364 
geleisen it is below one-fourth, and that the average pro- 
portion of phosphorus in the samples of spiegeleisen 
which I have analysed, is less than one-twentieth of the 
quantity contained in our Cleveland pigs. Three, four, 
and five hundredths per cent. is the quantity I ordinarily 
find in good German or Swedish spiegeleisen. The sul- 
phur seldom exceeds one-tenth per cent., and the large 
quantity of manganese materially assists in the removal 
of the silicon. Itis, in fact, very similar to the Styrian 
cast-iron, which, as I have already said, does not present 
the English difficulty of making steel by the direct process. 
Both are charcoal-irons, made from remarkably rich and 
pure ores, The manufacture of cast-iron from such ores, 
and steel from such cast-iron is mere child’s-play compared 
with our native manufacture. 
In reference to the second fact that the manufacture of 
puddled steel has been carried out more successfully on 
the Continent than in England, I need only say that this 
confirms my statements, as the puddlers there are less 
skilful than ours, and their raw material is a vastly supe- 
rior charcoal-iron, such as I have already described. 
The third fact, viz.: that only sz/d steel of inferior 
quality is made by this process, is further confirmation of 
what I have said respecting the necessity of removing the 
carbon from common pig-iron in order to purify it suffi- 
ciently to produce good steel; for even with all this skilful 
selection of the purest pigs, and the mixing of spiegeleisen 
with them, it is found in this country impracticable to make 
puddled steel containing more than one-half per cent. of 
carbon. Such steel is only fit for rails, tyres, for rubbish 
cutlery, and other purposes where a very soft steel, or 
rather steely iron, is used, If the puddling were stopped 
when the carbon was only reduced to about 1°75, or say 
1°5 per cent. (the quantity contained in the best hard cast- 
steel), the puddled steel would be utterly rotten, it would 
crush under the hammer whether hot or cold; the reason 
of this being that even with the best English pigs, the 
selected “steel-irons,” there would, with this amount of 
carbon, still retain a ruinous proportion of silicon, phos- 
phorus, &c. It is necessary with all available advantages 
to bring down the carbon to within one half per cent. in 
order to produce a workable material. Even then it is 
worth only about one third of the price of good cast-steel. 
I might illustrate this subject still further by entering 
into the details of the chemistry of the Bessemer process 
and of Bessemer steel, by the history of the nitrate of 
soda process, and of other attempts to manufacture steel 
directly from cast-iron ; but I think the above is sufficient 
to expose the fundamental fallacy upon which all such 
attempts have been founded. I hope to have succeeded 
more particularly in demonstrating the very great error of 
those who, in their attempts to make such steel, have, like 
the friend of my correspondent whose letter opens this 
paper, deliberately chosen cinder-pig or other inferior 
iron upon which to make their demonstrative experiments. 
This was the case with the Heaton Company. They worked 
for a long time at Langley Mill with one of the worst 
classes of pig-iron they could have selected for their pur- 
pose. I pointed this out to them in a letter printed in the 
Chemical News of February 19, 1869, This effort, the 
most promising of any of the kind, on account of the 
action of the residual alkaline soda, was, through this 
serious mistake, never fairly tested. 1 witnessed some of 
their experiments, and analysed and otherwise tested the 
results. There can be little doubt that with properly 
selected pigs a material similar to puddled or Bessemer 
steel, may be made by this process, and by several others 
that have been tried and have failed ; but with the com- 
mon classes of English pig-irons, all such attempts to 
make steel directly by the partial oxidation of the carbon 
must of necessity fail, unless some entirely new, some 
hitherto utterly unknown method of removing the silicon, 
phosphorus, and sulphur of the pig-iron is also used. In 
such a case the novelty, the invention, the triumph, would 
NATURE 
[ Sept. 1, 1870 
consist not in the decarburisation of the cast-iron, but in 
the separation of the other ingredients. 
I therefore recommend all inventors who seek to simplify 
or otherwise improve the manufacture of steel, to direct 
their attention first to the removal of phosphorus, next to 
the removal of silicon, thirdly to the removal of sulphur, 
and last and least of all to mere decarburisation, for that 
is a problem of the utmost simplicity, and already suffi- 
ciently understood. 
My next paper will be “On the Chemistry of the Besse- 
mer Process,” and will include some original observations, 
the results of which I believe to be of considerable value 
to the numerous manufacturers who are now erecting or 
working Bessemer plant. W. MATTIEU WILLIAMS 
SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 
POGGENDORFF’s Annalen der Physik und Chemie, vol. cxl., 
part 2.—This number of Poggendorff’s Aznalen contains (1) the 
conclusion of Ketteler’s paper on the theory of Chromatic Dis- 
persion. (2.) The conclusion of Sondhaus’s paper on the ‘‘ tones 
of heated tubes, and on the vibrations of air in organ-pipes of 
various shapes.” In this part the author compares his formula 
with Wertheim’s experimental results, and shows that in most 
cases the agreement between them is very close. (3.) The conclu- 
sion of Freese’s paper on chromates. (4.) ‘‘On the work 
done by gases in motion,” by L. Boltzmann. In the first volume 
of the Aznalen for 1869 (vol. cxxxvi.), 2 method of determining 
the specific heat cf air under constant volume is described by F. 
Kohlrausch, the method consisting essentially in observing the 
cooling effect indicated by a delicate metallic thermometer en- 
closed in the receiver of an air-pump when the piston is raised. 
A few months afterwards (Pogg. Axnalen, vol. cxxxvili.) 
Kohlrausch’s experiments were criticised by A. Kurz, who ob- 
jected to them that when the air in the receiver of a pump is 
expanded by drawing up the piston, it does no work; and that, 
therefore, theoretically, its temperature ought not to fall. This 
is of course an obvious blunder ; and Boltzmann shows, by a 
strict mathematical discussion of the experiment, that although 
the pressure of the air against the piston, and therefore the 
work done by it, is not quite so great when the piston is raised 
quickly, as it would be if the movement were indefinitely slow, yet 
the difference is only a quantity of the same order as the ratie of 
the velocity of the piston to the velocity of sound, and there- 
fore cannot have perceptibly affected Kohlrausch’s results. 
(5.) “Calculation of the vibrations of a string, taking account of 
its rigidity,” by R. Hoppe. (6.) ‘‘ On asterism and corrosion- 
figures in crystals,” by H. Baumhauer. (7.) ‘Comparison of 
the electrophorus with the electrical machine and the electro- 
phorus-machine,” by P. Riess. This paper contains some inte- 
resting historical notices of early electrical machines, both fric- 
tional and such as acted by induction, but we cannot see that it 
is of any importance as a contribution to the theory of electrical 
machines. (8.) ‘On the velocity of molecular motion and that 
of sound in gases,” by E. Mulder. The author seeks to establish 
a relation between the velocity of sound in a gas and the mean 
velocity of translation of its molecules,as deduced by Clausius from 
the dynamical theory of heat. (9.) ‘*On the production ot 
stationary vibrations and sound-figures in liquidsand gases by 
solid sounding plates,” by A. Kundt. (10.) ‘On elastic vibra- 
tions,” by J. J. Miiller. 
measuring the wave-lengths of vibrating columns of air, the 
author has succeeded in proving that the velocity of propagation 
of vibrations of great amplitude is perceptibly greater than that 
of vibrations of small amplitude, both in the case of columns of 
air and of elastic rods. (11.) ‘‘On Leclanché’s Manganese 
battery,” by J. Miiller. The author finds that polarisation occurs 
to a considerable extent in galvanic cells of Leclanche’s construc- 
tion when they are employed in a circuit of small resistance, 
so that under these circumstances he found the electro-motive 
force of a Leclanche’s cell to be only 0°896 of that of a Daniell’s 
cell, whereas, according to Leclanché, it is equal to 1°38 times 
the electro-motive force of a Daniell’s cell. (12.) ‘‘On the oc- 
currence of augite-material in meteorites,” by C. Rammelsberg. 
(13.) ‘fOnthe Lodran meteorite,” by G. Tschermak. (14.) “On 
acoustic attraction and repulsion,” by K. H. Schellbach. 
Additional facts, but as yet no explanation of these curious phe- 
nomena, According to the author, the attraction of light bodies 
By amodification of Kundt’s method of — 
a 
