1853.] 



THE VALLEY OF THE NOTTAWASAGA. 



223 



The object was cliiefly to point out, what were believed to be, 

 tlje causes of the inferiority of irou in many works, ajjart fi'om 

 the varying ipuditics of the ores. 



The?c wei'e stated to be the introduction and application of 

 the liot blast, which had enabled the ironmaster to reduce into 

 cast and malleable iron, a very large per centage of cinders, slags, 

 and other impuiities, containing large proportions of sihcate of 

 iron, sul|ihui-, and ])hospIiorus, all of which tended to destroy 

 the tenacity of the metal, and to render it either "red short" or 

 " cold shoi t" — and also, when sutHcient attention was not devo- 

 ted by th(jse who were intrusted with tlie regulation and chain- 

 ing of the blast furnaces to the chemical composition of the iron- 

 stone by which the relative proportions of the flux and fuel em- 

 ployed in its reduction should be regulated; the chemical com- 

 position of the limestone, or the coal not being sufHciently known, 

 these materials often vaiying in quality as much as the ironstone 

 itself; — and the iron smelter was enabled to tell, with certaint}', 

 the quality of iron which this furnace would produce ; instances 

 had occurred, where a siliceous ore had been used for three or 

 four hours successively, and then at once it liad been replaced by 

 an aluminous and sometimes by a calcareous ironstone, Without 

 the change being made in the jjroportions of limestone, or coal, 

 which was evidently required by the ditt'erent qualities of those 

 ores. 



The following analysis exhibited the different quantities of sili- 

 cium existing in cast irou : — 



White crude. Moukland. Coltuess. Eglington. Daluiellington. 

 0-18 .... 1-53 .... 2-69 .... '3-12 .... 442 



The injurious action wlrich an impure fuel had upon the quali- 

 ty of the iron was particularly alluded to ; and the necessity of 

 reino\ iiig the sulphur from the coal, or coke, when employed in 

 the blast furnaces, before it could be imparted to the cast iron 

 during the process of smelting, was strongly enforced. The dif- 

 ference in the quality of iron smelted with coal, and by the ap- 

 plication of a process which had been recently intioduced by Mr. 

 Grace-Calveit, of Manchester, compared with iron smelted in the 

 ordinary way, was exhibited in the following aualysis : 



PEOrORTIOXS OF SULPHUE. 



Eglingtnn pig-iron 

 0-336 .... 



Molted in the cupola 

 with ordinary coke. 

 0-281 



Melted with 



iuproved coke. 



0-191 



The following table showed the improved quality of iron, after 

 the aiiplication of the chloride of sodium in the blast furnace; by 

 which the proportion of sulphur had been diminished : — 



Moukland Monkland Dalmellington Dalmellington 



without chloride, with cliloride. without chloride, with chloride. 

 0-390 .... 0-150 .... 0-956 .... 0-218 



And the increased bearing weight of 1 in. bars, cast from these 

 irons : — • 



579 

 576 



627 

 655 



487 

 456 

 487 

 470 



556 



525 

 544 

 562 

 569 



These improvements were described to have been effected, at a 

 very small cost, by the following simple process. If the blast 

 furnace was worked entirely with coal, chloride of sodium was 

 added with each charge, in proportion to the quality of the ore 

 and flux employed ; but a better result was produced if the coal 

 was previously converted into coke, and an excess of the chloride 

 was used in its prepai-ation, in order to act on the sulphur of the 

 coal and of the ore, should any be found therein ; and a greater 

 improvement was manifested in the quality of the iron wheu only- 

 coke so prepared was used in the blast furnace. 



The coke, so purified, eniitted no sulphurous fumes when 

 taken out of the coke oven, nor, when extinguished with watei-, 

 did it give oft' the unpleasant odour of sulphuretted hydrogen, 

 nor was there any sulphurous acid gas liberated during the 

 operation of smelting iron in the cupola, or in raising steam in 

 the locomoti\'e boiler, by coke so pi epared ; and it was stated 

 that these decided advantages ^^■ere gained, in some ca^es, at an 

 additional cost of only Id. per ton of fueh 



The chemical action of the chloride of sodium was thus des- 

 cribed. — When coal was first subjected to heat, in a coke o\en, 

 the bisulpburet of iron, contained in the coal, was decomposed 

 into sulphur, which latter was distilled, or buined, and als-) into 

 proto-sulphui-et of iron, which remained in the mass, and was 

 acted upon by the chloride of sodium, ;is it was volatilised at a 

 red heat; thus chloride of iron and proto-sulphuret of sodium 

 were produced. Then a second chemical re-action ensued : the 

 proto-chloride of iron was decomposed into a sub-pei--chloride of 

 iron, and the chlorine gas, thus libei'ated, re-acted on the sulphu- 

 ret of sodium, giving rise to cliloride of sodium, and to chloride 

 of sulphur, which latter was disengaged— so that the prepared 

 coke contained less sulphur than the ordinary coke; but admit- 

 ting even that a small portion remained, it would be in the state 

 of sulphuret of sodium, which would not yield any of its sulphur 

 during combustion, but passed into tlie cindei-s of the blast fur- 

 nace, or of the cupola, and into the ashes of the fire-box, in the 

 locomoti\-e. Thus preventing the injurious effect of the sulphur 

 on the fire bars and the copper of the fire-box, and on the brass 

 tubes of the boiler of the locomotive, and the sulphur, thus fixed, 

 did not enter into combination with the iron, preventing crystal- 

 lisation during the process of smelting, and giving greater tenacity 

 and closeness of texture both to the csist and to the malleable iron. 



The second part of the paper gave the result of a series of ex- 

 periments, which had been made by Mr. Kairbairn, upon trial 

 bars 1 inch square, cast from ii-on melted in the cupola, with 

 coke prepared by the process of Mr. Crace-Calvert, and exhibited 

 specimens of the iron so prepared, when the closeness of texture 

 and the absence of the honey-comb appearance, prevailing in the 

 iron cast with the ordinary coke, was clearly demonstrated. The 

 mode of experimenting was described, and the results were given 

 very elaborately, and it was shown that the average increase of 

 strength was from 10 to 20 per cent. 



Taking the mean of the whole experiments, the following con- 

 clusions were arrived at : — 

 The mean bieaking -sveight of the bars per square 



inch, melted with the improved coke, was . . 415-5 lbs. 



Ditto ditto Avith ordinary coke 327-0 lbs.-88-5 lbs 



in favour of the castings produced from the improved coke, or in 

 the ratio of 5 :4. 



The experiments on the bars smelted with the improved coke, 

 indicated iron of a high order as to strength, and might be con- 

 sidered equal to the strongest cold blast iron ; the metal appeared 

 to have run exceedingly close, and exhibited a compact granu- 

 lated structure, with a light grey colour. 



The Valley of the Nottawasaga. 



BY SAXDFOUD FLEMI.NG, ASSISTAXT EXGIXEEit, NOnTUEKX KAILECAD. 



(Read before the Canadian Institute Feh., ^9th, 1853.J 



I propose laying before you a brief sketch of the leading fea- 

 tures of that tract of country which is within the water-shed of 

 the River Nottawasaga; and the discovery at \-arious points of 

 ancient lake beaches, indicated by parallel terraces and sand- 

 ridges, showing that Lake Huron at a former period stood at 



