APRIL 18, 1912] 
RECENT RESEARCHES ON CAST IRON. 
“T° HE volume before us is an able work, con- 
taining much original matter, in which an 
attempt is made with considerable success to 
reconcile the theory of the physical chemist with 
the practice of the scientific metallurgist. The 
author is obviously impressed with the broad 
reality of the iron-carbon equilibrium diagram. 
No doubt this has some value, but its teaching's 
are very limited from a practical point of view. 
For instance, the area usually marked in such 
diagrams “‘ martensite,’’ instead of ‘‘ hardenite,’’ 
gives no indication that steel quenched at the 
Cementite - pearlite 
structure of white 
iron: combined 
carbon per cent., 
3°00. 
Carbon equal to 
slightly — super- 
saturated steel. 
Saturation o'80 to 
o"’90 per cent. 
Pearlite with ferrite 
increasing. 
Skin of ferrite. 
Fic. t.—Stages of decarburisation of white iron by iron ore. Magnified 
130 diameters. Etched HNOs. 
lower end of the range is good, and at the upper 
end worthless, a matter of some little importance 
to the steel maker. 
The influences of various ordinary elements on 
cast iron, viz., silicon, manganese, sulphur, and 
phosphorus, are very well dealt with. The in- 
fluence of more rarely present elements, such as 
vanadium, chromium, titanium, is also con-’ 
sidered. 
In his treatment of malleable cast iron, the 
author, as one of our ablest authorities on the 
subject, is naturally at home, and publishes many 
1“ Cast Iron in the Tight of Recent Research.” By W. H. Hatfield. 
Pp. xtii4+-249. (London: Charles Griffin and Co., Ltd., 1912.) Price ros. 6d 
net. 
NO. 2216, VOL. 89] 
NAT ORE 
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169 
original and interesting photo-micrographs. It 
is clear that the author’s experiments in the 
higher ranges of the iron-carbon diagram have 
led him to the conclusion, long held by many 
steel metallurgists, that the carbon at high tem- 
peratures is in solution as carbide, and not in the 
free state. A section is devoted to a considera- 
tion of the ‘‘ growth ”’ of cast iron. 
The appendices contain a well-expressed series 
of definitions and a useful set of typical analyses 
of cast and malleable cast irons. All makers of 
such products should study this excellent book. 
__A figure showing micrographically the stages 
of decarburisation of white iron is here repro- 
duced (Fig. 1). Another figure (Fig. 2) repro- 
duces an excellent photo-micrograph (lent to the 
author by Wiist) of a 1°76 per cent. carbon steel 
quenched from 1130° C, 
‘ 
Fic, 2,—1°76 per cent. carbon steel quenched from 1130" C. Etched. 
Magnified 200 diameters, 
In view of the experimental facts contained in 
the advance copy of a paper to be read at the 
Iron and Steel Institute in .May, 1912, the 
author’s views on the influence of allotropy on 
the hardening of steel will require revision in any 
future edition. J. O. ARNOLD. 
THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF 
AMERICANISTS. 
epee eighteenth session of the International 
Congress of Americanists will be held in 
London, with Sir C. R. Markham as President, 
from May 27 to June 1 of the present year, 
at the Imperial Institute, South Kensington. The 
object of the Congress is to promote scientific 
inquiry into the history of both Americas and of 
their inhabitants. It will be divided into six sec- 
tions—Paleoanthropology, Physical Anthropo- 
logy, Linguistics, Ethnology and Archeology, 
General Ethnology, and Colonial History. This 
meeting, which has been organised under the in- 
vitation of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 
