NATURE 
681 
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 109, 1914. 
| THE PRACTICAL METALLURGY OF STEEL. 
Liquid Steel, its Manufacture and Cost. By David 
Carnegie, assisted by Sidney G. Gladwin. Pp. 
XXV+520+x plates. (London: Longmans, 
Green and Co., 1913.) Price 25s. net. 
HE outstanding features of this valuable 
book are its most useful tables of the costs, 
both of plants and working expenses, which, as 
the authors point out, are approximate, being 
subject to the market fluctuations of material and 
labour. The first fifty pages of the book deal 
with the various materials used in steel manufac- 
ture, opening with a disconcerting table of the 
world’s output of steel ingots. In 1910 the United 
States of America made about 26,000,000 tons, 
Germany 14,000,000, and the United Kingdom 
only 6,000,000 tons. The authors point out that 
Germany became easily the second steel-producing 
country of the world owing to the introduction 
of the basic process, a method worked out by 
British metallurgists. The authors, however, do 
not sufficiently emphasise the fact that Great 
Britain now holds her position in the steel world 
on the quality, and not upon the quantity, of her 
output. The materials dealt with by the authors 
in their opening section also include fuels, refrac- 
tory materials, fluxes, and ferro-alloys. 
Part i. of the book deals with the crucible 
process, and the authors very truly point out that 
for quality (in spite of various new and valuable 
methods of steel-making introduced from time to 
time) steel made by Huntsman’s process has 
remained supreme so far as quality is concerned 
for more than 170 years. In a paragraph on p. 51 
the authors state that for the killing of steel ingots 
by means of metallic aluminium “Mitis brought 
out his method.” The reviewer suggests to the 
authors that the use of aluminium (originally em- 
ployed for making very mild “mitis” steel cast- 
ings) was discovered by Nordenfeldt and Oestberg 
in Sweden about 1885. Its use for killing crucible 
steel ingots was first elaborated in a research 
forming the subject of the presidential address 
inaugurating the formation of the Sheffield Metal- 
lurgical Society in 1891. The authors deal with 
the slight but important chemical changes taking 
place in the crucible process in a lucid and accu- 
rate manner, though the sulphur increase from 
0’05 to o’0g per cent., noted on p. 53, suggests 
the use of a coke very high (say 2 per cent.) in 
sulphur. 
Part il. deals with the Bessemer process, and 
here the authors do not appear to have fully 
NO. 2312, VOL. 92] 
realised the differences between the English 
Bessemer process and the Swedish Bessemer pro- 
cess, nor to have grasped the vital feature of 
Mushet’s patent which made English Bessemer 
steel a marketable product. The essence of 
Mushet’s contribution was to remove the dissolved 
IeO, which rendered Bessemer’s blown metal 
hopelessly red-short, by the following reaction :— 
FeO + Mn = MnO + Fe. 
Soluble Insoluble 
Hence the insoluble MnO passed into the slag, 
and the de-oxidised steel forged readily. In 
Sweden, instead of adding metallic manganese at 
the end of the blow it is present to the extent of, 
say, 3 per cent. in the pig iron, and hence the 
formation and solution of FeO during the blow is 
prevented. With the above exceptions the acid 
and basic Bessemer methods and surface-blown 
modifications, such as those of Robert and of 
Tropenas and of Stock, are well described. 
A valuable chapter on blowing engines is 
included. 
Pages 253 to 257 deal with the “physics” of 
Bessemer steel castings, an unfortunate term from 
a scientific point of view, since it has reference to 
the amounts of ferro-silicon, ferro-manganese, 
aluminium, &c., necessary for the production 
of sound steel castings. The term “addi- 
tions” might well be substituted for that of 
“physics.” 
Part ili. deals with the open-hearth process, and 
gives a very valuable series of illustrations of the 
various types of furnaces employed. An equally 
admirable section deals with the various designs of 
gas producers. The consideration of the open- 
hearth process is concluded by a most useful set 
of examples of the charges, analyses, and uses of 
open-hearth steel, and a brief consideration of 
duplex methods. 
Part iv. is devoted to electric steel-making by 
both the arc, induction, and combined methods, 
but it does not make a very clear differentiation 
between results which are obviously theoretical 
or estimated and those obtained in actual 
practice. 
Part v., and last, is devoted entirely to costs, 
and will without doubt be of great use to works 
managers. 
This book is written with a knowledge obvi- 
ously the result of experience, and great care has 
been exercised in selecting information likely to 
be of practical importance. It may be unhesi- 
tatingly recommended as a work of standard 
rank. 
J. O. ARNoLp. 
aysonian Instn eae 
Ut 
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