548 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



devised a new and excellent method of scorifying the metal — of completely 

 removing the impurities by getting them to mix with hydrogen. I send 

 jets of super-heated steam through the melted metal, so that the hydrogen 

 of the water may take up the impurities and the oxygen aid in combustion, 

 and I get the metal well scorified by this means. In the compositions and 

 decompositions which take place in the furnace, the zinc takes up oxygen 

 and sulphur, forming thus a white flocculent sulphurous oxyd of zinc. The 

 oxygen, carbon, and sulphur would, if combined, form scoricB haying all 

 the characteristics of a mineral, and not those of a workable metal. 



Mr. Seeley» in commenting upon Mr. Pomeroy's plan, as a chemist, 

 doubted the gentleman's theory, that the hydrogen would, under the con- 

 ditions mentioned, combine with the zinc, carbon, iron, or manganese, in 

 preference to the oxygen, and that, if it did, a sufficient degree of heat 

 could be maintained for the purpose. It is true that very high tempera- 

 tures modify the affinities of chemical elements to a great degree, and that 

 hydrogen combines under such circumstances with carbon, &c., more readily 

 than at lower temperatures ; but still there is nothing in that simple fact 

 which would warrant us in supposing that a jet of steam will scorify the 

 metal. The zinc performs that part quite well, and the great affinity of the 

 manganese for oxygen makes this element of prime importance in reducing 

 the oxyds of the zinc and iron. The zinc being volatile, passes off in vapor 

 combined with the sulphur, if any, and taking oxygen from the air in the 

 furnace forms the flocculent oxyd referred to, leaving the metal as Mr- 

 Pomeroy says, thoroughly scorified. 



Mr. Nash wished to know if Mr. Pomeroy had ever passed a stream of 

 electricity over this heated iron after it was reduced ; and he wished to 

 know if all alloys did not absorb electricity, and whether it was not neces- 

 sary for the production of water. Professor Beck was engaged in examin- 

 ing a specimen of iron in Europe in which he found a small quantity of 

 vanadium. It made a fine steel and was used for watch-springs. 



Professor Reubens said the instances were numerous in which the tensile 

 strength of alloys is greater than the tensile strength of their ingredients. 

 Steel is not pure iron, and it is yet the strongest metal we have. Iron is 

 said to have been recently alloyed with tungsten, and a stronger alloy than 

 even steel has resulted. He thought the affinity of the ingredients which 

 form the alloy often cause them to combine with greater force, and there- 

 fore the power of aggregation was stronger. 



Mr. Tillman thought the atomic weight of manganese and iron was so 

 very nearly the same that they combined very readily, and for that reason 

 an addition of strength is produced. Dr. Vanderweyde thought that the 

 alloys combined in different atomic proportions, and if the proportion is 

 changed the property of the alloy is materially changed. 



Mr. Curtis mentioned some important applications of the combined metal 

 — franklinite metal and iron — in which great advantages were derived 

 from the employment of even a small percentage of franklinite. Mr- 

 Francis Alger, of Boston, by employing 12 per cent, of franklinite., was 



