October 8, 1908] 



NA TURE 



581 



effect of power supply on the industries of the north-east 

 coast, proved conclusively that manufacturers in that 

 district are quick to avail themselves of new developments 

 or of additional facilities. The generating plant now 

 amounts to jb.ooo electric horse-power, and power supply, 

 though of comparatively recent development, has already 

 had a marked effect upon the industries of the north-east 

 coast. A great saving of coal and reduction of smoke have 

 resulted ; there is now, apart from the Power Company, 

 practically speaking, no coal burned on the Tyne for power 

 purposes except in chemical factories. The Tyne ship- 

 yards and engineering works may be said to have adopted 

 electricity to the exclusion of all other forms of motive 

 power. The application of electricity to all new uses has 

 been facilitated. New industries have been established in 

 the district purely because of the cheap power supply 

 available, and a substantial commencement has been made 

 in the utilisation of the waste heat and gases existing in 

 the area ; and in this regard the district occupies a unique 

 position owing to the extent to which its future power 

 requirements can be met by electricity produced as a by- 

 product of two of its largest industries, the malcing of 

 pig-iron and the making of coke. 



Mr. C. Koettgen (London) and Mr. C. A. Ablett (London) 

 read a paper on electrically driven rolling-mills, in which 

 they gave figures showing the power required for rolling 

 different sections, the figures being taken from among the 

 results obtained from 150 rolling-mills. Such results 

 should prove of considerable assistance in settling the 

 correct size of the motor for a new mill for a given out- 

 put of similar sections. 



A paper read by Mr. S. Cowper-Coles (London) was of 

 special interest. Hitherto it has been the universal custom 

 to produce iron sheets, tubes, and wire by a process of 

 smelting the iron, refining, cementation, annealing, roll- 

 ing, or drawing. The author, however, describes an 

 electrolytic process for making tubes, sheets, and wire in 

 one or two operations from crude or scrap iron, or direct 

 from the ore, without the processes of smelting, rolling, 

 or drawing, at a cost that has hitherto been thought 

 impossible. The process can also be used for the pro- 

 duction of seamless cylindrical vessels. The process pre- 

 sents numerous advantages. Finished products can be 

 produced at less cost than by the processes of smelting, 

 refining, and rolling ; a product is obtained which does not 

 corrode so readily as steel at less cost ; the process can be 

 worked economically when no coal is available, but water- 

 power only ; iron ore that is useless for ordinary smelting 

 operations can be advantageously utilised by the electrical 

 process ; the process is a power process, and utilises but 

 little labour; small units can be worked economically; 

 the process is more cleanly and healthy than the ordinary 

 operations ; and little or no scrap is formed. 



Mr. E. H. Saniter (Rotherham) submitted a paper on 

 a test for ascertaining the relative wearing properties of 

 rail steel. The principle of the testing machine devised 

 is that there is a round test-piece revolving a fixed number 

 of revolutions and rotating by friction the inner ring of a 

 ball-bporing loaded with a fixed weight, the action being 

 similar to that of a wheel rolling on a rail. 



The paper communicated by Mr. \. E. Pratt deals with 

 the possibility of extending the utility of the modern metal- 

 mixer by carrying out in it greater preliminary purification 

 than is usually the case in present practice. The bearing 

 of these suggestions on the development of the open- 

 hearth process is also considered. Lastly, the thermo- 

 chemistrv of open-hearth ore reactions is discussed. 



Prof. 'W. A. Bone (Leeds) and Dr. R. V. Wheeler 

 (Manchester), who in 1907 read before the institute a very 

 important paper on the use of steam in gas-producer prac- 

 tice, read a paper describing further experiments demon- 

 strating that with still lower steam-saturation tempera- 

 tures a most effective combination of high rate of gasifi- 

 cation with thermal efficiency can be continuously main- 

 tained over long periods of time, under ordinary works 

 conditions, furnishing a rich gas of high carbonic oxide 

 content, and eminently adapted for either power or heating 

 purposes. 



