568 TEANSACTIONS OF THE AMEPJCAN INSTITITTE. 



it. becomes a metal then. The oxyde of zinc has no reason to 

 have a greater affinity than the oxyde of iron has. The hotter 

 you make your bath of iron the quicker you will decarbonize it, 



Mr. F. Fleury said that he had seen some experiments made 

 with the oxyde of zinc, and he found that there was a great bene- 

 fit to be attained by using a portion of franklinite ore. He had 

 also used electricity with advantage. 



Mr. Seely. — The decarbonizing is always effected by oxygen. 

 It is easy to infer that the oxyde of zinc will sooner give up its 

 oxygen to the iron than the oxygen of the air wilL 



Mr. Fleury. — Zinc is volatile at a temperature before iron 

 melts. Iron, I think, becomes purer by the presence of oxyde of 

 zinc. Electricity not only purifies the iron, but has a tendency 

 to give it different properties. I found by using a current of 

 electricity, that I was able to make malleable iron from cast iron. 

 Every thing that is fibrous contains nitrogen. It is now thought 

 that nitrogen is to be found in iron. I have taken a thousand 

 pounds of scraps of old cast iron, and have made 920 pounds of 

 good malleable iron from it. Only about five per cent, of salt is 

 used. Ammonia costs very little, and the cost of nitric and sul- 

 phuric acids is very small. Nearly all malleable metals contain 

 zinc. He stated that he had manufactured $€0 worth of nails, 

 from $10 worth of this old cast iron. 



R. L. Pell. — Do you believe that electricity is contained in the 

 whole wire, or only in a part of it ? 



Mr. Fleury said that it was to be found in the whole of it, 



Mr. Selleck inquired if it could be worked from a puddle ball 

 into an iron plate with one heat ? 



Mr. Fleury said it was done with one heat. He saved one 

 heat. 



Mr. Pell. — The more negative a metal is, the more affinity it 

 has for combining oxygen in it, 



Mr. Johnson inquired if Mr. Fleury had found any difference 

 between the scrap iron and the pig iron ? 



Mr. Fleury said that the scrap iron was the best for many rea- 

 sons. 



The question being brought up, of making steel plates for ships^ 



Mr. Selleck exhibited several plates of iron covered with a 

 coating of Franklinite iron on the surface. Plates so covered do 

 not rust. He stated that he had a patent for coating iron in this 



