196 Tlie Metallurgical Industry of Cleveland. [April, 



same in principle throughout the whole district : it is the well- 

 known hopper-and-cone arrangement ; and the gases are drawn off 

 very near the top of the furnace, and conducted away by means of 

 capacious tubes to be used in generating steam and in heating the 

 air of the blast. Theoretically, there should be no coal used in 

 either of these operations; they should both be accomplished by 

 means of the furnace gases, and in practice this state of perfection 

 is fully reached at some of the works.* As coke is the fuel used 

 in Cleveland, the combustible gas which is generated consists almost 

 entirely of carbonic oxide, and it is the calorific power of this gas 

 which the iron-smelter has to utilize. Of course, there is also the 

 atmospheric nitrogen of the air of the blast passing through the 

 furnace. Of necessity, it absorbs a vast amount of heat, but of this 

 heat it is well deprived before it is thrown back into the atmo- 

 sphere. 



Since the hopper-and-cone arrangement of closing the furnace- 

 top was generally adopted throughout Cleveland, it has been very 

 materially improved, especially by Mr. Charles Cochrane, of the 

 Ormesby Iron Works, Middlesbrough, a gentleman who is now one 

 of the most active spirits in suggesting and applying improve- 

 ments in blast-furnace practice. Within the last few years he has 

 contributed no fewer than five papers on various phases of blast- 

 furnace economy to the ' Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical 

 Engineers,' and all of them have been marked by indefatigable per- 

 severance and by great practical and scientific attainments. His 

 improved arrangement is that of the double-closed furnace-top, and 

 has for its object the diminution of the amount of gas escaping 

 from the furnace at the time of charging. It has done this so 

 effectually that for one furnace the saving in fuel alone is equal to 

 about 164/. per annum, while the necessary apparatus only costs 

 200Z. 



In the hands of the Cleveland ironmasters the great invention 

 which was given to the world by James Beaumont Neilson, namely, 

 the hot-blast, has of late almost revolutionized even Cleveland iron- 

 smelting. Neilson seemed to think that he had arrived at the 

 acme of perfection when he got the temperature of the blast raised 

 to about 60CP Fahrenheit ; and in Scotland, where the invention had 

 its birth, the blast is rarely heated much beyond that temperature. 

 But in Cleveland, where no such deference is paid to old customs 

 and traditions as they receive in Scotland and in South Stafford- 

 shire, there seems to be no resting-place. Improvement succeeds 

 improvement with extraordinary rapidity, and at present it is in the 

 direction of increased temperature in the blast rather than in increase 

 of furnace capacity that further economy is to be sought for. It is 



* At Mr. Saniuelson's Newport furnaces no coal whatever has been used for 

 several months. 



