170 REPORT — 1865. 



using Mr. Henderson's alloy in lieu of spiegeleisen, which is incapable of making 

 steel of such a quality. 



A Prussian gentleman, Ilerr Prieger, has been also successful in manufacturing a 

 new alloy, which he calls ferro-manganese, consisting of sixty to eighty per cent, 

 of metallic manganese. It is extremely useful in making malleable iron by the 

 Bessemer process, in which spiegeleisen cannot be employed on account of the large 

 proportion of carbon it contains. 



It is gratifying to turn from a review of the troubles aud impediments of the 

 past and briefly notice some of the more important applications of steel as a substi- 

 tute for wrought iron. 



In no case is this change of material more important than in the construction 

 of ships, for in no instance are strength and lightness more essential. 



The Bessemer cast steel made for ships' plate by the several eminent firms now 

 engaged in that manufacture is of an extremely tough and ductile quality, Avhile it 

 possesses a degree of strength about double that of the inferior kind of iron plates 

 usually employed in shipbuilding, hence it is found that a much less weight of 

 material may be employed, and at the same time a greater degree of strength may 

 be given to all parts subjected to heavy strains. 



Most prominent among the builders of steel ships is the firm of Jones, Quiggin, 

 and Co., of Liverpool, who have now constructed no less than 31,510 tons of ship- 

 ping, wholly or partially built of steel. Of these thirty-eight vessels are propelled 

 by steam with an aggregate of 5910 horse-power ; besides this the principal masts 

 and spars of eighteen sailing ships have been made by them wholly of steel. 



Vessels of a large size, constructed to Class Aa twelve years at Lloyd's, weigh, 

 when built of iron, about 12 cwt. per ton measurement, whereas similar vessels 

 built of steel weigh only about 7 cwt. per ton measurement ; thus an iron ship, to 

 take first-class at Lloyd's for 1000 tons measurement, would weigh 250 tons more 

 than a steel one of the same class. Such a vessel could therefore take 250 tons, or 

 25 per cent., more freight at the same cost, or could avail herself of the difference 

 of immersion to leave or enter port when the tide would not permit an iron vessel 

 to do so. As a steamer she would carry 250 tons more of coal, and thus be enabled 

 to lengthen her voyage or take her coal for the return trip. The two steel paddle- 

 wheel steamers launched at Liverpool by Messrs. Jones and Co., on the 13th ult., 

 for Dublin and Liverpool service, will draw from 3 feet to 4 feet less water than 

 iron steamers built on the same lines ; and being thus enabled to leave port at all 

 states of the tide, will not require a tidal train in connexion with them. If the 

 employment of steel for the construction of merchant vessels is found to be so im- 

 portant, how much more so is it for ships of war P Some of the larger class of 

 armour-plated vessels require 6000 tons of iron for their construction, and an addi- 

 tion of 1800 tons in the shape of 4|-inch armour plates. Now, if the frames and 

 inner skin of such a vessel were constructed of steel, it would be much stronger 

 even if reduced to 4000 tons in weight ; this would admit of 9-inch armour plates 

 being used in lieu of 45-inch, and would still leave the vessel 200 tons lighter than 

 the present ones, and hence, as the resistance of the armour to impact is as the 

 square of the thickness of the plate, we should have a vessel capable of resisting 

 four times the force of those at present constructed, while it would be 200 tons 

 less in weight. 



These important facts have not escaped the attention of Mr. Reed, our present 

 talented constructor of the navy, and we shall doubtless soon have substantial 

 proof of what may be eft'ected by the employment of steel in the construction of 

 ships of war. 



The application of steel for projectiles has now become a necessity since the 

 introduction of armour plates. We have before us a 110-lb. shot that has passed 

 with very slight injury to itself through a 5-inch armour plate, and also some spe- 

 cimens of bent angle-iron, made of Bessemer iron, and rolled at the Millwall Iron 

 Works in London, and from the same works a portion of one of Hughes's patent 

 hollow steel beams for supporting the armour plating in course of construction for 

 the forts at Cronstadt : both these are interesting examples of what the rolling 

 mills of the present day can effect, and of the facility with which cast malleable 

 iron and cast steel admit of being worked into the most difficult forms. 



