IRON MANUFACTURING IN NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand Mail, Issue 233, 26 February 1876, Page 23

IRON MANUFACTURING IN NEW ZEALAND

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND MAIL. Sir, —There being no scientific or mechanical journal in Wellington to which correspondents can address themselves, I ask room for a few observations on the above subject, which, by a local in your journal of the 23rd instant, appears to be still in an experimental stage. ... , , Now sir, why is this, when to my certain knowledge there are in Wellington and the neighborhood workmen competent to carry on the manufacture in all its stages, and amongst them is one whom, twenty-five years since, I knew as manager of one of the largest iron works in Staffordshire? I have spoken with him many times on the subject, and his reply has been, “ Amateurs and empirics have the ear of the directors, and it is of no use an experienced man offering his services, he only gets laughed at.” . I have the prospectus of the New Zealand Titanic Steel and Iron Company and that of the Para Para Company lying before me —that of the Titanic Company states the component parts of the sand which they propose to smelt consists of — Magnetite .. • ■ • • • • .. 71 '0 Titanite .. • • • • • • • • B’o Quartz, &c. .. .. .. • - • • 21 ’0 100-0 From this sand they profess to be able to obtain from 50 to 60 per cent, of pure iron far exeeding in strength any iron produced in Great Britain. The average production of the blast furnace will be 50 tons per week, or 2600 tons per annum ; and with this quantity of pig-iron they say they can make 2000 tons of bar-iron at a cost, including that of the pig-iron, of £6 19s. 4d. per ton, and 600 tons of steel at £ll 14s. 6d. per ton. , . . This is sheer nonsense, as I intend to show. But before doing so, I shall take the prospectus of the Para Para Company, which is quite as erroneous in its statements of prices and quantity. The Para Para ore is, on tlie authority of Mr. Skey, the Government Analyst, composed of— Sesquioxide of iron .. • • • ■ 63 0 Siliceous matter] .. .. •• •• 23 0 Water 14 0 100 If this is correct, it is one of the richest ores in the world, and contains neither sulphur, oxide of manganese, aluminia, or lime, but I am afraid as little dependence can be placed on this statement as on others of like nature. The prospectus-states that the directors propose to turn out 7500 tons of pig-iron at a cost of £3 per ton, which they could readily sell at £6 per ton, or they could convert this 7500 tons of pig iron into the same quantity of malleable or bar iron, at an additional cost of £3 per ton only. Bow what are the facts? 7500 tons of pig-iron,with the most careful management and the best appliances known, willmake no more than 5250 tons of bar-iron of second quality ; and if “ best best ”is required, there would be a reduction of at least 10 per _ cent, on that quantity, while in the case of the Titanic Company their 2600 tons of pig-iron would make no more than 1880 tons of bar-iron, with none left to make even lib. of steel of the 600 tons they profess to be able to turn out. Then with reference to the cost of manufacture, 1 maintain that the Titanic Company will be unable to produce their pig-iron at less than £8 per ton, which means £l6 per ton for their bar-iron, while in the case of the Para Para, with all their facilities for obtaining ore, coal, and limestone, not one ton of pig-iron will ever leave their furnace at less than £5 per ton, and £l3 per ton will be the cost of the bar-iron they profess to be able to make for £6. Prospectuses as a rule are laid before the public for the purpose of placing shares, but should not directors, whose names are appended thereto, be held responsible for the bona fides of the statements contained therein ? . , With reference to Mr. Thomas’s proposal or method of smelting the sand. It is the crude idea of a miner, not the result of any carefully thought out scientific formula.' The sand has, according to the foregoing statement, some 70 per cent, of iron, existing not as cast iron but as malleable. Hence lts P r °P e F. ° treatment is not to carbonize it—to cause it to nm from the blast furnace as a fluid iron, neither is it proper treatment to add the sand to a quantity of molten nie-iron, to partly decarburate that iron by the affinity of the metal in the sand for the carbon in the nig' it may produce a metal somewhat homogenous; ’ partaking of the nature of Bessemer steel, but utterly useless for ordinary purposes. The only method by which the sand can be converted into iron of commercial value, and at a price low enough to pay a profit to the workers, is the one proposed at a meeting of ironworks managers in Dudley, in 1860, by Mr. John Lloyd, of Netherton, viz:—“ln a properly constructed puddling furnace the sand fed by a hopper at the back of the furnace is brought forward to the hearth or bed, and a very small quantity of wrought scrap being introduced, the sand can be rapidly balled up, shingled, re-heated, &c., and rolled into bars of any section.”—l am, &c., An Engineer. February 24,