The paper read by Prof. H. E. Armstrong, F.R.S., on 

 the scientific control of fuel consumption, was a plea for 

 the introduction of a new attitude towards problems of 

 XO. 2032, VOL. 78] 



combustion and of fuel econo.ny, an attitude of under- 

 standing based upon sympathetic and serious contemplation 

 of the phenomena. In order that economies may be 

 effected, it will be necessary to secure the services of a 

 special class of chemists — of men gifted with real chemical 

 feeling qualified to study the problems which the consump- 

 tion of fuel affords. Such men must be properly paid, and 

 in every way rank on an equality with members of the 

 engineering staff. They should have enough knowledge of 

 engineering to be in full sympathy with their engineering 

 colleagues, who in turn should be sufficiently versed in 

 chemistry to appreciate the chemists' behests. 



The chemist was also championed in the paper on the 

 chemical control of the basic open-hearth process con- 

 tributed by Mr. Alfred Harrison (Warrington) and Dr. 

 R. \' . Wheeler (Normanton). Starting with the proposi- 

 tion that the basic open-hearth process is essentially a 

 chemical problem, they indicated how far the chemist could 

 control the process, and detailed a scheme for the complete 

 following of the reactions taking place. 



The paper presented by Prof. E. D. Campbell (Ann 

 Arbor, Michigan), on the constitution of carbon steels, was 

 of a most suggestive character. He reviewed the efforts 

 that have been made to interpret the phenomena of the 

 hardening and tempering of steel in the light of the phase 

 rule. The analysis of the carbides obtained from marten- 

 site and from troostite in his laboratory appears to indicate 

 marked dissociation, ionic as well as molecular, in the 

 carbides from martensite, while the analysis of the carbides 

 obtained from troostite would seem to indicate almost com- 

 plete association and polymerisation of the dissolved 

 carbides, since the nitro-derivatives of the troostitic 

 carbides are as dark in colour as those obtained from 

 equal amount of carbides derived from pearlile. These 

 results would indicate the probability that when martensite 

 is heated from 0° C. to 200° C. there is progressive 

 association of ionically dissociated carbides, and polymerisa- 

 tion of the carbides of lower molecular weight into those 

 of high molecular weight. This polymerisation of dis- 

 solved carbides is apparently complete by the time the 

 metal has been converted into troostite. This conception 

 of the changes which take place in the gradual conversion 

 of martensite into troostite offers a simple and rational 

 explanation of the progressive darkening of martensite 

 with rising temperature from 0° C. to 200° C, and for 

 the increase of what Heyn and Bauer term free carbon, 

 but which is probably a condensation product of olefines 

 of high molecular weight. It is suggested that there does 

 not seem to be any inherent reason why the complete 

 substitution of hydrogen by iron should prevent carbon 

 atoms from assuming relations to each other similar to 

 tliose which they hold in hydrocarbons. The conception of 

 the carbon compounds of iron as metallic derivatives of 

 hydrocarbons suggests a possible explanation of many un- 

 solved problems in the metallurgy of steel, as, for instance, 

 how other elements, too small in amount in themselves 

 to affect profoundly the properties of the steel, may enter 

 into the carbon compounds, and, by altering their con- 

 stitution, bring about effects on the steel as a whole 

 entirely out of proportion to the amount of the element 

 present. 



The paper communicated by Prof. H. C. H. Carpenter 

 (Manchester University), on the freezing point of iron, 

 showed that in the present state of pyrometric science the 

 freezing point of iron is best defined either on the thermo- 

 electric or the optical scale. The mean value calculated 

 from several closely agreeing determinations made under 

 entirely different experimental conditions by the thermo- 

 electric method is 1505° C. on the thermoelectric scale. 

 This corresponds to 1519° C. on the optical scale, which 

 is probably the nearest approximation to the true value at 

 present available. The optical determination of the 

 freezing point by a surface-radiation method does not, in 

 its present condition, yield more than an approximate 

 value, which is slightly lower than that obtained by the 

 thermoelectric method, viz. 1505° C. The freezing point 

 is independent of the atmosphere in contact with the iron, 

 whether this be oxygen, nitrogen, air, carbon monoxide, 

 carbon dioxide, hydrogen, or mixtures of these. 



Mr. A. Jouve (Paris) contributed a paper on the in- 

 fluence of silicon on the physical and chemical properties 



