882 
PAEIS UNIVEESAL 
invention of the day. This furnace embodies two distinct 
principles—the application of gaseous fuel and the “ regenera¬ 
tion ” of heat by means of piles of brick, alternately passed 
over by the waste gases and by the gases entering the furnace 
before combustion. By means of it not only is it possible to 
produce a better quality of steel and just the quality desired, and 
with less waste of iron, but also to use any sort of coal, and even 
lignite and peat. It has been wonderfully successful wherever 
introduced and must rapidly make its way into all countries. 
There were also at the Exhibition, shown by M. Berard and 
others, samples of steel made with the aid of the Siemens Fur¬ 
nace directly from pig iron. The process used by M. Berard 
is at once beautifully simple and effective. 
Apparently, we lack but one more step to insure the intro¬ 
duction of steel into much wider use, and its almost universal 
substitution for iron, to-wit, its direct manufacture from iron ore, 
without the intermediate agency of blast furnaces or any other 
agency or process. This also is furnished us. Even now, Mr. 
Siemens, availing himself of his furnace, offers to the world a 
method by which, in his opinion, this great desideratum is to be 
attained. A model of the furnace used by him in his experi¬ 
ments and a piece of steel manufactured directly from the ore 
were on exhibition at Paris. 
Whether it has been given to Mr. Siemens to take the last 
grand step or not, there is now no doubt that it will soon ’be 
taken. And when it comes, every department of industry 
will realize its immense value, for there will be scarcely any limit 
to the applications of steel. Navigation, railways, engineering, 
agriculture, architecture in every branch, and the whole world 
of operative machinery will receive such an impetus as they 
have not had since the invention of the steam engine. Even 
now, there is but little doubt that railway companies, could 
they afford the immediate outlay, would gain largely by the 
substitution of steel for iron rails as fast as they require renew¬ 
al. For, although the first cost would be considerably more, 
the steel rail would make a better road and last more than ten 
times, (General Morin, of France, says twenty-four times) as 
