1871.] 155 : [Lesley. 
The explanation is as follows:—Titanie acid will not combine readily 
with either the acid or the alkaline oxides. In every ton of ore (holding 
10 per cent. of it) 320 Ibs. of this neutral stuff exists, or (14 tons of ore 
to 1 ton of iron) 830 Ibs. of it in every ton of iron. If only 1-10 of this 
(or 83 lbs.) remains in the furnace, the gradual accumulation blocks it 
up. The only solvent of it are the double silicates of iron and lime, or 
iron and alumina and lime, or iron and potash and lime, &e. To make 
these double silicates, we must waste a good deal of iron, But the one 
object of the blast furnace is to save all the iron, and the best cinder is 
that which has no iron left in it, all the iron of the burden having gone 
down into the hearth as pure metal (with enough carbon to make it fusi- 
ble). The Catalan forge, on the contrary, wastes iron, and its cinders 
are so rich in iron, that they are often worked over again ; hence, titanic 
acid is carried off, and does not obstruct the hearth. The forge fire is, 
therefore, the best to reduce titaniferous iron ores. But the blast fur- 
nace can smelt them also, if the heat be kept low, and some of the iron 
be allowed to go to waste in the cinders, to carry off the titanic acid and 
cinder mass. The object then, must be to make the utmost quantity of 
the most fusible cinder; therefore, a blast furnace running on titaniferous 
ores, should not be fluxed by pure limestone, pure clay, or pure sand, but 
with ferruginous clay, ferruginous slate, or ferruginous limestone. These 
fluxes will dissolve titanic acid at a low heat. To get gray pig iron, the 
cinder must be abundant ; to get white forge metal, but little flux is need- 
edin comparison, the ore itself being wasted to form cinder. This white 
iron with a large amount of carbon in it, is just the metal from which 
terman steel is manufactured. A high stack and a small hearth, like the 
Styrian furnaces, and ferruginous fluxes, are the best for titaniferous ores, 
Osborne says (page 475), that Mr. Henderson writes him that the Nor- 
wegian ores are successfully used at Norton, England, on a plan inyented 
by John Player, although they contain (by one anlaysis) 
CEitanG WCieieg oe ee Chey eS eee 40.95 
POLO A IPONS eccrine, oi) ceb eee tisaes 22.63) 51 59 
Prokos MON es ree ee re es 26.96 
Magiesian ¢ 2055. o.oo oe fp iy 
ge 9 | 
Alumina Sie a a eats wee ee ean ZRII Ss "St 
UGH ies os el nee en es For a 42 { 
PVOUOR) WANG, foo es Sys se 56 J 100.35 
being smelted in small furnaces with 1000°F temperature of blast, 2 
tons of coal to 24 tons of ore, 15 cwt. of limestone, 10 cwt. basalt rock. 
«The iron becomes titanized, and is found to be exceedingly strong, 
and is used in Europe for armor plates, commanding three times the price 
of ordinary pig iron. The tensile strength of the resulting wrought 
iron, when puddled, is about 52} tons to the square inch. There is very 
little carbon in the pig-metal produced, and being almost steel, in puddling 
it requires but half the time of ordinary pig metal.” 
Muchat’s Sicel is a titanic tron, with the peculiarity of being sufficiently 
hard after being heated red hot and forged, not to require tempering, 
As 3s. yy VOn. Xi Tt 
