1870.] The Metallurgical Industry of Cleveland. 195 



discussion has been going on amongst the Cleveland ironmasters 

 with reference to the maximum dimensions that may be allowed 

 in the blast furnaces consistent with a due regard to the highest 

 degree of scientific economy in the working of the same. Mr. 

 Isaac Lowthian Bell, who may perhaps be justly regarded as the 

 greatest authority in the science and practice of iron-making amongst 

 practical ironmasters, has taken his stand after having instituted 

 probably the most elaborate series of experiments in blast-furnace 

 practice ever made. The paper which he read at the Middles- 

 brough meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute, " On the Develop- 

 ment of Heat and its Appropriation in Blast Furnaces of different 

 Dimensions," treats the subject very exhaustively. Mr. Bell ob- 

 tained his data for calculation from furnaces of almost all capacities, 

 ranging between 3500 and 33,000 cubic feet, and his verdict was 

 that the most economical furnaces would ultimately prove to be 

 those having capacities ranging from 12,000 to 25,000 or 26,000 

 cubic feet. There are, however, many ironmasters and blast-fur- 

 nace managers who do not agree with the dictum pronounced by 

 Mr. Bell, and there is a great deal to be said in favour of the 

 assumption that the maximum limits have not yet been reached. 

 In the opinion of Mr. C. W. Siemens, F.K.S., great results must 

 be looked for rather by increase in the temperature of the blast 

 than by simply increasing the capacity or height of the furnace. 

 As a rule, every increase hitherto made in the heights of blast 

 furnaces has been attended with a saving of fuel, not in Cleve- 

 land only but in other iron districts also. For instance, by raising 

 the height of some of the cold-blast furnaces at the Lilleshall Iron 

 Works, Shropshire, from 50 to 70 feet, there was a saving of seven 

 or eight cwt. of coal per ton of iron made. 



The Cleveland furnaces present a remarkably strange appear- 

 ance to one who has been much accustomed to the iron-smelting 

 furnaces of the older iron districts. Elsewhere, as in many parts 

 of the " Black Country," Wales, and Ayrshire and Lanarkshire, the 

 furnaces are almost all provided with open tops from which great 

 tongues of flame are constantly belching forth, together with enor- 

 mous volumes of smoke, indicating prodigal waste of fuel ; in Cleve- 

 land, however, all the furnaces are close-topped, and the gases 

 generated in the interior are collected and utilized. In the Cleve- 

 land iron-smelter's vocabulary the term " waste gases " is unknown. 

 According to Mr. Bell,* the system now in operation in Cleveland 

 effects a saving of something like 600,000 tons of coal per annum 

 in those works smelting the ironstone of North Yorkshire. Such 

 scientific economy cannot fail to have important social and political 

 considerations. The mode of closing the furnaces is generally the 



* Paper read before the Chemical Society of London. ' Journal of the 

 Chemical Society,' June, 1869. 



