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NEW MODE OI‘ KANUFACTUBING IRON AND STEEL.

. The new and extremely ingenious process just patented by Mr. H. Bessemer, of ma- nufacturing malleable iron and steel with- out fuel, and recently propotinded by him at the meeting of the British Association for the advancement of Science, in a paper re- plete with interest, has just been put to a severe practical test, but with the most successful result, at Baxter-house, St. Pencras road, in tile occupation of that gentleman and his partner Mr. Longsdon, in the presence of several iron-masters carrying on an extensive business in diffe- rent parts of the country, and many prac- tical engineers and scientiﬁc men resident in the metropolis.

The magnitude and importance of this discovery of Mr. Bessemer can scarcely be exaggerated. The only parallel to it is to be found in the kindred invention of Henry Cort, which, towards the close of the last otgntury, relieved this country to a great extent from its commercial servitude to Russia and Sweden in regard to its supply of w _ght iron. Two years have been spent ‘ Mr. Bessemer in the perfection of his scheme; and when, the other day, he divulged it to the world before men distin- guished for their scientiﬁc attainments, and practical manufacturers well able to appre- ciate its vast public significance and its whole bearihg on the trade in which they are interested, it took them wholly by sur- prise, superseding as it does , the expensive, laborious, and tedious process now in use in the production, and the application in some cases, of malleable iron and steel in this and many other countries, cheapeiiiiig

those articles to an extent which will lead‘ I

to their employment, and especially steel,

for purposes to which they have never yetiviolent ebullition going on mixes most inti- deteriorate in vuIue_

been subservient, and in many respects re- ﬁning and improving the quality of the me- tal. Men like the two Rennies, Niismyth,

and others of minor note, but of great ex- metal most thoroughly from the silica and creases its vu|ue every year,

perience as engineers and iron manufactu-

rers, have pronounced emphatically and 2 the crude iron, while the sulphur and other They grow, to be sure, without cultivation; with-uut_ qualification in its favour, while volatile matters which cling so tenacionslyithey spring up spontaneously on till land, some, including ldasmyth, declare them- to iron at ordinary temperatures are driven and especujuy rich [am], but though -‘hey selves unable to foresee the whole of the golf, the sulphur combining with the oxygen _ cost no mil, a farmer tanner aﬁbrd to raise

advantageous results calculated to spring from its discovery; not to this country alone, but wherever else it may be hrouglit to use, The essential feature of Mr. Bessemer-'s invention is, that he takes crude iron direct- ly from the ordinary blast furnaces, and in the incredibly short space of tliiity minutes converts it into ingots of malleable iron or steel of any size, and fit for the various manipulations ordinarily einployeil to adapt them to all the material purposes to which they are now applied. He thus dispenses with all the intermediate processes to which recourse has been had to produce the same effect within the‘ last 70 years, including the making iron into pigs, and the reﬁning, paddling, and squeezing sta- ges, with all their attendant labour and fuel. Paradoxical as it may seem, it is not the less true, that he has achieved this great result by the application to the iron, in its transition from the blast furnace to the condition of the ingot, ofa heat inconceiv- ably intense, generated without furnace or fuel, and simply by blasts of cold air. By _ this means he not only avoids the injurious action of mineral fuel on the iron under operation, which has always detorioriated the quality of Engilish iron, but saves the expense of the fue . ‘He sets out with the assumption, that crude iron contains about 5 percent of carbon; that carbon cannot

exist at a white heat in the presence of

oxygen without uniting therewith and pro- ducit? combustion; that such combustion woul proceed with a rapidity dependent oiuhe atndtirit of surface of carbon exposed; and, lastly, that the temperature which the metal would acquire would be also depen- the rapidity with which the oxygen -- were made to combine, and ' 9-tly. that it was only necessary to -‘ oxygen and carbon together in ' er that a vast surface should -' to their mutual action, in order

largest furnaces. Wiiha 'eiv _ eticall this theory, he as , ‘a cyliti rieal vessel of three , - er and ﬁve feet in height, " . e an ordinary cupols furnace,

' mtemperature hitherto unattain-

HASZAiu)’S t.‘.w.i-:"i-i'i~._, OCTOBER 1.

