthur Cooper. 



"On the Effect of Ar^ienic upon Steel," by Mr. J. K. Stead. 

 fJn the Iron Ore .Mines of Elba," by Mr. H. S'cott. 



" On the Manufacture of Steel Projectiles in Russia," by 

 Sergius Kern. 



" On Ternary Alloys of Iron with Chromium, Molybdenimi, 

 and Tungsten," by James S. De Benneville, of Philadelphia. 



The last two pa|)crs w ere taken as read, .\fter the usual formal 



1)ri>cee<lings, the President presented the Bessemer medal, which 

 lad this year Ijeen awarded to .Mr. H. M. Howe, of Boston, 

 U.S. .v. iVs Mr. Ilowe was not able to be present, Prof 

 Roberts-.Auslen accepted the medal on his behalf 



.Mr. Dale next proceeded to read his inaugural address. Those 

 whi>kno» the g'Kxl work done by Mr. Dale in the conciliation 

 of lalKiur disputes will not Ik- surpri.sed to learn that the chiel i 

 interesi of the address was in the domain of economics 

 rather than metallurgy. The address was none the less 

 welcome on this iiccount, as no class are more .iffected by dis- 

 lurlances in the lalwrnr market than the iron and steel makers. 

 Mr. Dale showed very clearly the disastrous effects u|ion British 

 Inideof strikes and industrial disputes, and dwelt upon the ever- 

 enlarging area of competition in the manufacturing markets of 

 the world ; for now we have not only the continental nations of 

 Ehmih: Io contend with, but have to meet the products of the 

 .Mill chcaixrr lal^mr of the far East. 



Mr. Ojopcr's paper, though short, supplied a valuable con- 

 tribulirm of knowledge to the practical steel maker. Uniformity 

 of pro<luct is at once one of the most desirable and most difticull 

 thing* for the steel maker to secure. No matter what care m.iy 



I - .1 - - ' . , ,f the l»Iast furnace will vary in regard to 



• s of alloys which exercise so imj)<>rtant 



iracteristics of the slecl producer. Efforts 



have ticcn m.-ide to ecjualise the analysis of the pig iron by mix- 

 ing the ore, but these have liecn only nariially successful. It is 

 desirable, from an economic iioint of view, thai molten iron 

 should l>e taken direct from the blast furnace and used in the 

 converter ; t.ul, in the Imsir process, the neerl of uniformitv has 

 prevented this r.iurse being followed. It has U-en iher'efire 

 necessary Io follow the origin.d plan of running the molten iron 

 from the bkwt furnace into pigs, and then renteltingit in cujmlas. 

 In this way, liy u.-iing the prixlucl of several furnaces, and by a 



NO. 1333. VOL. 52] 



system of careful analysing and selection, uniformity has been 

 generally obtained. In spite of all care taken, however, there 

 will be at times differences in the product of the cupolas, owing 

 to irregularities in working which couUl nvil be guauicd against> 

 anil it would frequently happen that though a standard mixture 

 of pig might be charged into the cupola, the amount of silicoa 

 or manganese would vary considerably, owing 10 larger quantities 

 of these metals being oxidised at one time than another. The 

 mixer is a vessel in ap|)earance like a large Bessemer converter. 

 Into this the molten metal from the blast furnace is run, together 

 with a certain amount of cupola iron in the case of the North 

 F'.istern Steel ComiKiny- works, with the plant of which the 

 paper deals. The mixer is largely used in .\merica, .Mr. Carnegie 

 stating during the discussion thai at his works they were about 

 to erect some of 600 tons capacity. The mixers, of which there 

 are two at the North Eastern works, are each 150 tons capacity. 

 For drawing the metal off into the ladle the mixer is tilted, 

 swinging on trunnions like a converter, hydraulic machinery 

 being pro\'ided for the jiurposc. In the tliscussion which followed 

 the reading of the jiaper, many steel makers corroborated the 

 account, given by the author, of the excellent results obtained by 

 the use of the mixer. 



The chief feature of the meeting was the reading and discus- 

 sion of Mr. Stead's excellent contribution on the effect of arsenic 

 in steel — a paper we should have described as exhaustive had it 

 not been that the author states he is about to follow up the 

 experiments of which he gives an account by further invesliga'- 

 tion in the same field. Mr. Stea<l commenced by a reference 

 to the well-known memoir on the same subject, which .Messrs. 

 Harbord and Tucker contributed to the meeting of the Insti- 

 tute held in 18SS. In that paper it was shown that a large 

 (juantity of arsenic is decidedly injurious to steel : and it has 

 generally been thought that smaller quantities would be simi- 

 larly injurious in a corresponding degree. Mr. Stead did not 

 consider such an hypothesis necess;trily soimcl, and determined 

 to carry out the elaborate series of experiments, details of which 

 are given in the paper. The results, as we have said, are of 

 the utmost im]>ortance to steel makers, for arsenic and phos- 

 phorus are frequently bracketed in analyses, as the sejiaration 

 of the two is a long and tedious process. If small quantities 

 of arsenic are not injurious, as woidd aj^pear from Mr. Stead's 

 investigations, phosphorus is undeniably a deleterious ingredient. 

 The general conclusions the authftr drew from his investiga- 

 tions were that between O'lO i>er cent, and 0'15 per cent, of 

 arsenic in steel for structural purposes does not have any material 

 effect so far as mechanical properties are concerned. The 

 tenacity is but .slightly incre.ised, the elongation is apparently 

 not affected, and the reduction in area of the fractured test- 

 jjieces is i)ractically equal to that of the same steel withnul the 

 addition of arsenic. With 0'20 per cent: arsenic the diHereiice, 

 although slight, is noticeable in s,imples of acid o]>en-hearth 

 steel tried ; but even in this case the only serious ditVerence 

 evidently caused by the arsenic is the inferiority of the bending 

 l)roperlies of the pieces cut from the pl.ates iicro.ss the direction 

 of rolling after they had been tempered. With larger amounts 

 of arsenic the effect is decisive. When I per cent, is juesent 

 the ten.acity is increased, and the elongation slightly reduieil. 

 The heniling properties v)f the steel are, however, fairly good. 

 When the arsenic amounts to about I J per cent, the tenacity is 

 still further increa.se<l, and the elong.alion and conlr.action of 

 area still further reduced, whilst the bending projierties are poor. 

 With 4 per cent, of arsenic the tenacity is increased, and the 

 contraction becomes/;//. The author points out, however, that 

 the trials with .steel containing the higher wrcentages of arsenic 

 could not be considered quite satisfactory, iiecause the ingots on 

 which the experiments were made were of very .small si/e, and 

 cimsequently a .small amount of work only could be put 

 u|)on them before testing. Mr. .Ste.td considered it would have 

 been highly probable that h.id larger miusses been dealt with ihe 

 results would have been more satisliictory. The effect of queiu h 

 ing the steel, after h>'ating Io a red heat, in every ca.se where 

 arsenic w.ts in large (piantity, was to improve its bending 

 pro|)erty. 



Hot working is not affected by even 4 per cent, of arsenic, 

 such an alloy appearing to .stand about as much heat without 

 burning as a steel containing i \vix cent, of carbon. Wlun 

 healed below the burning point such material can readily be 

 hammered and rolled, and appears to be as .soft in that stale as | 

 steel containing aboul '05 per cent, carbon. From this the 

 author considers it safe to conclude that arsenic has iiol ihe 

 slightest tendency to prttduce red-shortness. Mr. .Stead liatl 



I I 



