A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



" To the solid ground 

 Gf Satiire trusts the mind which builds for aye. 



-Wordsworth. 



THURSDAY, MAY 



1904. 



THE METALLLRGY OF STEEL. 

 The Metallurgy 0/ Steel. By F. W. Harbord, 



A.R.S.M., F.I.C. With a Section on the Mechanical 



Treatment of Steel by J. W. Hall, A.M.Inst.C.E. 



Pp. .\.\iv + 758. (London : Charles Griffin and Co., 



Ltd.) Price 255. net. 



\ PONDEROUS volume, profusely illustrated, 

 - *• abounding- in detail, probably the best yet pub- 

 lished on the whole subject, yet a little disappointing, 

 for, though necessarily to a large extent a compilation, 

 it lacks more than need be that personal touch of the 

 author in selection and presentation which the student 

 so much appreciates. Such is the feeling left by a 

 careful reading of the work. The subject is taken in 

 four parts: — (i) the manufacture of steel; (2) reheat- 

 ing; (3) the mechanical treatment of steel; (4) finished 

 steel. It inspires confidence that the author as a 

 metallurgist has induced the well known metallurgical 

 engineer, Mr. J. VV. Hall, to write part iii., and to 

 join with him in the chapter on reheating. 



The Bessemer processes, acid and basic, and all their 

 modifications are very well described, and illustrations 

 of various historically interesting as well as typical 

 modern forms of converter are given, in many cases as 

 working drawings with dimensions. The small con- 

 verters for surface blowing have a special chapter to 

 themselves, and the best known forms are described. 

 It is well that it is so, for they bid fair to revive a little 

 the fading glories of the Bessemer process by their 

 suitability for the making of steel for castings. 



The general scheme adopted is to describe the 

 apparatus, then the process, ne.xt the reactions of the 

 process, and lastly the thermochemistry, a method 

 which involves some repetition but makes reference 

 easy. The open hearth is similarly treated, such 

 special furnaces as the Siemens new form, the Camp- 

 bell, and the Wellman tilting furnaces being illustrated 

 ill great detail by means of folding plates. 

 NO. 1801, VOL. 70] 



The somewhat sensational Talbot process is carefully- 

 considered with the author's special facilities for exact 

 knowledge in this matter. The chapter on steel cast- 

 ings is disappointing, and will serve to illustrate the 

 feeling mentioned above. Few will admit that the 

 beneficial effect of silicon and manganese on castings 

 is due to their removing oxidising gases, or that 

 aluminium in the quantities used increases the fluidity 

 or removes the dissolved oxide of iron. The statement 

 that annealing hard castings counteracts their tendency 

 to fly when cooling is obscure, while the full 

 table of Prof. Arnold's recent results on castings is 

 given without any warning that these results are the 

 basis of a research series, and that the steels are not 

 suitable for commercial work, a point most clearly 

 stated in the original. The weight of Prof. Arnold's, 

 authority on practical matters, combined with the 

 relative space taken up by the table, will certainly 

 tend to mislead the student here. The chapter finishes 

 ■with three tables of three, two and two tests respec- 

 tively, showing the effect of annealing, &c. , yet from 

 a remark in the text, the last two appear to be 

 forgings. 



The chapter on crucible steel is difficult to estimate,. 

 as to anyone acquainted with the innermost -vvorkings 

 of the old crucible steel trade, -with its meagre litera- 

 ture, it is almost impossible to judge as to how much 

 a writer might reasonably be expected to know. To 

 the general reader it will be sufficiently interesting, 

 while the beginner in a works could point out many 

 flaws. On entering the gate on a morning the author 

 would find that blister bar is not " cut up," but broken 

 with a hand hammer, giving out quite a musical series 

 of notes as the bars become shorter. The crucible 

 shown would be difficult of manipulation by " the 

 teemer, " the real " Sheffield pot " having a well de- 

 signed and quite artistic shape. The sulphur does in- 

 crease in melting, and a careful watch must be kept 

 on the quality of the coke, or the rise will be serious, 

 even in high carbon steels, where the carbon, accord- 

 ing to the author, expels the sulphur, which somehow 

 in practice it fails to do. The increase of phosphorus, 

 if any, is not detected in ordinary working. 



