May 



1880^ 



NATURE 



about the normal over a limited patch of countrj' lying to 

 the north-west of the Caspian, and over the whole of Asia 

 to the east of a line drawn through Ceylon, the Upper 

 Ganges, and Lake Baikal, this latter area of high pressure 

 extending as far south over Australia as Adelaide. Another 

 area of high pressure spread from Central America 

 eastwards across the West Indies, the north of South 

 America, and the Atlantic to Africa. 



In accordance with this distribution of pressure tem- 

 perature was from one to two degrees above the normal 

 in the United States, except in the north-east, where it 

 fell to the average in the New England States, and fell 

 still further to i°'6 below it at St. John's, Newfoundland. 

 Under the influence of the low pressure around Ireland 

 the Weather Map shows a prevalence of strong breezes 

 from the Atlantic over Western, Central, and Eastern 

 Europe as far as Kiev, and over the whole of this wide 

 region temperature was above the normal, most notably 

 so over Great Britain and the south of Norway, the mean 

 at Mandal being 4°'2 above the average. 



Over England these Atlantic breezes were south- 

 westerly, but in Scotland easterly. In England the 

 month was one of the rainiest Augusts on record, and in 

 the east of Scotland the rains were also unusually heavy. 

 On the other hand, what invariably happens when the 

 weather in the east of Scotland is characterised by rain 

 and east winds, the weather of the West Highlands was 

 dry and bright. 



The comparatively insignificant region of higher pressure 

 to the north- w-est of the Caspian, taken in connection 

 with the markedly low pressure in Western and Central 

 Siberia, exerted a striking influence on the weather of 

 that region, since, owing to the northerly winds, which 

 necessarily set in with stronger force than usual, tem- 

 peratures fell to from two to three degrees below the 

 normal from the Irtish to the Dnieper. On the other 

 hand, over Northern Asia, to the east of long. 75°, tem- 

 peratures above the average prevailed, the excess at 

 Irkutsk being 3'°o. In Victoria, pressure being lower on 

 the coast than in the interior, northerly winds set in, and 

 under their influence the temperature of the colony rose 

 generally to i''5 above the normal. In New Zealand 

 pressure was not only very low, but diminished greatly 

 from west to east over the islands, and owing to the 

 strong westerly winds which accompanied this distribu- 

 tion of the pressure, the temperature fell generally 2"°5 

 below the average of this winter month. 



THE IRON AND STEEL INSTITUTE 



T7OLLOWING close upon the Institution of Mechanical 

 -•• Engineers came the meeting of the Iron and Steel 

 Institute. The bill of fare of the younger association was 

 certainly longer, and will probably be found_not less inte- 

 resting, than that of its elder colleague. It contained 

 eleven papers on subjects of practical importance con- 

 nected with the nature and manufacture of iron and steel. 

 All of these papers were valuable, five of them especially 

 so, and they prove beyond a doubt that the Iron and Steel 

 Institute is doing immense service to metallurgical science 

 in collecting and systematising practical information, and 

 in aftbrding opportunities for the discussion of theoretical 

 opinions. 



It was naturally to be expected that the recent meeting 

 would furnish some information as to the practical 

 working and commercial success of the Thomas-Gilchrist 

 process of producing Bessemer steel from inferior brands 

 of pig-iron, and especially from those descriptions, like 

 Cleveland pig, which are rich in the very deleterious 

 ingredient, phosphorus. At the last spring meeting of the 

 Institute this process was little more than an idea, but it 

 was clearly seen that if it could be rendered a commercial 

 success its influence on the future of the North-Eastern iron 

 district of this country could not fail to be enormous. 



Accordingly we are not surprised to find two papers on 

 this subject, one by Messrs. Holland and Cooper, of 

 Sheffield, entitled " On the Manufacture of Bessemer 

 Steel and Ingot Iron from Phosphoric Pig," and the other 

 by Mr. R. Pink, of the Hcerde Works, Westphalia, " On 

 the Dcphosphorisation of Iron in the Bessemer Con- 

 verter." From these two papers we learn the most recent 

 results of British and German experience, and it must be 

 deemed a matter of great congratulation that in both 

 countries ranch good progress seems to have been made 

 in the practical working of the new process. 



The difficulties encountered were only such as are 

 always encountered in the introduction of any new 

 method. The first of these minor troubles experienced 

 in Sheffield was to find out the right moment when to 

 stop blowing. "It seemed doubtful whether it would be 

 practicable (having no definite point at which we could 

 safely stop blowing, corresponding to the drop of the 

 carbon flame in the oi'dinary process) to burn out the 

 whole of the phosphorus regularly, without sometimes 

 carrying the process too far, and thereby oxygenating the 

 charge. And this, as all steel makers will agree, is very 

 apt to give trouble." However, by taking samples of the 

 metal from the converter during the " after-blow," and 

 testing them, it was found practicable to stop the process 

 at the right time, and to remove the phosphorus in a very 

 satisfactory manner. Here, however, a new difficulty 

 arose. The time lost while the samples were being taken 

 enable the slag and metal to accumulate at the "nose" of 

 the converter, and partially choke the aperture, thus 

 causing great inconvenience and loss of time in removing 

 the obstruction. By reducing the area of the aperture, 

 and thus retaining the heat better in the converter, and 

 by lining the nose with fire-brick, this difficulty was 

 partially got over, but the accumulations of slag still 

 continued at the junction of the fire-brick and bassic 

 lining of the converter. Increased experience, however, 

 soon enabled the Sheffield manufacturers to complete the 

 blowing by timing with a watch, without the tesnng of 

 samples, and as no time was given for the accumulation 

 of slag, no further trouble was experienced. How com- 

 pletely the timing system answered may be judged from 

 the following extract from Messrs. Holland and Cooper's 

 paper : — " In the week ending April 17, when not a single 

 sample was taken during the operation, except in the case 

 of the experimental blow 74S, the average amount of 

 phosphorus contained in 36 blows, all of which were 

 analysed, was '056 per cent., the highest being 'lol per 

 cent., and the lowest '019 per cent." The composition of 

 this quality of steel has been in other respects very 

 regular, the analyses and results of a test piece 2 inches 

 long and '533 inches in diameter being as follows : — 



T> , • T-i Reduc- 



&r- Sili. Snl- Phos- Man- ^'^^^^ ^^% 'ion of 

 bon. con. phiir. phorus. ganese. ^^^^^ ' ^(t^i, '^''^^ P*^"^ 



•40 ... — ... -040 ... -085 ... -662 ... 3975 ... 20-25 •■• 3i'84 

 It has been found that since sampling has been dis- 

 pensed with, that the wear of the lining of the converter 

 is very unifomi. As many as 630 tons of steel have been 

 produced from one lining, without any repairs excepting 

 a new fire-clay brick-lining for the nose; and 270 tons 

 more were got from the same lining after renewing the 

 front or blowing side, and putting in a new nose. This 

 absence of difficulty about the renewal of the plant, 

 coupled with the excellent quality of the metal produced, 

 show that the process must now be pronounced a 

 commercial success. 



The experiences of the Sheffield manufacturers were 

 amply borne out by the results arrived at at Hcerde. 

 Mr. Pink says in the beginning of his paper : "Without 

 doubt we are on the verge of making from the very worst 

 classes of pig iron a most reliable and 7-cmarkably cheap 

 sleel," and this assertion is amply borne out by the results 

 of chemical analysis and mechanical testing which he 



