Sei-tember 24, 1896J 



NA rURE 



515 



us H;>s i^^\|)ected to take part in the expedition, made 

 arraiiyiincnts to charter a steamer which should not only convey 

 the party from England to Spain and back, but should serve as 

 a fluaiini; h.uel during the whole time. It may be said that in 

 no otlier way would the expedition have been possible. The 

 large (Jrieni liner, Ormnz, was therefore engaged for the pur- 

 po.se. Tliis vessel left Tilbury on Saturday the 29th ull., and 

 arrived off the mouth of the river Nervion about midday on the 

 Momlay following. Of the run down Channel and across the 

 Bay of Kiscay it is unnecessary to say much ; some enjoyed it, 

 .some did not. 



On the arrival of the ship the Reception Committee came oft" 

 in three steamers and welcomed their guests to Spain. This 

 was the first expression of that kindness and hospitality of 

 which the members of the Institute received so many proofs 

 throughout the visit. The Reception Committee, having re- 

 embarked members, were transferred to small steamers and 

 taken for a trip up the Nervion to inspect the extensive engin- 

 eering works that have converted this once small and unim- 

 portant stream into a commodious port. Although the de]rth of 

 water over the bar is not sufficient to admit the largest type 

 of ocean liners, such as the Ormnz, yet it is enough for the 

 class of ore-carrying ships now engaged in the trade. Last 

 year one vessel, drawing 22 feet 10 inches of water, and carry- 

 ing SS-^o t*"is of ore, sailed from the port. Bilbao itself lies 

 some distance inland, twelve miles or so up the river Nervion, 

 but the loading stations of the port are nearer the sea. 

 At the present time two breakwaters have been commenced. 

 By means of these a considerable part of the Concha, or Bay 

 of Bilb.10, will be enclosed, and thus form a safe anchorage for 

 the large>i ships. At the mouth of the Nervion is situated the 

 town of I'ortugalete. Here the two banks of the river are 

 coimected by a .somewhat novel form of bridge, or, as it might 

 perhajjs be better described, by an aerial ferry. It is necessary 

 at this point to give suf5ficient height for the masts of ships to 

 pass under, and this would necessitate, where ordinary con- 

 ditions followed, either a swing bridge or a structure which 

 would be .11 a height involving steep and long gradients for its 

 approacli. Both these plans would have been expensive and 

 inconvenient. The .scheme adopted was to erect a high gantiy 

 supported by towers on either bank. Suspended from this 

 gantry liy wire ropes is a large cage, capable of carrying 

 30 tons live load. There is a trolley which travels on a roller 

 path on tlie gantry, and to which the wire ropes holding the 

 cage are attached. A 25 horse-power engine is used for travers- 

 ing the tr'>lley, which of course carries the cage with it from 

 side to side, and thus transports the passengers across the river. 

 The cage is entered at the ground level, and travels at a safe 

 height above the water. The span is 531 feet, and the roller 

 path is 147 feet above high-water spring-tides. The cost of the 

 structure was no more than /^2O,O00. 



On the following day, Tuesday, -September I, members were 

 conveyed ashore from the Oniiiiz in steam tenders, and were 

 then taken to Bilbao by train. Sittings for the reading and 

 discussion of papers had been arranged for this and the next 

 (Wednesday) morning. The following is a list of the papers 

 read : — 



( 1 ) '• On the Spanish Iron Industry," by Don Pablo de Alzola 

 (Bilbao). 



(2) " On the Estimation of .Sulphur in Iron Ores," by R. W. 

 .\tkinson and A. J. Atkinson (Cardift"). 



(3) •• < )n a New Water-cooled Hot-blast Valve," by William 

 Colquhoun (Liverpool). 



(4) "On the Present Position of the Iron Ore Industries of 

 Biscay and Santander," by William Gill (Bilbao). 



(5) "'(Jn the Manganese Ore Deposits of Northern Spain," 

 by Jeremiah Head. 



(6) "On Sand on Pig-Iron and its Avoidance," by H. D. 

 Hibbard Highbridge, New Jersey, U.S.A.). 



(7) "On the Missing Carbon in Steel," by T. W. Hogg 

 (Newburn Steel Works). 



(8) " .\ Note on the Presence of Fixed Nitrogen in Steel," 

 by ]•'. W. 1 larbord and T. Twynam. 



(9I " lurther Notes on the Walrand Process," by G. J. 

 .Snelus. I'.K.S., Vice-President. 



(10) " On the Roasting of Iron Ores with a View to their 

 Magnetic Concentration," by Prof. H. Wedding, Bessemer Gold 

 Medallist (Berlin). 



