444 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION B. 
This is equivalent to the heat of combustion of about one-third of a ton of coal, 
which can thus be saved, per ton of pig iron produced. 
From figures kindly supplied by Mr. Ernest Bury, M.Sc., manager of the 
blast-furnaces and coke-ovens, I am in a position to make the following state- 
ment about results recently obtained at the Skinningrove Ironworks. 
Since October 1911, when the first battery of Otto-Hilgenstock coke-ovens 
was completed, blast-furnace gas enriched with coke-oven gas up to 130 B.Th.U.s 
per cubic foot of the mixture, has been regularly supplied to boilers, power 
house, and soaking pits, and from that time onwards the whole of the steel 
output of a 275-ton Talbot furnace has been converted into finished steel 
sections without the employment of any outside fuel. The results for the first 
half of 1913 were as follows :— 
Pig iron made . . ‘ . 78,902 tons 
Coal carbonised in coke ovens 4 FE P - - . 74,659 ,, 
Steel ingots made * - . : 5 ‘ . - 19;520°7).5 
Steel ingots rolled into rails and sections. . " - 21,500 ,, 
In addition: to the above, successful experiments have been made with 
running the Talbot furnace on an enriched gas of 180 B.Th.U.s per cubic foot, 
with excellent results, showing a coal saving of 25 to 3 cwts. per ton of steel. 
As soon as the new additional battery of coke-ovens is in operation, it will be 
possible to heat and roll off 2,000 tons of steel per week, and in addition to 
contribute an amount of coke-oven gas to the Talbot furnace equal fo 100 tons 
of coal per week. Arrangements are in progress whereby it would shortly be 
possible to supply any furnace, soaking pit, or power station on the works with 
either a rich coke-oven gas or a poor blast-furnace gas, or any desired mixture 
of the two; when these are completed the prophecy made by Mr. T. C. Hutchin- 
son, in his Presidential Address to the Cleveland Institute of Engineers three 
years ago, ‘that the time would come when we shall be taking in ironstone at 
one end of the works and turning out steel at the other, using only such coal 
as is required for the coke-ovens,’ will be fulfilled. 
Dr. R. V. Wheeler dealt with the composition of coal, in particular the 
volatile constituents.* 
Dr. R. Lessing spoke on the economics of the smoke nuisance question. 
Mr. W. H. Patterson discussed the improvement of combustion and the 
blending of coals. 
A general discussion followed. 
The following Paper was then read :— 
The Action of an Alkaline Natural Wuter on Lead. 
By J. F. Iaverseece and A. W. Knappr. 
The water supply of Birmingham is gathered chiefly in Wales. The water 
is slightly alkaline: it does not appreciably dissolve lead (absence of ‘ plumbo- 
solvency ’), but unless treated it corrodes or ‘erodes’ bright sheet lead. To 
prevent any danger from this action, a small proportion of powdered chalk is 
added to the water in Wales. This treated water flows to Birmingham through 
an aqueduct seventy-three miles long. 
Lead Pipes.—For these experiments a series of lead pipes was connected 
with the supply and analyses of the water made over a period of five years. 
Hundreds of samples were also taken from consumers’ pipes and from lengths 
of lead pipes closed with corks. For short periods the total lead dissolved 
from the pipes increased with time, but different lengths of the same pipe 
showed considerable variation. As a rule a pipe becomes with age less sensi- 
tive to the action of the water, but the rate of this change varies greatly with 
different pipes. Treatment of new pipes with a dilute solution of potassium 
* See Journal of the Chemical Society, T'rans., 1903, 103, 1704-1722. 