the interior which is lined with ﬁre bricks, and at about two inches from the bottom of it he inserted ﬁve tuyere pipes, the nozzles ofwliich are formed of well burnt ﬁre clay, the oriﬁce ofeach tuyere being about three- eighth: of an inch in diameter. At one side of the vessel, about .hulf-way up front the bottom, there is a hole made for run- ning in the crude metal, and on the oppo- site side there is a tap-liolc stopped with loam, by which the iron is run out at the end of the process. A Vessel is placed so near to the discharge hole ofthe blast fur- nace as to allow the iron to flow along a utter into it, and ii small blast cylinder is used capable of compressing air to about Slbs. or ltllbs. to the square inch. A com- munication having been made,between it and the tuyeres, the converting versel is in a condition to commence work. The blast being turned on, and the fluid iron run into the vessel, a rapid boiling up ofthe metal is heard going on within the vessel, the metal being tossed violently about and dashed from side to side, shaking the vessel by the force with which it moves fi-om the throat of the converting vessel. This con- tinues for about ﬁfteen or twenty minutes, during which the oxygen in the atinosplieric air combines with the carbon contained in the iron, producing carbonic acid gas, and at the same time evolving a powerful heat.‘ The rapid union of carbon and oxygen adds still further to the temperature of the’ metal, while the diminished quantity of carbon present allows a part of the oxygen‘, to combine with the iron, which undergoes’ combustion and is converted into an oxide.‘ At the excessive temperature that the me-l tul has now acquired, the oxide, as soon as formed, undergoes fusion, and forms a powerful solvent of those earthly bases; that are associated «with the iron.—'l‘he,

lmatcly the scoria and metal, every part of ‘which is thus brought in contact with the ‘fluid oxide, which washes and cleanses the .

lather earthly bases that are combined with?

‘and forming siilphtirous acid gas. ' 5qrs. llllb. molten iron from a furnace was

described, at 12 minutes past 1 o'clock, the‘

until 27 minutes past I. The mass of metal began to boil up, and the cinders and other impurities were extruded from the top of the vessel by two apertures provided for the purpose. Showers of brilliant sparks were thrown off during this process, which lasted several minutes; and as the object was to produce a mass of cast steel, rather than continue the process to the extent necessa- ry for making pure iron free from carbon, the vessel was tapped at 36 minutes ‘past I and the contents drawn off. Small speci- men ingots being lirst taken, the general mass was run into an ingeniously contrived mould concealed in the lloor in front of the apparatus, and after remaining there for a few minutes, cooling own, it was raised out of the mould in a red-hot state by an hydraulic rain, and placed upon a weighing machine. The ingot thus produced, with the two specimen ingots, weighed 6 cwt. Without the aid of fuel this mass of mate- rial was converted in 24 minutes from crude cast iron as it comes from the blast furnace into steel offine quality.

The experiment was unanimously pro- nounced by the company to be perfectly satisfactory. It is a peculiar and im ortant feature in the roces that by continuing the boiling for a tew minutes lon er the whole of the carbon still remdnin in the mass of metal, and which gives to it the character known as steel, would have been drawn off, and a pure spongy mass of crystalline iron would have been the resu t.

Mr. Bessemer states, that hitherto the

n conducting the demonstration, 6 cwt.:would, with proper cultivation, nourish a

poured into the ﬁre-brick vessel, alreadyl blast having been applied at a pressure of about 8 lbs per square inch, and continued‘

tion we shall no longer be dependent on the

foreign market for the production of iron of

the finest quality. He also speaks with something like enthusiasm of the extent to which what he calls semi-steel, of a quality between malleable iron and steel in ordinary use, as manufactured under his patent, may be expected to supersede in time the use of malleable iron for railway plates and many other purposes to which the latter is not altogether adapted; and he as conﬁ- dently asserts, that the process of forging and welding, which, under the existing

system, is necessary whenever a piece of

iron-work of a larger size than from 80lb. to l00lb. is required to be constructed, will be dispensed with. He looks, also, to the universal use of his discovery, seeing

that atmospheric air is the prime element

used in producin the desired result; it is not, therefore, ependent upon any local circumstances.—London Times.

WHAT A POOR FLRHER CANNOT AFFORD. at uoitacit oaasu.

The truth I am most anxious to impress, is that no poor man can afford to be a poor farmer. VVhcn I have recommended agri- cultural improvements, Iliave often been told, ‘this expensive farming will do well enough for rich people, but we who are in moderate circumstances can't atl'ord it.’ Now, it is not ornamental farming thatl recommend, but proﬁtable farming. It is true, that the amount of a man's capital must fix the limit of his business, in agri- culture, as in cvcrytliing else. But how- ever poor you may be, you can afford to cultivate land well, if you can afford to cultivate it at all.

No poor man can afford to cultivate his land, in such a manner as will cause if to Good farming im- proves the value of land, and the t':n-mer who manages his farm, so as to gt‘! the largest ciop it is capable Of yielding, in-

No farmer can afford to produce weeds.

them. The same elements that feed them, crop, and no farmer enn afford to oxpen on weeds, the natural wealth which was bestowed by Providence to fill his grana- ‘ries. I am accustomed, my friends, to estimate the Christianity of the localities through which I pass, by the absence of weeds on and about the farms. When I see a farm covered by a gigantic growth of weeds, I take it for granted, that the owner is a heathen, a herctic, or an 'aiﬁdel—ii Christian he cannot be, or he would not allow the heritage which God gave him to dress and keep, to be deformed and pro- faned. ,

No farmer can afford to sell‘liis ashes. Depend upon it, there is nobody in the world to whom these are worth so much as to -yourselves. You can't afford to sell them, but a farmer can well atford to buy ashes at a higher price than is paid by any- body thnt does not wish to use them as fer- tilizers ofthe soil. Situated as the farmers of this country are in the neighborhood of a city that burns large quantities of wood for fuel, you should make it 1 part of your system of farming to seems all the ashes it produces. When your teams go to town with loads of wood, it would cost compara- tivcly little to bring back-loads of ashes and other fertiizers that would improve the productivenessof your farms.

