TRANSACTIONS <>!•' THE SECTIONS. 47 



above purifying processes, and the extent to which these foreign associates of iron 

 are abstracted, or resist removal, by the more or less thorough application of those 

 several modes of treatment. He has also thrown new light on the reason why the 

 most difficultly assailable impurity, phosphorus, obstinately resists all attempts 

 to effect even a slight diminution in its amount, by application of the Bessemer 

 treatment. The earnestness with which Mr. Bell wages war against this enemy of 

 the ironmaster, in one of its most favourite haunts, the Cleveland District, not simply 

 with the old British pluck which acknowledges not defeat, but systematically on 

 scientific principles, calling to his aid all the resources which the continual advances 

 in applied mechanical and chemical research place within his reach, cannot fail to 

 contribute importantly, if it does not of itself directly lead, to the complete subjec- 

 tion of this most intractable of the associates to which iron becomes linked in the 

 blast-furnace. Indications have lately not been wanting that the existence of 

 phosphorus in very notable proportions in iron may not of necessity be inimical to 

 its conversion into steel of good quality ; and it may be that this element, which is 

 now turned to usefid account to impart particular characteristics to the alloys of 

 copper and tin, is even destined to play a distinctly useful part in connexion with 

 the production of steel possessed of particular characters, valuable for some special 

 purposes. 



In the great development which steel manufacture has received within the last 

 few years, one most prominent feature has been the production with precision, upon 

 a large scale, of steel of desired characteristics, in regard to hardness &c, by first 

 adding to fluid cast iron of known composition the requisite proportion of a rich 

 iron ore (with or without the addition of scrap iron) to effect a reduction of the 

 carbon to the desired amount, concurrent with a refining of the metal by the 

 oxidizing action of the ore, and then giving to the resulting steel the desired special 

 qualities by the addition of suitable proportions of iron compounds of known com- 

 position, rich in manganese and carbon (Spiegeleisen and the similar product called 

 feiTO-manganese). The germ of this system of producing steel-varieties of prede- 

 termined characteristics exists in crucible processes like that of Uchatius, which 

 have been in more or less extensive use for many years past ; but it is to such 

 invaluable arrangements as are most prominently represented in the Siemens- 

 Martin furnace, wherein several tons of metal may be fused and maintained at a 

 very high temperature with as little liability to change from causes not under 

 control as if the operation were conducted in a crucible, that we are indebted for 

 the very great expansion which the direct application of the analytical chemist's 

 labours to the development of the steel industry is now receiving. 



The production of steel upon the open hearth, to the elaboration of which Dr. 

 C. W. Siemens has so largely contributed, since he first established the process at 

 Llandore in 1868, has, in fact, become assimilated in simplicity of character and 

 precision of results to a laboratory operation, and may be justly regarded as a 

 triumph of the successful application of chemical principles, and of the power of 

 guidance and control afforded by utilizing analytical research, to the attainment of 

 prescribed results upon a stupendous scale, with an accuracy approaching that 

 which the experienced chemical operator secures in the laboratory upon a small 

 scale, under conditions which he can completely control. The production of steel 

 by a large number of small separate operations in pots has now become supplanted 

 with great advantage hy the Siemens-Martin system of working at some of our 

 largest establishments at Sheffield ; this system has also secured a footing at highly 

 renowned continental works, which are formidable competitors with us in the manu- 

 facture of steel, such as those of Essen, Creusot, and Terrenoire. It is specially 

 interesting to notice that, in the hands of those who, on the Continent at least equally 

 with ourselves, have learned to combine the results of practical experience with 

 the teachings of chemical science, the facilities now existing for dealing in a single 

 receptacle with large masses of fluid steel have greatly facilitated the application 

 of chemical means to the production of solid masses of considerable size, thereby 

 reducing, if not altogether dispensing with, the necessity for submitting large steel 

 castings to costly mechanical operations, with the object of closing up cavities 

 caused by the escape of occluded gas as the liquid metal cools. The success i 



