THE IRON SAND OF NEW ZEALAND.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 221, 26 February 1866, Page 3

THE IRON SAND OF NEW ZEALAND.

EXPERIMENTS IN SOUTH STAIFORDSHIEE. (From the Wblverhampton Advertiser, December 20. A few weeks ago we briefly referred t a new description of metal, or the manu facture of iron from a peculiar kind o sand, which is found distributed more o less over the whole of New Zealand, ii almost inexhaustible quantities. Eve: since the settlement of New Zealand bj Europeans, their attention has been dailj called to the peeuliaraties of a kind o: metalie sand alotig the shores of New Plymouth, in Taranaki. This 'sand' has the appearance of fine steel filings, and il a magnet be dropped upon it, and taken up again, the instrument will be found thickly coated with the iron granules The place where the sand abounds is along the base of Mount Egtnont, an extinct volcano, and the deposit extends several miles along the coast, to the depth of many feet, and having a corresponding breadth. The geological supposition is, that this granulated metal has been thrown out of the volcano, along whose base it rests into the sea,-and there pulverised. It has been looked upon for a long time as a geological curiosity, even to the extent of trying to smelt some of it ; but, although so many years have passed since its discovery, it is only recently that any attempt has been made to turn it to a practical account ; in fact, the quantity is so large that people out there looked, upon it as utterly valueless. It has been carefully analysed in this country by several well-known metallurgists, and has been pronounced to be the purest ore at present known. Taking the sand as it lies on the beach and smelting it, the produce is 75 per cent, of iron of the very finest quality ; and, again, if this sand be subjected to what is called the cementation process, the result is a tough first-class steel, which in its properties seems to surpass any other description of that metal at present known. Owing, however, to its extreme fineness (it freely passing through a wove wire, hiving 49oo meshes to the square inch) which causes it to percolate through the fuel in the furnace, and " gob " it up, or be blown out by the blast, this has hitherto proved an effectual bar to it conversion and adaptation as an article of utility. This obstacle lias, however, at length been overcome, and a company is now being formed for the purpose of working up into a, useful and profitable commodity what is at present lying a totally useless, but rich mine^l deposit, and for the collection of whijh a shovel and a barrow are the only investment in machiney that is necessary. The credit of the successful treatment r>f this ore in the maufacture of iron is 3ue to Mr Charles Martin, C.E., of Lonion, who, in the early part of the summer, imported about one hundred tons of the Iron Sand from New Zealand, and who lias patented a process for smelting it— an important element in which is that the ?ost of production does not exceed that of English ores— a ton of fuel producing i ton of metal. As Mr. Martin explains it, the furnace is charged in the ordinary tvay, the molten metal runs at once into in^ot moulds, thus producing a pure alloy jf "titanium and iron. 5 per cent, of which idded to the material of which our common steel is made will produce" steel of first-class quality. Steel made from this I ire has been submitted to Messrs. | Mbseley, the emmet cutlers and tool J makers' of New-street, Covent G-arden, who have tested it in every possible way, md have tried its temper to the utmost, md they report that the metal exceeds my thing they have worked in steel before. Et' has been formed into razors, scissors, 3aws, pen-knives, table cutlery, surgical instruments, &c, and the closeness of the »rain, the fineness of the polish, and keenness of edge, place it in the very foremost rank. In describing; his process of smelting the ore, Mr. Marhin states ■ — " To practi3ally demonstrate the soundess of my process for smelting it (which I have secured by Letters Patent for the colony of New Zealand), I erected a small furaa?e of the ordinary form, at the works of Thomas Burtlin and Co , Wellingborough. The result has exceeded my. most sanguine expectations, for I think I may venture to 3ay, that with such appliances, such results could not possibly have been obtained from any English ores ; if even wrought iron could have been made at all. The ore (iron sand), as will be seen from the analysis, is pure, not containing a trace of sulphur, phosphorus, &c. The fuel used for smelting should be pure also, i.e. charcoal ; but as my furnace was too small for such, I have been obliged to use coke ; the hearth of my furnace is only 17-in. diameter and 10-in. deep; Wast produced by one of Lloyd's fans, 22-in. diameter, and with this (comparatively speaking) toy I can make a ton of metal with a ton of fuel ; average make, about two tons of pigs per day — fourteen tons per week " "With the view of bringing his projected enterprise, and also practically to demonstrate the quality of the ore, before the iron makers of South Staffordshire, Mr. Martin has supplied some of the pigs he has obtained from it, to Messrs. Beard and Thomas, of Bilston, Mr. Hipkins, of West Bromwick, Mr. Stenson, of Northampton and Messrs. Parkes, of Tipton, who have manufactured it into sheets, wire, bars, hoops, cable chains, &c, and on Friday last a pii'ty of gentlemen interested in the project, and also several manufactures of this district, met by invitation at the works of the last named firm for the purpose of witnessing the testing of some of the samples thus produced. Amongst these present were Mr. "William Fletcher, of the firm of Everett, Fletcher, and Lucas, All Hallows Chambers, Lombardstreet, and of the West Cumberland Iron Company; Mr. James Walter Cotching, 5, Carey-lane, City ; Mr. G-eo. H. Furner, 21, Milk-street, City; Mr. H." Parkes, Tipton; Mr. Perry, Birmingham; Mr.! J. S. Stubbs, managing director of the Midland Bank; Mr. S Griffiths, Mr. F. O-riffiths, Mr. G-, and J. Beard, and Mr. J. Ehooias, the Regent Ironworks, Biiston,

and the Bradley Wire Works; Mr. D, Hipkins, West Bromwick ; Mr. K. Lakin Mr. H. Whitehouse, Tipton ; Mr. Jen. kins, Sidgley; Mr. J. Halford, Tipton: Mr. C. Martin, C.E ,and Mr. G-. Martin The experiments were conducted b} means of Messrs. Parkers' hydraulic chaib testiug machine, and taking into consideiabion the fact that the pigs from which the samp^s were obtainsd had been produced from Titaniferous Iron Sand, with out mixture with any other kind whatever and that they were made in an experi mental furnace of only 17-in. dimensions by 10-in. deep, the results were pronounced by the various gentlemen present to be most astounding. The first samples tested were four short lengths of chain cable, li inch thickness, which broke only at the following strain : — No. 1, 51 tons ; No. 2, 46 tons ; No. 3, 52 tons 10 cwt. ; No. 4, 51 tons 10 cwt. The bars for the first three were made by Mr. Hipkins, and the fourth, by Mr. Stenson. The Government test for this size chain cable is 18 tons 15 cwt., and 'ordinary iron generally breaks at from 25 to 30 tons, whilst we were assured by a gentleman oi experience that the very best iron manufactured, that is a mixture of some of the best qualities of ore, and specially made for the purpose of being tested, rarely stood a strain of more than 47 tons. Some samples of barely one inch square bars were next tested, and gave the same gratifying results, breaking at an average strain of 24 tons. Specimens of sheets, plates, and wire j made by Messrs. Board and Thomas, j were also exhibited, some % inch rods, made by the same gentlemen, bent round its own diameter, and was otherwise severely tested. As Mr. Martin justly says, with such results what may be expected if smelted in an ordinary sized furnace with charcoal for fuel.