No poor farm can afford to keep fruit trees that doinot bear good fruit. Good fruit is alwa a valuable, and should be raised by thekrmer, not only for market, but for large nsumpti in his own family. ‘As more enli htened vi ws of diet prevail, fruit is desti d to supplant the expensive quantities ofiinimal food that are consumed in this countiy. This fienge will produce

igor of body, acti-

ﬁnest qualities of iron have always been’ imported from Sweden and Russia,and these.

£30 a ton; but by the new process, iron can ’ be manufactured of equal quality at a cost of2.t' per ton less than the present cost of_ common English iron. If this statement?

are now sold in this country from £20 to;

better healt , greater vit of ind and clasti ity of spirits, and cannot on , that the t will come ivlicn

farmers, instead of puting down the large quantities of meat they do at present, will give their attention in, tiimn to the pre- servation of large quli ities of excellent

summer. Fruit will not then appear on the table as it does now, only as dagger; ‘ﬂog- diniier, but will come with every meal and be reckoned a substantial alimeiit. . '

now cost. was Maps,

Geology has proved that, at one period, there existed an enormously abundant land vegetation, the ruins or rubbish of which, ciirﬁed into seas, and there sunk to the bottom, and afterwards covered over by sand and mud beds, became the substance which we now recognize as coal. This was a natural transaction of vast conse- quence to us, seeing how much utility we ﬁnd in coal, both for warming our dwel- lings and for various manufactures, as well as the production of steam, by which so great a mechanical wer is generated.

t may naturally excite surprise, that the vegetable remains should have so complete- ly changed their apparent character, and become blaclt. But this can be explained by chemistry; and part of the marvel becomes clear to the simplest understand- ing, when we recall the familiar fact that damp hay thrown closely into a heap, gives out heat, and becomes of a dark color.

VV‘hen a vegetable mass is excluded from the air, and subjected to great pressure, a bituminous fermentation is produced, and the rm-iilt is the mineral coal—-which is of various charatere, accordin as the mass has been originally interming ed with sand, clay, or other earthly impurities. n ac- count of the change effected by minerali- zation, it is difficult to detect in coal the traces of a vegetable structure; but these can be made clear in all. except the highly bitumiiioua caking coal, by cutting or polishing it down into thin, transparent slices,when the microscope ehews the ﬁbres and cells very plain y.

From distinct isolated specimens found in the sand stones amidst the coal beds, we discover the nature of this era. They are almost all of a simple cellular structure, and such as exist with us in small forms, (horse tails, club mosses and fens,) but advanced to an enormous magnitude.—The species are‘ all long since extinct. The vegetation generally is such as now grown in clusters of tropical islands; but it must have been the result of a high temperature obtained otherwise than thiit ofthe tropical regions new ii‘, for the coal eti-eta are now found in the temperate and even the polar re ions.

The conclusion, therefore, to which most geologists have arrived is that the earth, originally an incandescent or highly heated mass, gradually cooled down, until, in the carboniferous period_ it fostered a growth ofterrcstrialvegctation all over its surface, to which the existing jungles of the tropics are mere barrenness, in comparison. The high and uniform temperature, combined with a greater pro oi-tion of carbonic acid gas in the manu acture, could not only sustain gigantic and proliﬁc vegetation, but would also create dense vapours, showers and rain; and these again, gigantic rivers, periodical inundations, and deltas. Thus, all the conditions, for extensive deposits of wood in estuaries, would arise from this high temperature; and every circumstance connected with the coal measures points to such conditions.

VsN'rii.ariNo HAY-STACKl.—Th0 British farmers have a method of ventilating their hay, oat, and barley stacks, which we may frequently adopt with advantage; and in stacking corn-stalks it would be always beneﬁcial. 'l‘hcy ﬁll a large bag, say three and a half feet high and twenty inches in diameter, with straw, and lace it verti- cally in the centre of the attic , putting the barley, oats, or hay, whichever it may hap- pen to be, around it. As the stack rises they lift the slack, and so on to the top. In this way, there is it chimney formed-in the centre of the rick or bay, into which the steam or gases generated ﬁnd their way and escape readily.

\Vi_s-rise CiiItsoI:.—Rest is a very ﬁne medi- cine. Let your stomach rest, ye dyspeptics. Let your brain rest, ye wearied and worried men of business. Rest your limbs, ye children oftoil. You can't? Cut oﬂ' all superﬂuities of appetite

fruit for consumption, ‘as a regular article

be borne out by experience of this inven-lot diet, the early patt' of the following-Ind l'l'hl°l|- Ind '90 if Y0“ ¢|""-

'4.