Se UTAH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 155 
RELATION OF CHEMISTRY TO 
METALLURGY. 
BY EDWARD P. BARRETT.1 
Metallurgy by definition is the art of extracting 
metals from their ores, refining them and separating 
them from one another. 
From the chemists’ view-point metallurgy is simply 
an application of chemical processes and metallurgists 
might well be known as chemical engineers or industrial 
chemists. In this sense of the word we do not include 
mechanical concentration or separation of minerals. 
In discussing most metallurgical operations we read- 
ily see that these operations depend upon some certain 
definite chemical ractions. 
One of the most important metallurgical operations 
is the manufacture of iron and steel. 
In the United States the most common treatment is 
smelting in a blast furnace in which the ore is mixed 
with proper fluxes which have been calculated from their 
chemical analysis to produce a fluid slag of a definite 
chemical composition. Sufficient fuel, in the form of 
coke, to melt the charge is also added, the amount of 
fuel depending upon the temperature required to melt 
_ the charge. In burning this fuel a large amount of car- 
bon monoxide is formed which reacts with the iron 
oxides to reduce them to metallic iron. Some iron oxide 
is reduced to iron by direct action of the carbon. 
The high temperature obtained keeps the iron and 
slag in a molten condition. They separate due to differ- 
ence in specific gravity and are then drawn off through 
tap holes. 
This molten pig iron carries impurities, generally 
silicon, manganese, and carbon, which must be removed 
in order to change the iron into steel. 
The simplest way to remove them is based upon the 
chemical reactions of oxidization processes. The molten 
pig iron is poured into a large tank-like container so 
1Assistant Chemist, U. S. Bureau of Mines. 