The first paper taken, that of Don Pablo de Akola, gave an 

 account I r.ecessarily brief) of the condition of the iron and steel 



NO. 1404, VOL. 54] 



industry of Spain, referring by way of preface to the ore deposits 

 of the country. There are two important districts, Biscay (of which 

 Bilbao is the centre) and that of .\sturias. In the latter district 

 there are coalfields, but the ores are less rich than in Biscay. The 

 total Spanish output of iron ore in last year was 5,514,399 tons. 

 One-tenth of this was smelted in Spain. It will be interest- 

 ing here to repeat a passage from the elder Pliny, which Don 

 Pablo quotes : "In the part of the Cantabrian coast which is 

 washed by the ocean, there rises a high and steep mountain 

 which, marvellous to relate, is composed entirely of iron." It 

 will be therefore seen that the iron ore of Northern Spain was 

 known in the first century of the Christian era ; and there arc, 

 we learn from the paper, records of ore being shipped from the 

 Bilbao River as far back as the tenth century. The Spanish ore 

 was, however, earlier worked on the spot, and the fame of 

 Spanish iron of the Middle Ages was world-renowned, as every 

 metallurgical student knows. The industry has continued from 

 the fifteenth century down to our own time ; the well-organised, 

 if limited number, of iron and steel works at present existing 

 thus being the modern representatives of a very ancient industry. 



In the latter part of his paper, Don Pablo enters upon the 

 politico-economic aspect of the Spanish iron trade. He assumes 

 that the deposits of rich non-phosphoric ores of the district are 

 becoming exhausted by the vast exports now taking place, and 

 regrets that foreigners should be allowed to carry off the natural 

 wealth of the country, and that foreign capital should not be 

 directed to the permanent good of the nation, rather than con- 

 ferring fugitive and ephemeral prosperity upon a district ; in 

 other words, the author asks for protection for native industry. 

 Here are the facts upon which he bases his demand : — 



" From two tons of ore valued at 18 pesetas (30 pesetas equal 

 one pound sterling roughly) there is obtained one ton of pig 

 iron, the price of which is 64 pesetas. If this is converted into 

 rails, it sells at 140 pesetas. Rolled into steel ulates, it increases 

 in price to 210 pesetas ; forged into axles, &c., it increases to 

 700 pesetas ; and if it is converted into engines and boilers, it 

 increases to 1200 pesetas per ton, and to 1500 in locomotives and 

 marine engines." 



Whether Spain can be converted into a vast factory for the 

 manufacture of steel rails, plates, axles, engines, boilers, and 

 locomotives "by stimulating in Biscay the manufacture of steel, 

 and by imposing some restrictions on the export of ores," is a 

 subject upon which we need not here enter, as, fortunately, the 

 matter was not discussed at the meeting after the reading of the 

 paper. 



Mr. Gill's contribution was next taken. It was really a 

 volume rather than a paper, and taken in conjunction with a 

 former contribution he made to the Transaitions ai the Institute 

 in 18S2, may be looked upon as a standard work of reference 

 upon the iron industry of Northern Spain. Mr. Gill is the chief 

 engineer and manager of the Oconera Iron Ore Company, the 

 largest establishment of its kind in the world. He was also 

 one of the secretaries of the Reception Committee, and in that 

 capacity earned the gratitude of every member of the expedition 

 by the unceasing care he bestowed upon their welfare. It would 

 be a hopeless task to attempt to give even a brief abstract of this 

 paper; we can only say that it embraces all that could be fairly 

 considered to come within the scope of its title, and we must 

 refer our readers to the original in the pages of the Transa:tioiis 

 of the Institute. 



There was practically no discussion on these two papers, but 

 in answer to a question Mr. Gill stated that an export tax of 

 twenty cents per ton was levied on Bilbao ore, whilst that of the 

 more southern districts was but ten cents per ton. 



The paper by Mr. Snelus was next read by the author. The 

 Waband-Legenisel process had been already described in a 

 former contribution by the same author to the Transactions of 

 the Institute, and the object of the present paper was to report 

 progress. It appears that nine firms have taken the jirocess up, 

 and another is thinking about it. The p.iper should be of 

 considerable value to the proprietors of the process ; but that, of 

 course, is by the way. 



Dr. Wedding's contribution was, within its limits of space, an 

 exhaustive monograph worthy of a recently created gold- 

 medallist. It begins with a period " long before iron ores were 

 smelted for pig," and carries the subject down to the present 

 day. The problem of the roasting of ores for the purpose of 

 magnetic concentration is of a distinctly controversial nature in 

 its scientific aspect, and doubtless more might have been said 

 than w as said during the discussion had not members been under 



