238 Treatment of Melted Cast Iron 
from these experiments, and Mr. S. H. Blackwell having 
subsequently supplied me with a small blowing engine, 
capable of maintaining a blast of ten pounds pressure per 
square inch, I operated upon quantities of melted cast iron 
of from 500 lbs. to 800 lbs.,.and with a similar success, the 
Bessemer metal being wholly freed from unsoundness, red- 
shortness, and other defects which had precluded its being 
forged or rolled into a marketable product. The British 
pig iron that I found best suited for the joint processes of 
Mr. Bessemer and myself, were the Lancashire and Cum- 
berland hematite iron, the Weardale Spathose iron, and the 
Forest of Dean pig iron; of foreign brands, the Indian 
charcoal pig, and some manganesic pig iron from Sweden 
gave the best results, though not so satisfactory as those 
obtained when hematite coke pig iron was employed. 
Much remains to be done to extend the use of the pneu- 
matic or Bessemer process to the ordinary brands of pig 
iron at present considered to be unfit for this purpose. I 
am, I believe, in possession of the requisite knowledge to 
accomplish all this, and I am only waiting the opportunity 
to do so, whenever the Titanic Steel Company, with whom 
I am associated, shall consider that the proper time has 
arrived for them to erect a suitable Bessemer apparatus at 
their works. The means are, I believe, as simple and effica- 
cious as is the addition of Spiegel-Eisen, now universally 
employed by all Mr. Bessemer’s licences in England, and 
the resulting advantages will be proportionally great. In 
Sweden the Bessemer process has been carried out by 
operating on certain brands of Swedish pig iron, containing 
a considerable alloy of metallic manganese. The result is 
that, with the subsequent addition of a little of the same 
manganesic pig iron in lieu of Spiegal-Eisen, a workable 
steel is produced of moderate quality, but too seamy and 
unsound to be of much value for tools, and not nearly so 
tough and strong as the Bessemer steel made in this coun- 
try by our own coke pig irons. I have recently experi-— 
mented carefully upon this Swedish steel, and find it quite 
unsuited for the market, and most irregular in quality. It 
can never enter into competition with our English Bessemer 
steel. In treating melted cast iron by the pneumatic or 
Bessemer process, the simplest plan is to deprive the iron 
of the whole of its silicon and carbon. In this case the ad- 
dition of a grain weight of Spiegel-Eisen, or of any similar 
metallic compound of iron and manganese containing car- 
bon to a grain weight of decarbonized iron, will insure re- 
‘* 
