May 15, 1914.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

1079

THE IR0M AMD STEEL INSTITUTE.

Annual Meeting.

The 45th annual general meeting of the Iron and
Steel Institute was held last week in the new building
of the Institution of Civil Engineers, by permission of
the council of the latter society. The meeting com-
menced on May 7, the chair being taken by the retiring
president, Dr. Arthur Cooper.

The report stated that the total membership of the
institute on December 31, 1913, was 2,102, there being
2,030 ordinary members, 64 life members, seven honorary
members, and one patron. The financial position of the
institute continued to be satisfactory. The statement of
accounts for 1913 showed the total receipts for the year
to have been £6,591 19s. 7d., and the expenditure
.£6,273 6s. 5d.; the excess of income over expenditure
being thus £318 13s. 2d. The corresponding figures for
1912 were :—Receipts £6,843 15s. 6d., and expenditure
£5,793 7s. 8d.

Dr. Cooper then introduced the new president, Dr.
Adolphe Greiner, of Seraing, Belgium. Dr. Greiner’s
first duty, after having thanked the members for his
election, was to present the Bessemer medal. This was
awarded by the council to Mr. Edward Riley, F.I.C.
Dr. Greiner stated that Mr. Riley joined the Dowlais
Works as chemist in 1853, and there followed the first
experiments made at these works with the Bessemer
process. Later, he started in private practice, and to
show the confidence which the late Sir Henry Bessemer
reposed in him, Dr. Greiner stated that that great
inventor always sent all his materials to Mr. Riley for
analysis. Mr. Riley also worked in the early years in
the manufacture of ferro-manganese, and the reputation
he had acquired led him to be recognised as an expert
analyst for the ores used in this manufacture. His
papers before the Chemical Society and the Iron and
Steel Institute were recognised as standards, and
although he had now retired from active work, he still
followed with great interest the proceedings of the
technical societies.

Dr. Greiner next proceeded to deliver his inaugural
address.

By-products of Steel Manufacture.

Dr. Greiner’s address was devoted mainly to the
by-products of the manufacture of steel. Before deal-
ing with this question, however, he applied himself to
the question, “ What is steel?” In 1870, he said, in a
paper read before the Association des Ingenieurs de
1’Ecole des Mines de Liege, he had suggested that “ the
word steel should be reserved for all malleable products
obtained, in a state of fusion, from iron ores,” and
added, “ in order that no confusion can arise betwixt
these three terms, iron, cast iron, and steel, it should be
understood that—■

“Iron is a non-molten and malleable metal,

“ Cast iron is a molten but non-malleable metal, and
“Steel is a molten and malleable metal.”

Further, he made the remark that “ the liquid state in
which molten steel is obtained is its characteristic pro-
perty; the source of the principal applications of this
metal.” Discussions had taken place and resolutions
had been passed which, far from throwing any light upon
the question, served only further to complicate it. Some
new terms were sanctioned, such as flusseisen, ingot
iron, homogeneous iron, etc., which for several years
served to facilitate the introduction of steel products
under the heading of “ iron ” in countries where the
Customs tariffs were indefinite. The fiscal authorities,
however, sooner or later became more enlightened and
recovered their dues. Since that period the question
was, so to speak, allowed to slumber until the New York
Congress, held under the presidency of Prof. Howe, who
made a vain endeavour to reduce the problem to its
simplest terms. Personally he felt certain that the
term “ steel ” would extend its meaning to embrace
every variety of molten and malleable metal, from the
very softest to the hardest susceptible of acquiring
temper. Indeed, he believed that the term “ iron ”
would some day be limited exclusively to denote the
elemental unit of chemical nomenclature : the element
never met within a pure state, either underground or in
any metallurgical process, but which, melted with other
bodies, such as silicon, carbon, tungsten, etc., actually
gives birth to the malleable and widely-varying products
of modern metallurgy.

Dr. Greiner then entered upon the subject of his
address, and passed over in brief review the numerous
“ by-products ” of present day metallurgy. There was
now, so to speak, hardly a single works of importance
that did not consist of several departments closely
linked together in interest and subject to a common
control. Coke ovens, blast furnaces, steel works, with
converters or open hearth furnaces, rolling mills and
forges, constituted a harmonious whole to which all the
parts contribute their co-operation in order to effect the
greatest possible economy in working. They had left
far behind them the time when everything was sacrificed
to the production of a beautiful, silvery, metallic-looking
coke, such as that of the celebrated beehive ovens of
Durham, which formerly discharged into the atmosphere
torrents of smoke, and at night lit up the skies and the
vicinity at the expense of a proper yield of product.
Since 1880 progress had been made, and from any of
the modern coke ovens coke of the requisite quality may
be expected and obtained.

