SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
99 
Titanifei'ous Magnetites. — In an article in the Chemical News for December 
lltb, Mr. David Forbes says that tbe only objection to tbe use of titani- 
ferous ores for smelting is that they are found to be more and more refractory 
in tbe blast-furnace in proportion as they contain a greater percentage of 
titanic acid. If much titanium is present, they require so much larger an 
amount of charcoal to smelt them as not to render their employment profit- 
able in a country where other ores free from titanium can be obtained at a 
reasonable rate. Employing a mixture of stamped quartz and lime as a 
flux Mr. Forbes obtained very satisfactory results •, and when the amount of 
titanium in the ore did not exceed 8 per cent., or was reduced to this per- 
centage by admixture of other ores of iron free from titanic acid, no difficulty 
was experienced in working this ore cleanly and profitably. The cast iron 
produced contained no phosphorus, only a trace of sulphur, and afforded 
0-05 per cent, titanic acid, equal to 0’03 per cent, titanium, which Mr. Forbes 
imagines was rather mechanically intermixed than chemically combined 
with the iron. The cast iron, however, possessed a peculiar fracture, not 
easily described, but easily distinguished by the furnace-men, who could at 
once recognise the pig from these ores even after it had been remelted in 
the cupola. 
Assay of Silver in the Wet way. — It is well known to assayers that a diffi- 
culty in the application of Gay-Lussac’s process for assaying silver has to 
be got over, arising from the fact that in adding to the silver solution the 
standard solution of salt, a point is reached when the liquid will give a 
precipitate by the addition of either silver solution or'chloride of sodium. 
M. Stas points out in a letter to M. Dumas that this is entirely avoided by 
substituting bromide for the chloride. — Comptes-JRenduSj Nov. 30th. 
Convei'sion of Pig Iron into Steel. — The Mining Journal speaks very 
highly of the working of Mr. Heaton’s patent at the Works close to the 
Langley Mills Station of the Midland Dailway. The process by which 
the iron is converted is by the use of nitrate of soda, by which the whole 
of the phosphorus is evolved. The pig iron is put into an ordinary furnace 
for about three-quarters of an hour, and then is run into the converter, and 
in the course of four or five minutes the converting process has been com- 
pleted. The process for melting the pig iron is an ordinary one, there 
being an inclined tramway leading to a platform, and thence to the charge- 
hole. There are tuyeres for supplying air to the cupola, without any 
blowing engine. The steel is of uniform character, and appears to be 
capable of being adapted for almost every purpose for which steel is 
generally used. The cost of the plant necessary for the Heaton process 
does not exceed 600^. 
METEOEOLOGY, 
The Carbonaceous Matter of Meteorites, — By applying to the carbo- 
naceous matter found in some meteorites his method of hydrogenating 
organic carbon compounds so as to convert them into their corresponding 
carburetted hydrogens’, M. Berthelot has obtained carbo-hydrogens, both 
liquid and gaseous, which are similar to those of petroleums. A new aua- 
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