536 Progress in Science. ^Odtober, 



president took occasion to compare the iron industry of Belgium, France, 

 and Germany with that of our own country. 



In a very readable paper communicated to the Institute, M. Julien Deby 

 traced the rise and progress of the iron and steel industries of Belgium. 

 Going back beyond the ken of history, he said that archaeological discoveries of 

 quite recent date, still unpublished, seemed to indicate that at the period of 

 the Roman Invasion iron had already been made in Belgium though unknown 

 to the inhabitants of the British Isles. M. Piot has found in Brabant and 

 elsewhere vast heaps of cinder, associated with stone arrow-heads and frag- 

 ments of coarse potter}-, the relics of a non-historic iron-working folk. In 

 connection with the recent progress of the Belgian iron industry it may be 

 stated that the first Danks's rotary puddling furnace was erected a few months 

 back at the works of the Societe Anonyme of Sclessin. As to the Belgian 

 steel trade, which is comparatively of recent* date, it appears that both 

 Bessemer's and Siemens's processes are largely used, and that in 1S72 as 

 much as 15,284 tons of steel were made in the province of Liege alone. 



A paper " On the Economical Preparation of Iron for the Danks's Puddling 

 Furnace" was read before the Institute by Mr. C. Wood, of Middlesbrough. 

 One of the difficulties of Danks's system is the mode of melting the pig-iron ; 

 if, as is commonly the case, the pigs are broken in halves and thrown direct 

 into the rotary furnace, a long time is occupied in melting them, and during 

 this time the furnace cannot be rotated, as any motion would evidently tend to 

 knock the heavy bars against the lining of the converter, and thus cause injury. 

 To obviate this inconvenience, it has been proposed to melt the iron in a cupola 

 before running it into the rotator. But as this is an expensive method, Mr. Wood 

 suggests that the pig-iron should be granulated by aid of the simple machine 

 which he has successfully used for granulating blast-furnace slag. The re- 

 volving furnace is charged with the granulated pig-iron, and set in motion at 

 once. 



It is well known that for some time past, Dr. C. W. Siemens, F.R.S., has been 

 actively engaged in developing his processes for the direct conversion of iron 

 ores into wrought-iron and steel. His results were laid before the Chemical 

 Society last spring in a valuable lecture " On Smelting Iron and Steel," which 

 has been published in the July number of the Society's journal. It is un- 

 necessary to offer an abstract of this lecture, as the metallurgical reader can 

 so readily refer to the original, where he will have the benefit of consulting 

 the accompanying illustrations. 



Messrs. Gerhard and Caddich, of the Brierley Foundry, Bradley, have 

 lately been turning out blooms of finished iron made direct from the ore by a 

 new process. Ground haematite is mixed with fluxing and reducing agents in 

 the form of lime and pitch, and the mixture baked in a coke oven. A furnace 

 is charged with this preparation, and it is said that in half an hour the iron is 

 turned out ready for the helve or the squeezers. 



As all questions relating to the economy of fuel are of first importance to 

 the metallurgist, we readily call attention to an excellent paper by Mr. Emerson 

 Bainbridge, "On Coppee's Patent Coke Ovens, and the extent to which their 

 Waste Gases can be Utilised," a parer recently published, with numerous 

 illustrations, in the " Transactions of the North of England Institute of 

 Mining and Mechanical Engineers." The iron manufacturer is so large a 

 consumer of coke that any improvement in its manufacture closely affects his 

 interest. The ovens almost universally used in this country for the pre- 

 paration of coke are of that form known as the Beehive. Coppee's system is 

 considered by the writer to present great advantages over these English ovens ; 

 but though it has been in operation on the Continent for at least a dozen 

 years there have been but few of them erected in this country. The advantages 

 of the Coppee ovens are — first, the retention in the form of coke of the largest 

 possible proportion of the carbon of the coal ; secondly, the utilisation of the 

 heat of the evolved gases, by the use of flues so arranged as to impart an intense 

 heat to the inside of the oven, and thus facilitate the expulsion of the gases ; 

 and thirdly, the application of the heat retained by the gases as they leave the 



