30 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS 
done, but an improvement has been made on the old method 
which has fully justified the calculations of chemists. Former- 
ly furnaces were charged by mixing the ore and coke on the 
bell before dumping into the furnace. In this way each piece 
of ore was practically in contact with each lump of coke. The 
present method, which has displaced the former at all well-man- 
acved furnaces, is to charge separate layers of ore and fuel in 
order that coke and ore may be as nearly separated as possible. 
The saving of fuel accompl’shed by this method has been 
abundantly proved, and in its train have followed an increased 
output and more uniform grade of iron. 
There is another improvement in furnace practice due to 
chemistry which has received a practical demonstration only 
within the last few months. The chemical study of blast furnace 
operation has shown that any moisture entering the furnace 
with the blast of air was decomposed by the white hot carbon in- 
to its elements hydrogen and oxygen. By analyzing the gas 
given off at the furnace top it was shown that the hydrogen es- 
caped as such and that the heat absorbed in separating hydrogen 
_ from its combined oxygen was lost to the furnace. The amount 
of moisture commonly present in air is small, but when you con- 
sider the enormous volume of air blown into the furnace the 
content of water becomes a factor in furnace economy. A 
medium sized furnace making 300 tons of iron per day requires 
33,000 cubic feet of air per minute, equivalent to 18 millon 
eubic feet in 24 hours. Assuming this air to have 6 grains of 
moisture per cubic foot throughout the day we find that in the 
24 hours no less than 36,000 nounds of water have been intro- 
duced into the furnace. Now here was a loss which chemistry 
has pointed out to iron makers, and which would never have 
been realized without its assistance. Now, just as an astronom- 
er observing the deviation in the course of a planet can locate 
its cause, measure the deflection in its path, and tell that in a 
certain place, at a certain time, we shall see a new heavenly body, 
just as exactly has the chemist observed a waste of heat in the 
hearth of the furnace, located its cause, and told us that when 
certain interfering elements are removed certain definite im- 
provements will follow. 