Dr. Greiner next considered what secondary products
may be obtained from coke ovens :—

(1) Goke Oven Gas.—This gas, which is exceedingly rich
in calories (3,700 to 4,000 per cu. m.), was formerly used
almost exclusively in heating the coke ovens themselves,
being carried away by flues beneath the bottoms of the
retorts or between the walls, and burned with the aid of
unheated air admitted through openings on the outside. The
burnt gas passed under boilers, where it served to produce

fairly approximately the amount of steam required for the
ovens, and for the manufacture of sulphate.

It is somewhat astonishing that so many years should
have passed before the advantages of burning the gases
by heated air should have been taken into consideration.
The application of Siemens regenerators would appear to
have been plainly foreshadowed; it is possible that manu-
facturers shrank from the expense, otherwise regenerative
ovens would have been introduced long ago. Thanks to
regeneration, 50 per cent, of the gas is, as a matter of fact,
saved, and it is permissible to say that the saving will not
stop at this, and that the important heat losses due to
charging the coal and to the discharging and quenching of
the coke will also be reduced. Besides this, it is found
on studying the heat balance sheet of the working of a coke
oven that the calorific energy absorbed by the distillation
proper of the coal is of very little importance as compared
with the heat losses of every other description. On the
other hand, if the process of the distillation of coal and of
the heating of the walls and hearths of the furnace had been
more accurately reasoned out, it would almost certainly have
been recognised that the gas from coke ovens is of far too
rich a quality to be employed for such purposes, and that it
would be much better to reserve it for other metallurgical
uses, and to substitute for it a gas of poorer quality, yet
sufficiently rich to produce the desired calorific effect. ,

It should also be noted that coke oven gas, which is rich
in methane, can only be employed in the cold state, as
some of its most valuable elements of combustion are decom-
posed by heat. The following table shows the average
composition and heat values of the three gases most fre-
quently employed in the industries :—

Average Composition and Heat Value of Gases.

I	Coke-oven Producer Blastfurnace		
	gas.	gas.	gas.
Hydrogen 		57	..	12	...	‘ 3
Carbon monoxide ...	6	..	19	26
Carbon dioxide 		2	8	11
Methane 		23	..	2	0
Nitrogen		19	..	59	60
	—				—
	100	..	.	100	...	100
Calories per cubic			
metre 		3,761	. 1,068	...	873

These data, which vary at different works, are those
obtained in the laboratory at Seraing. Now both experience
and calculation show that the temperature of combustion of
a mixture of producer-gas and air heated to 900 degs. reaches
1,980 degs. Cent., which is practically equal to the tempera-
ture of combustion of a mixture of cold coke oven gas with
air heated to 600 degs., which reaches a temperature of
1,940 degs. Cent.

A mixture of blast furnace gas and air, both heated to
900 degs., yields a temperature of 1,920 degs. Cent. It
follows, therefore, that if the gas from producers, or from
blast furnaces, can be obtained cheaply, it is highly advan-
tageous to use it for heating the coke ovens, and to reserve
the richer coke oven gas for other metallurgical uses.

With regard to the value of these different gases, it should
be viewed in proportion to their calorific power and in com-
parison with the value of the fuel for which these gases may
be substituted. This depends, therefore, on local conditions,
and on the nature of the use made of the gases. In the
particular instance of the Cockerill Works at Seraing, which
are under my control, the following values have been arrived
at :—■

Value per Cubic Metre of Gas in Pence.

Coke oven gas (in open hearth furnaces) ... 0’15
Coke oven gas (for power purposes.............. 0’12

Purified producer gas ..........................0’07

Washed blast furnace gas ...................... 0’03

(2) Tar, Ammonium Sulphate, and Benzol.—Some of the
members here present can doubtless recall the chilling recep-
tion accorded, on the occasion of the meeting in 1880, to the
paper by Mr. Henry Simon on the Carves ovens at the
Besseges Works of the Terre-Noire Company in France.
This pioneer attack on beehive ovens achieved but a slender
technical success, in spite of the warm discussions which
found echo in the proceedings of the Iron and Steel Insti-
tute; and it was not until 1898 that Mr. Darby, on the
initiative of the president, Mr. Edward P. Martin, re-opened
the question of the by-products of coke ovens. It is interest-
ing to peruse once again the polite but guarded and mistrust-
ful interest manifested in the results obtained at Brymbo and
elsewhere. Further, the only by-products described by the
author were the tar, the ammonium sulphate, and the steam.

There exists at the present day numerous systems of coke
ovens—the Semet-Solvay, the Coppee, the Collin, the Kop-
pers, the Otto, and others—which pour upon the market large
quantities of by-products. From one ton of coke there is
obtained from 25 kg. to 40 kg. (55 lb. to 88 lb.) of hetero-
geneous and viscid liquid tar, the commercial value of which
constantly rises, and which is usually sent by the works to
factories, where it is submitted to fractional distillation, to
yield industrial oils of very varied composition. In default
of petrol the Diesel motor works well with these products,
and may in the future become a large consumer; the aniline
dye works are also an important outlet for some of these
hydrocarbons, amongst which naphthalin is also included,
"in the construction of roads a large quantity of tar is
likewise employed, while what may become a fresh source
of profit for the tar derivatives is the direct manufacture
of pitch for the progressive industry of the briquetting of
fuels. Nearly one-half of the tar treated is employed for
this purpose.

Within the last few years 80 to 90 per cent, of pitch
having a remarkably high agglutinative power and competing
strongly with ordinary pitch, has been produced from the
tar by a special process of oxidation. A works to carry out
this process has been established near Liege, in Belgium.

In certain cases it is advantageous to use the tar as a
combustible, with appropriate burners; it may even be used
in metallurgical furnaces, as is done at the Gary Works, in
the United States, where three Siemens-Martin furnaces of
from 90 to 100 tons capacity, heated by tar, have been at
work for some time. The total quantity of steel manufac-
tured in these furnaces during the year 1913 is given at
94,110 tons, and the average per cast at 94’2 tons. The
mean consumption of raw tar is 34’94 gallons per ton. The
steel made in the tar-heated furnaces was shown to contain
14 per cent, less sulphur than that produced by the other
furnaces of the same battery, while the output was increased
by 10 per cent, as compared with the average of the whole
group. After having been deprived of their tar, the gases
deposit their ammonia in leaden troughs containing sulphuric
acid; the ammonium sulphate thus formed represents a

.weight of 11 kg. to 13 kg. (24 lb. to 28 lb.) per ton of coke;
the salt is perfectly white, provided that care be taken, by
means of an ingenious arrangement, to prevent it being con-
taminated by the last traces of tar. By means of new and
highly interesting methods, the very sulphur of the coal itself
is brought to combine with the ammonia. It would not
appear, however, that finality has been reached in the
methods introduced in certain works by Burckheiser and
Feld, but it may be seen to what extent it is sought to
derive profit from the whole of the elements contained in
the coal, including those which contaminate it. The ammo-
nium sulphate, which is worth about 300 fr. (£12) per ton,
is used chiefly as manure; its consumption continues to
increase, and the 600,000 tons which were used in 1900
became 1,300,000 tons in 1912, and will exceed 1,500,000 tons
in 1914. It is known that new nitrogenous manures are
produced in Germany, Italy, and particularly in Norway, by
the direct fixation of the nitrogen of the air by means of
electricity; but the competition of the cyanamides and of the
nitrate of calcium obtained by these processes is not as yet
to be feared. On the other hand, the production of natural
Chilian nitrates, which amounts to 2,500,000 tons per annum,
will not increase during the next few years, so that the
ammonium sulphate from coke ovens has before it a future
which is the more promising, inasmuch as the demand for
nitrogenous manures will undoubtedly continue to increase.
Finally, benzol is another by-product of the manufacture of
coke which has numerous uses ; it yields on distillation the
petrol (benzine) of the automobilist, and is used also as a
solvent for india-rubber ; 6 kg. to 7 kg. (13 lb. to 15 lb.)
are obtained per ton of coke.

Even after all this there remains, finally, the rich gas, the
use of which in the early stages was restricted to gas
engines, like the blast furnace gas; but its high calorific
energy naturally predestines it to metallurgical uses in
metal-mixers, open-hearth furnaces, re-heating furnaces, and
similar employments. In these various applications the
heating of the coke oven gas is exceedingly simple; it is, of
course, necessary to adjust the burners to the working
hearth of the furnace, the dimensions of which are deter-
mined in accordance with the .teachings of experience. There
is no more difficulty in running such a furnace than there
has been in the United States in running furnaces on natural
gas. In 1912 the United States consumed 15,750 millions of
cubic metres of natural gas of 7,000 calories, at an average
price of 0’265d. per cubic metre, representing a total value
of 417,000,000 fr. (£16,680,000).

The amount of gas evolved by a ton of coal may be esti-
mated at 300 to 350 cu. m. (10,500 to 12,500 cu. ft.). After
passing through the recuperators, this gas contains only a
little sulphur dioxide and sulphuretted hydrogen, which it
is necessary to eliminate, particularly when the gas is used
in gas engines. This purification is effected by making the
gas pass through layers of iron oxide spread in the chambers.
It is advisable likewise to instal a gasometer, not only
because it allows of the composition of the gas and of the
pressure at which it is delivered to the furnaces (which is
highly important, particularly for the successful working of
open-hearth furnaces) being rendered uniform, but also for
storage purposes during the period when the steel works
are stopped, such as from Saturday to Monday, or during
public holidays. It may be imagined that these gasometers
must always be of enormous capacity, and that their instal-
lation must be expensive, but their cost price would soon be
redeemed by the advantages to be derived from the addi-
tional quantities of gas rendered available. For example,
the gasometer at the Cockerill Company’s works cost
500,000 fr. (£20,000), and has a capacity of 50,000 cu. m.
Assuming that the open-hearth furnaces are working only
300 days per annum, it would serve for the collection as a
minimum of 65 x 50,000 = 3,250,000 cu. m. of gas of the
value of 0'15d. per cu. m. The annual saving would there-
fore be at least 48,750 fr. (£1,948).

Another use for coke oven gas, which is becoming current
practice, is the lighting of towns and works. Indeed, the
distillation of coal in the coke ovens differ in no wise from
that of coal in a retort. The average lighting power of coke
oven gas is, however, lower than that of ordinary lighting
gas; but this defect can be rectified by the use of Auer
burners, which turn to advantage the calorific power. In
any case, in order to satisfy the conditions of proper lighting
fractional distillation is employed. During the coking of
the coal the composition of the distilled gases varies from
hour to hour; gases which contain the heavier hydrocarbons,
and are driven off earliest, are separated from those which
are more suitable for heating purposes. Two hydraulic
mains with the requisite taps are employed. Enormous
installations have been at work during the last few years in
Westphalia under exceedingly severe specifications, which
fix the calorific value at 5,000 calories, and stipulate for
guarantees of purity from ammonia, naphthalin, tar, sulphur,
water vapour, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide. Some
towns, such as Barmen, receive their lighting gas through
mains 50 km. in length from the generating works; this
town consumes 17,000,000 cu. m. per annum, at a price vary-
ing from 0’3d. to 0’5d. per cu. m., whereas town gas costs
double.

In Belgium a number of coke works are preparing to light
the towns, while the town gas works, when increasing their
means of production, do so by the installation of coke oven
batteries rather than of retorts. In England there are
several central gas works; amongst others, the works estab-
lished some years ago by Mond, whose reputation is world-
wide. In America a number of towns are at present lighted
by coke oven gas previously purified. Finally, there may be
instanced as a possible application for coke oven gas the
direct manufacture of nitric acid by the process actually
investigated by Prof. Hausser; also, it is being sought to
obtain from these gases the hydrocarbons, the derivatives
of which are found in india-rubber, and certain experiments
undertaken in this direction permit of the foreshadowing of
the manufacture of artificial rubber.

The President then dealt with the by-products of the
blast furnaces. For a long time past, he said, blast
furnaces had ceased to be “ beacons of industry,’’
according to the phrase employed by Victor Hugo in
his account of his travels in the Liege district. The tops
had not, however, been completely closed up for more
than about 30 years, a good number of engineers claim-
ing that it was necessary visually to inspect the uniform
descent of the charge. But, even with open tops, a
portion of the gases from the throat of the furnace had
already served to heat the hot blast stoves, which were
formerly composed of cast iron tubes of varying shapes.
A considerable improvement in their method of working
was introduced by the employment of gas subjected to