Important Discovery

The problem of the utilization of poor iron has been solved by an invention patentsd in the United States and Europe. The object of the inventor has been to make superior iron f rom ores of any description or from pig iron, by purifying the inferior qualities at one smelting operation. He does this by placing uay one ton of inferior iron in a furnace capable of resisting great heat; to this is added 100 lbs. of good iron and from 25 to 65 lbs. of scoria, or tap-cinder. These are melted together for two hours and a half at the heat in whieh steel melts. When drawn off the metal is found to be perfectly refined iron. The chief merit of the invention is, however, that a steel equal to Bessemer's can be made from a poor pig iron or ores at one smelting by the following proeess: The same quautities as before of poor iron and scoria are melted with 100 lbs. of scrap iron for forty minutes at the temperature of melting steel. It will then be found that the scoria floating on the surf ace has taken upthe impunities. Tliis is drawn off, and 25 or 26 lbs. of hematite added to the mixture, the whole being lightly stirred. Three ounces of black oxide of manganese are then introduced, and this is immediately followed by one-half a pound to 31 pounds of chloride of ammonia. The furnace is run again thirty minutes, when 100 lbs. of spiegel eisen is introduced, and the whole lightly stirred, The invention is of the greatest importance to any district, where impure iron is produced, and it will doubtless, on the return of a brisk trade, be the means of giving it a new lease of life.