312 



I he Review ot Reviews. 



September 1, 190«. 



merce, it is necessary to contemplate figures almost 

 beyond the grasp of the mind. Iron is to-day the 

 source of the world's strength. Last year the con- 

 sumption was 80,000,000 odd tons. Soon it will 

 exceed 100,000,000 tons. The revenues of the trade 

 are so vast that they can only be guessed at. The 

 income of the Steel Trust alone is the revenue of 

 a nation. The men who control those rivers of 

 wealth wield a power greater than an Emperor. To 

 them, and to the world, the patentees of the Hes- 

 kett-Moore process can say, "We can reduce your 

 cost of plant by 80 per cent., your cost of produc- 

 tion by 25 per cent., your cost of labour to a mini- 

 mum. We can increase the productiveness of your 

 plant tenfold, for we can make iron or steel in one- 

 tenth of the time that you can under the old In- 

 direct Process." 



In plain language, this means millions of pounds 

 saved annually — millions of pounds made annually 

 by increased output and trade. It means to-day 

 that which Bessemer 's invention meant yesterday. 



It has been demonstrated. On July 26th of this 

 year, in the works of the " Iron, Steel and Metals 

 Manufacturing Company," at South Melbourne, a 

 representative gathering of business men and press- 

 men witnessed the whole process. They saw crushed 

 iron ore or iron sand fed into the separator, where 

 a magnetic current separated metallic particles from 

 gangue. Into the heating chamber passed only puri- 

 fied iron oxide. Pure ore passed into the long cham- 

 ber, where the whole volume was brought to a red 

 heat. Still red-hot, it passed down hill to the reduc- 

 ing chamber, where it was played on by gaseous 

 fuel. Here the change wrought was complete deoxi- 

 dation, without any taking up of sulphur or other 

 impurities unavoidable to the blast furnace stage of 

 the Indirect Process. 



Then the iron, reduced from the oxide, travelled 

 to the melting hearth. There the deoxidising gas 

 and the particles of iron protected thereby entered 

 the melting hearth together, the particles falling at 

 once into the bath of molten metal or slag, pro- 

 tected during that brief passage by the effective fire 

 and force woven web of the gases. To summarise 

 the method — the ore was taken into the first stage 

 pure; in the second it was reduced by pure gas; 

 and down it went in another fiery, all-protecting 

 mantle — unpolluted through any contact — to the 

 bath of molten metal or slag. The work was finished. 

 The master regulating his heat, or, if steel is re- 

 quired, his carbonising methods, may draw it as 

 puddled ball, or molten for steel, as commercially 

 pure malleable iron, or as steel of any desired 

 quality. From two to three hours after the crushed 

 ore or iron sand was placed in the separators, iron 

 or steel was drawn through the mouth of the fur- 

 pace. 



This is no theory. In actual work it was demon- 

 trated that under the Heskett-Moore " Direct " pro- 

 cess, steel which would take from twenty to twenty- 



four hours to make under the " Indirect " system 

 can be made in from two to three hours. 



It is a marvellous invention. Writing to the 

 syndicate, Mr. Thomas Edison calls it " the greatest 

 invention of the age," and Australia will do well to 

 remember that it is her own. We have brought 

 forth the shearing machine, the stump jumping 

 plough, and the Universal Harvester. The " Hes- 

 kett-Moore Direct Process " is to these as the Steel 

 Trust is to the Harvester Process — the parent of a 

 large family to one of the young children. 



The " Direct Process " offers to Australia a new 

 future. It offers us expansion in fields of work of 

 which we have not scratched the surface. It offers 

 us a means to make use of some of the waste re- 

 sources of that vast wealth dormant beneath our 

 feet. It offers work to thousands. It offers to men 

 with brains and means the opportunity to develop in 

 our midst a great industry, which will give us a 

 place amongst the industrial powers of the earth. 

 No nation is strong, no country is self-supporting 

 without iron. We have the iron. The " Direct Pro- 

 cess " gives us the opportunity to make use of it, to 

 tecome a nation self-supporting and defensive. 



The object of the Iron, Steel, and Metals Manu- 

 facturing Company in Australia is to supply and 

 cope with local demand. A syndicate formed by 

 Mr. J. Earle Hermann, of Sydney, has purchased 

 the patents for the Commonwealth and New Zea- 

 land. To establish the works on a basis commen- 

 surate to their objects, Mr. Hermann's syndicate in- 

 tend to float a company with _;^7 50,000 capital. It 

 is a big undertaking — the biggest of its kind e\'er 

 launched in Australia, but it is no greater, in pro- 

 lx)rtion, than those plans which, successfully carried 

 out, lead to such wonderful results in America. The 

 financier is to the inventor that what the building 

 contractor is to the architect. He fulfils and rea- 

 lises the years of thought and research. Kelly's in- 

 dention brought him bankruptcy and ruin ; Besse- 

 mer's brought him wealth and high honours. The 

 difference in the two men's li\es is that behind Besse- 

 mer there stood a great organiser and financier ; 

 behind Kelly nought but his own confidence and 

 courage. 



The " Direct Process " is an inevitable fact. A 

 process which can show a saving of fuel amounting 

 to 8.54 cwt. for every ton of malleable iron pro- 

 duced, and a saving in flux material of i8i cwt. for 

 every ton of pure metal produced, cannot be long 

 held back either by indifference, neglect, or doubt. 

 The question is whether Australia will seize and 

 make the utmost use of the invention to which she 

 has given birth, or whether those advantages shall 

 be allowed to pass away from her to some other 

 country. 



The future of Mr. Hermann's syndicate, and of 

 the company, will be well worth watching by all 

 who hold dear the development and progress of our 

 country. 



