166 report — 1865. 



It was only through the earnest solicitation of Mr. George Renme, the then Pre- 

 sident of the Mechanical Section of this Association, that the invention was, at that 

 early stage of its development, thus prominently brought forward ; and when the 

 author reflects on the amount of labour and expenditure of time and money that 

 Were found to be still necessary before any commercial results from the working of 

 the process were obtained, he has no'doubt whatever but that, if the paper at Chel- 

 tenham had not then been read, the important system of manufacture to which it 

 gave rise would to this hour have been wholly unknown. 



A diagram showed in section the original fixed converting vessel, as patented 

 and erected in London for experimental purposes in 1856. It was observed that 

 the tuyeres were passed through the sides of the vessel in a horizontal direction, the 

 result was that the blast of air entered only a short distance into the fluid mass, and 

 much of it escaped upwards between the sides of the vessel and the metal. The 

 effect of this was the rapid destruction of the brick lining, caused by the excessive 

 temperature generated in the process and the solvent property of the resulting sili- 

 cate of protoxide of iron, which sometimes destroyed a lining of half a brick in 

 thickness during the blowing of two charges of metal for about twenty minutes 

 each. Another difficulty arose from the impossibility of stopping the process with- 

 out running out the metal ; for if the blowing ceased for one instant, the fluid metal 

 would run into the tuyeres and stop them up. 



A great inconvenience of the fixed vessel also arose from the danger and difficulty 

 in tapping out the fluid malleable iron with a bar, after the manner of tapping an 

 ordinary cupola furnace, for the blast had to be continued during the whole time 

 the charge was running out of the vessel in order to prevent the remaining portions 

 from entering the tuyeres. A similar difficulty arose while running in the crude 

 metal from the melting furnace, since it was necessary to turn on the blast before 

 any metal was run into the vessel ; the first portions so run in were in consequence 

 partially decarbonized before the whole of the crude metal had left the melting-fur- 

 nace. 



These were among the more prominent difficulties that had to be remedied. It 

 is, however, satisfactory to know that even in this, its infant state, the process and 

 apparatus were practically successful, in proof of which there is placed upon the 

 table part of a malleable iron railway bar made from pig iron, at Baxter House, by 

 blowing air through it in the apparatus just described, the fluid malleable iron 

 having been run into a 10-inch square ingot mould and the bloom so made rolled 

 direct into the bar shown. The small malleable iron-forged gun -will serve as an 

 example of the clearness and freedom from cracks or flaws in malleable iron so made 

 and forged under the steam-hammer. It is one of the very early productions of the 

 process, and, like the malleable iron rail, was made wholly without any recarbo- 

 nizing of the metal, or the employment of spiegeleisen or manganese in any form 

 whatever. Malleable iron so made from hematite pig iron is red-short, like all other 

 wrought iron made wholly from hematite; but that it is perfectly malleable and 

 extremely tough when cold, may be seen on examination of the iron rope exhibited, 

 which consists of four rods of l|-inch round iron twisted cold into a close coil. 

 These bars extended 13 inches in length in 4 feet, and were reduced nearly i inch 

 in diameter in the operation of twisting, thus showing that malleable iron so made 

 possesses an extraordinary degree of ductility. 



It may be remembered that an important part of the process, as described at 

 Cheltenham in 1856, consisted in tapping the fluid crude iron from the blast-fur- 

 nace, and allowing it to flow directly into the converting- vessel, and be there blown 

 to the extent only of decarbonizing it so far as to produce cast steel. This part of 

 the original programme has been most successfully carried out in Sweden," where an 

 extensive establishment for its manufacture has been erected by M. Gbransson, of 

 Gene. The large steel circular saw plate exhibited is an example of the conversion 

 of crude cast iron run direct from the blast-furnace into the converting- vessel, and 

 there blown for nine minutes, in which period it had been converted into cast steel 

 of the desired quality, and was then pom'ed into an ingot mould without being re- 

 carbonized, and wholly without the employment of spiegeleisen or manganese in 

 any form whatever. 



With these few illustrations of the capabilities of the process as originally de- 



