Januaey 6, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



13 



or of other iron ores high in the bases. The 

 Clinton ores of Alabama are of this type 

 and except for the unfortunate percentages 

 of phosphorus which they might add to 

 Lake Superior ores, they would doubtless 

 make an advantageous mixture with the 

 latter. But the southern ores are remote 

 from the northern. In order to meet them 

 at or near the supplies of fuel a long rail- 

 way haul would be necessary. While this 

 is not impossible, it would add to the cost 

 so greatly as to be highly improbable. 

 There is one further consideration. The 

 greater part of our pig iron is used in the 

 manufacture of steel. For this purpose in 

 the two processes most extensively em- 

 ployed hitherto, we need, respectively, either 

 a very low or a fairly high percentage of 

 phosphorus. If our irons are in between, 

 and like the church at Laodicea, neither 

 hot nor cold, they have been ill-adapted to 

 steel manufacture. Unless the growth of 

 the open-hearth process introduces great 

 changes, the mixture, therefore, of southern 

 basic ores and northern siliceous ones is not 

 altogether promising for this reason. 



The greatest cause of apprehension as 

 regards present processes of iron manufac- 

 ture lies in the supply of coking coal. We 

 have built lofty furnaces, and in their use 

 we place upon the fuel as it progresses 

 downward in the furnace a heavy load of 

 overlying ore and limestone. We need a 

 very strong coke to stand up under the 

 burden. The coals which yield these high- 

 grade cokes are found in a small portion 

 of the total coal-bearing area, and the life 

 of the supply is one of the very serious 

 phases of the present situation. I do not 

 know what the amount of reserves may be. 



While these physical and chemical fac- 

 tors operate to increase costs, there is 

 always the possibility of improved proc- 

 esses and of greater efficiency to keep 

 them down. The improvement oftenest in 



people's minds to-day is the utilization of 

 water powers to generate electricity, which 

 in turn may supply heat. Now, in a blast 

 furnace smelting iron ores, one third the 

 fuel is employed in reducing the iron 

 oxide and two thirds in developing the 

 necessary heat for the reaction. Were we 

 able with water powers to economically 

 furnish electricity and from it derive the 

 necessary heat we might save the two 

 thirds of the present amount of required 

 fuel. We might reduce costs. The re- 

 maining one third of the fuel we should 

 always need but it is possible that poorer 

 grades than high quality coke might an- 

 swer. The saving would lie, of course, in 

 the difference between the cost of the fuel 

 and the cost of the electric current, pro- 

 vided the latter could be furnished more 

 cheaply than the former. 



The water powers in our own country or 

 at least in the more thickly settled portions 

 of it, have not failed to attract attention, 

 nor have they gone altogether unutilized. 

 The more conveniently situated ones are 

 already harnessed to the dynamos. But in 

 countries like Norway and Sweden, where 

 there are large water powers still avail- 

 able, where there are rich deposits of ore and 

 where coal fails, the applications of elec- 

 tricity to iron smelting are likely to be first 

 worked out successfully. Data may be 

 furnished in the life-time of many of us, 

 which will cast light upon these improve- 

 ments in their world-wide relations. 



The only other apparent possibility of 

 reducing costs lies in the labor charges. 

 Wages at present are not unduly high, and 

 unless the increasing population of the 

 country brings to pass an inevitable strug- 

 gle for existence, which will cause the 

 greater subdivision of tasks at lower pro- 

 portionate returns or unless the general 

 reduction of expenses for subsistence makes 

 lower wages possible, there would seem to 



