METALLURGY. S7 



tiling, the fuel used is charcoal Some works employwood 

 and charcoal, and in the south-western portion of the 

 countrj' iron is smelted with mineral fuel. Generally the 

 ores are prepared by roasting and breaking, and only in 

 rare instances, as at Kiselovo, are they washed. Roasting 

 is usually done in heaps in the vicinity of 4he mines. 

 Kilns are rarely used. The fuel is almost exclusively 

 wood, the quantity being, for instance, 35 cubic feet per 

 2'5 metric tons, at Gora Blagodat, in roasting in heaps ; 

 and 35 cubic feet per 3'145 metric tons in Raschett kilns, 

 at Visokaja-Gora. Only at some of the works, where the 

 roasting kilns are near the furnaces, as at Malceff and 

 Stroganoff, waste gas is used. Latterly, vertical kilns, 

 built after a Styrian (Austrian) model, have been put up 

 at Katakov, for furnace gas ; and at several Government fur- 

 naces for smelting brown hematites, an apparatus, designed 

 by Moskvin, has been constructed. It consists of a series 

 of cast-iron segments placed above the tunnel-head, from 

 which the ore, roasted by the flame issuing from the fur- 

 nace, is dropped into it at a red heat, by loosening the 

 keys which hold the segments together. The ore is gene- 

 rally broken by hand, but a^t some works the cheaper 

 method of using a Blake crusher has been adopted. 



' The pine or birch wood generally available is converted 

 into charcoal in vertical meilers, as in the north of Russia, 

 and in Poland ; sometimes, as in the Moskow district, 

 horizontal meilers are employed. Two kinds of kilns, the 

 Mosolovski, having a capacity of 850 to 5,500 cubic feet, 

 and the Schwarz kiln, ranging from 4,250 to 10,000 cubic 

 feet, are used — the former chiefly in the north-east, and 

 the latter in Finland and Olonec. The circumstance that 

 the supplies of charcoal are rarely stored under cover is a 

 great disadvantage. The measure for charcoal is the basket, 

 holding from 49 to 162 cubic feet, the standard being 71* 

 cubic feet in north-eastern Russia and Finland. In Central 

 Russia, the unit is the " Tschetwert" of 7t cubic feet, and 



^ Equal to about 45 bushels of 2,748 cubic inches, 

 t Equal to 4 4-10 bushels. 



