334 



NA TURE 



[Feb. i 2, 1885 



representing respectively the order and rate of removal 

 of silicon, phosphorus, and carbon from pig iron in the 

 author's purifying process, in the Bessemer converter, 

 with both acid and basic linings, during the process of 

 mechanical puddling, in the refinery, and during the 

 process of puddling by hand labour. 



The thirty-four pages of Section XV. of the volume are 

 devoted to the consideration of facts and figures better 

 calculated to interest the trader and economist, than the 

 manufacturer or scientist ; it contains extracts from the 

 statistical returns of the condition of the trade, and make 

 of iron in Great Britain, Germany, France, Belgium, and 

 the United States. Then there follow two sections full 

 of interesting and valuable information upon the labour 

 question, and the effects of free trade principles upon the 

 iron industries. In these sections comparisons are made 

 of the relative cost and efficiency of the British workman 

 as compared with his continental competitor and his 

 American cousin. Commencing with the agricultural 

 labourer, the coal and ironstone miner, the labour em- 

 ployed at the blast furnace, the puddling furnace, in the 

 Bessemer and other methods of steel production, and finally 

 in the engineering and shipbuilding industries, the author 

 shows that throughout, although wages are considerably 

 higher in Great Britain than in any Continent al iron- 

 producing district, yet that the English workman, being 

 better fed, does more work per day than his competitor ; 

 or, in other words, fewer hands are required in Great 

 Britain than are necessary for the performance of the 

 same work where foreigners are employed. The compari- 

 son with the labour of the United States stands, however, 

 differently, the American workman, as a rule (not without 

 exception), receiving a higher rate of wages than the 

 corresponding class in England ; such examples being 

 conspicuous amongst the various classes of mechanics, 

 while the individual labourer at the blast furnace is paid 

 at about the same rate in the two countries ; but from 

 various causes Mr. Bell states that " the labour on a 

 ton of metal in America amounts to nearly double, and 

 often more than double, its cost in England," and similar 

 results apply to the production of malleable iron by hand- 

 puddling, or to steel ingots from the Bessemer converter. 



The last chapter of the volume compares with one 

 another the chief iron-producing countries of the world, 

 their national resources, their competition with Great 

 Britain in English and foreign markets, and the effects of 

 improvements, more especially of the basic process, upon 

 the German steel industries. Mr. Bell concludes the 

 volume with a brief discourse upon the present prospects 

 of the iron trade of the world, and draws the conclusion that 

 the cost of production of pig iron and of steel cannot be 

 materially reduced, except by the reduction of royalties, 

 railway charges, and wages ; whilst the puddling furnace 

 is doomed to extinction by its more powerful rivals the 

 Bessemer converter and the open-hearth steel-melcing 

 furnace ; so that there is little inducement for ironmasters 

 to incur any expense in experiments aiming at the im- 

 provement of mechanical puddling appliances. The last- 

 mentioned conclusion is pretty generally accepted, but 

 that the cost of producing pig iron and steel cannot 

 be materially reduced may well be questioned when the 

 immense developments of the last twenty years are con- 

 sidered ; and there are many who still hope to see some 



continuance of this progress, possibly in the direction of 

 a still more economical production of steel from phos- 

 phoric and other inferior ores, either by direct processes 

 or by improvements in the existing types of procedure. 



The statistical portion of the work is often very indefi- 

 nite as to the date to which the figures apply to different 

 localities, and the six sections comprised between pp. 61 

 and 342, treating as they do of the reactions in the blast 

 furnace, the use and theory of the hot-blast, the quantity 

 and quality of fuel required in the blast furnace using air 

 at different temperatures, of the solid products and of the 

 chemical changes as they take place in the blast furnace, 

 on the equivalents of heat evolved by the fuel in the blast 

 furnace, on hydrogen and certain hydrogen compounds 

 in the blast furnace. Each of these sections contains, 

 as might be expected, much valuable information upon 

 the theoretical considerations affecting the combustion of 

 fuel, the effects of increasing the height and capacity of 

 the furnace, and the limits to which the temperature of 

 the blast may be raised with economical results ; but the 

 sections might be advantageously condensed, and much 

 repetition avoided, by a more systematic arrangement of 

 the facts and data. 



The chemical analyses, results of experiments, the 

 various facts and data, statistical and otherwise, with the 

 discussions thereon as contained in Mr. Bell's volume, 

 make it a most important and invaluable contribu- 

 tion to the literature bearing upon the scientific and 

 economic considerations of our great iron industry, 

 and this notwithstanding that the theoretical deductions 

 which the author propounds may fail to secure universal 

 acceptation. W. H. G. 



PHILLIPS'S "MANUAL OF GEOLOGY" 

 Manual of Geology, Theoretical and Practical. By John 

 Phillips, LL.D., F.R.S. Edited by R. Etheridge, 

 F.RS., and H. G. Seeley, F.R.S. Pp. 546. (London : 

 Chas. Griffin and Co., 1885.) 



THERE are two ends which a Manual of Geology, or 

 for the matter of that of any science, may be in- 

 tended to compass. It may be meant for beginners, or it 

 may be designed for the use of advanced students. And 

 the ways in which the subject must be handled in order 

 to meet the needs of the two classes are essentially dis- 

 tinct ; for it is no less true in intellectual than in physical 

 development that the infant and the adult require different 

 modes of treatment and different kinds of nourishment. 



At the very opening of the work before us we find, on 

 a fly-leaf by itself, evidently placed in a conspicuous 

 position for the purpose of calling special attention to it, 

 the aphorism, " Knowledge should be practical from the 

 first," and directions follow as to the way in which the 

 reader can best obtain the specimens by the aid of which 

 alone his knowledge can be rendered practical. Such 

 instructions would be superfluous in the case of advanced 

 students, and we must conclude that the book is intended 

 for beginners. We are warned in the preface that "of 

 things good and beautiful the gods give nothing to men 

 without great toil" ; this is a truth which the real teachei 

 never fails to impress on those whom he aspires to guide 

 along the rugged roads that lead to the heights of learn 

 ing, but at the same time he finds his first and best joj 



