XVI—ON AN ARTIFICIAL MINERAL PRODUCED IN THE 
MANUFACTURE OF BASIC BRICKS AT BLAENAVON, 
MONMOUTHSHIRE, sy J. EMERSON REYNOLDS, op, 
F.G.s., PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY, DUBLIN UNIVERSITY, AND V. 
BALL, M.A., F.G.S., OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 
[Read November 18, 1878.] 
IN a paper read before the Iron and Steel Institute, Messrs. 
S. G. Thomas, F.cs., and P. C. Gilchrist, a.R.s.m, F.c.S., have 
recently detailed their experiments and investigations in connec- 
tion with a process invented by them for the elimination 
of phosphorus in the Bessemer converter. The discovery of a 
method by which this most important object may be attained 
cannot fail to have a marked influence on the manufacture of steel. 
The process, which has been patented in several other countries 
besides England, is now undergoing practical trial, and should it 
prove to be as successful as the inventors’ experiments seem to 
promise, there can be little doubt that it will be possible to 
manufacture steel of good quality from phosphoretic pig, such as 
that made from the Cleveland Iron Ores, which has hitherto been 
rejected as unsuited to the purpose. 
In the present communication it is not intended to describe 
this process ; it will be sufficient to state merely, that the inventors 
have succeeded in producing a durable and refractory brick for 
the lining of the converters, by means of which without excessive 
waste of, or injury to the lining and metal, a basic condition of the 
slag, hitherto unattainable, has been secured. The result is that 
oxygen has been found not to be so “ inert as regards phosphorus 
at the intense temperature which accompanies the Bessemer 
process” as had previously been supposed ; but that in fact, under 
the conditions afforded by this new method of lining, oxygenation 
of the phosphorus does take place and the phosphoric oxides com- 
bining with the bases form phosphates in the slag, thus render- 
ing it possible to draw off the steel with but an unimportant trace 
of phosphorus remaining. 
In the preparation of these basic bricks, which are made of an 
aluminous magnesian limestone—an oven lined with ordinary 
Scien. Proc. R.D.S., Vou. 1., Pr. 11. kK 2 
