46 report — 1877. 



formation regarding the Composition of the iron ores of the country was Mr. S. IT. 

 Blackwell, who, in presenting to the Royal School of Mines a very extensive and 

 interesting series of British ores, which he had collected with great labour and 

 expense for exhibition in 1851, placed at the disposal of Dr. Percy the requisite 

 funds for engaging the services of competent analysts (Messrs. J. Spiller and 

 A. H. Dick), who, under his direction and with subsequent pecuniary aid from 

 himself and from Government fimds, carried out a very careful and complete exami- 

 nation of this series, the results of which have been of great value for purposes 

 of reference to those actively interested in the iron industry. It was, however, 

 the first connexion of Messrs. Nicholson and D. S. Price and of Mr. E. Riley 

 with two of the most important iron-works of this country, about a quarter of a 

 century ago {i.e. at the time when the above investigation was commenced), that 

 marked, I believe, the commencement of systematic endeavours to apply the results 

 of analytical research to the improvement and regulation of the quality of the 

 products of our iron-works. 



It is, perhaps, but natural that the primary object sought by application of 

 the knowledge of the analytical chemist should have been to eliminate or reduce 

 the existing elements of uncertainty in obtaining the most abundant yield of pig- 

 iron capable of conversion into railway bnr sufficiently good to meet the minimum 

 standard of quality, and to reduce still further the cost of production of such bar 

 iron by utilizing materials concerning the composition of which (richness in iron, 

 &c.) the iron-smelter was completely in the dark. The information accumulated 

 by the analyst respecting the composition of the ores, fuel, and fluxes available 

 at the works, and the composition of the pig-iron and slags (or cinders) produced 

 under varied conditions, in regard to materials employed and to the proportions of 

 ore, fuel, and flux used in the blast-furnace, could not, however, exist long without 

 exerting a marked beneficial influence upon the quality of the iron produced, and 

 generally upon the iron industry of the country. 



Percy's invaluable work of reference on metallurgy furnishes abundant evidence 

 of the scientifically interesting, as well as practically useful, nature of the results 

 obtained at that time by the chemists above named, and others, worlring under 

 Dr. Percy, with respect both to the elaboration of important analytical processes 

 (in which direction Mr. Riley has continued to the present day to do valuable 

 work) and to the elucidation of the reactions occurring in the processes of reduc- 

 tion and refining of the metal. It is needless to dwell upon the fact that the aid 

 of the analyst has now long since become absolutely indispensable to the iron and 

 steel manuf acture ; but I may perhaps be allowed briefly to refer to one or two 

 recent illustrations of the indispensable part which analytical research has played 

 and continues to play in the extension of our knowledge of the chemical reactions 

 involved in the production of cast and wrought iron and of steel, and of the influ- 

 ences which the chief associates of iron in its mercantile forms exert upon its 

 physical characters. 



Among the many valuable communications made to that most important body, 

 the Iron and Steel Institute of Great Britain, by men who combine great practical 

 knowledge and experience in iron and steel manufacture with high attainments in 

 mechanical science and such knowledge of chemical science as ensures a full appre- 

 ciation of its value at their hands, one of the most interesting and suggestive to the 

 chemist is that on the separation of carbon, sulphur, silicon, and phosphorus in the 

 refining- and puddling-furnace, and in the Bessemer converter, contributed to the 

 Transactions of the Institute's recent meeting by Mr. Lowthian Bell, whose valuable 

 investigations in connexion with the iron industry are as interesting to the chemist 

 as they are usefid to the manufacturer. Mr. Bell has brought together the results 

 of an extensive series of practical experiments on the treatment of different kinds 

 of pig-iron of known composition in the finery, the puddling-furnace, and the 

 Bessemer converter, and, by comparing the results of analytical investigation of 

 the products of those experimental operations with each other and with those of 

 the materials operated upon, he has obtained valuable confirmation of the views 

 already held by metallurgic chemists regarding the succession in which carbon, 

 silicon, sulphur, and phosphorus are attacked when pig metal is submitted to the 



