“Armada and its sequel, 
FEBRUARY 22, 1917 | 
an age of menace and 
peril, of intrigue and then of openly attempted in- 
_yasion, followed by victory and safety and peace- 
” 
“with the second. 
Bridges’s Ode. 
ful expansion. Shakespeare’s boyhood knew the 
first, his flowering and fruiting time coincided 
May our young folks find the 
same experience! That is the theme of Dr. 
It is a stately, original piece, 
severe, yet full of chaste beauty, a true British 
“ Pindaric,” with the massive masonry and the 
large, firm ornament of Pindar. 
The second movement, to which the first leads 
up, is splendidly and surprisingly effective. Sud- 
-denly towering before us, it seems to scale up 
ating nor belittling 
and up, higher and higher still, into the empyrean 
of speculation and philosophy. Then, by a swift 
but easy turn, it comes to earth again and closes 
on a quiet, strong, human note, neither exagg‘er- 
neither fulsome nor faint- 
hearted, but’ just, true, beautiful :— 
But ye, dear Youth, who lightly in the day of fury 
Put on England’s glory as a common coat, 
And in your stature of masking grace 
Stood forth warriors complete, 
No praise o’ershadoweth yours to-day, 
Walking out of the home of love 
To match the deeds of all the dead.— 
Alas! Alas! fair Peace, 
These were thy blossoming roses, 
Look on thy shame, fair Peace, thy tearful shame! 
Turn to a isle, fair Peace; return thou and guard 
it well! 
A cry of the heart, an invocation natural to our 
time, it will hereafter be its monument and 
memorial, and no unworthy one. It will wear 
well, with the book it gees so fitly to-day. 
HERBERT WarREN. 
i 
THE FUTURE OF FRENCH METALLURGY. 
0 Bois October, 1916, issue:of the Bulletin de la 
Société - d’ Encouragement pour l’Industrie 
Nationale contains’ the reprint of three lectures 
delivered under the auspices of that society by 
Dr. Léon Guillet;, ’ the distinguished French 
metallurgist. ” 
The first lecture is a comparative study of the 
metallurgy of iron and steel in France and 
foreign countries; the second deals similarly with 
the metallurgy of the principal industrial non- 
ferrous metals; and the third treats of the applica- 
tion of science to metallurgical industry. It 
appears from Dr. Guillet’s summary that in 1913 
France’s position in reference to world output 
was as follows:—Jourth in steel, eighth in 
copper and lead, fifth in zinc, fourth in ‘nickel, 
and second in aluminium production. Her output 
of tin is very small indeed. 
It is natural that considerable anxiety should 
be felt in France as to the future of her iron and 
steel production, which is much the most im- 
portant of her metal industries. By the Treaty 
of Frankfort, which followed on ‘the Franco- 
German War of 1870-71, Germany obtained, 
as is well known, the province of Alsace and the 
NO. 2469, VoL. 98] 
NATURE 
493 
greater part of Lorraine. It is not, however, so 
well known that the particular frontier adjust- 
ment ultimately adopted in the latter province 
was based very largely on the evidence furnished 
by an exact knowledge of its mineral resources 
possessed by the German Government. As a 
result of it Germany obtained nineteen iron-mine, 
sixteen coal-mine, and fourteen other mine con- 
cessions, together with the most famous metal- 
lurgical establishments of the Moselle basin, and 
there is little doubt that it was anticipated 
that a blow was thus being struck at French iron 
and steel metallurgy from which it would never 
recover. So little, however, did Thiers realise 
this that, in addressing the National Assembly, 
he said :—‘‘Du Fer, il y en a partout en France, 
d’aussi bon qu’en Suéde, et la prospérité de 
Vindustrie métallurgique dans |’Est est une pure 
illusion qui ne durera pas éternellement.”’ 
As a result of these frontier rectifications a 
considerable proportion of the vast “minette” 
iron-ore deposits which had hitherto been entirely 
in French territory, apart from the small quantity 
in Luxemburg, passed into German hands. As 
their name indicates, they were regarded not 
merely as worthless, but actually with contempt. 
This was principally owing to their very high 
phosphorus content, which rendéred them in- 
‘susceptible of conversion into steel by the acid 
process, the only one at that time known. In 
1878, however, Thomas and Gilchrist, two 
Englishmen, invented and introduced the “basic ” 
process, by which’ steel can be dephosphorised- 
The importance of this discovery to Germany 
cannot be overrated. It immediately rendered 
available for steel production the immense re- 
sources of “minette” ores which had _ passed 
into her hands, and in the highly phosphoric basic 
slag, which is a by-product in the steel produc- 
tion, she obtained a most valuable agricultural 
fertiliser. Statues erected to Thomas and Gil- 
christ in Diisseldorf prove that the German steel 
manufacturers recognised their debt to these men. 
Since 1878 the commercial exploitation of the 
“minette””?. ores in French Lorraine, annexed 
Lorraine; and Luxemburg has proceeded very 
actively. These deposits constitute by far the 
largest source of iron and steel production in 
Europe. Dr. Guillet states that in 1912 the 
Meurthe and Moselle basin produced go°7 per 
cent. of the French iron-ore minerals; in the same 
year 78°9 per cent. of the German and Luxem- 
burg iron-ore production was derived from the 
“minette’”’ ores under their control. Had the 
Thomas-Gilchrist process been invented eight 
years earlier there is little doubt that the 
boundary between France and Germany in the 
Lorraine “minette” area would have been drawn 
still farther west. 
These facts throw considerable light on the 
course adopted by Germany at the beginning of 
the present war. By invading Belgium and press- 
ing on through north-east France in the early 
weeks: of the campaign, the German army 
obtained possession of that part of France which 
