NEW DIRECT PROCESS OF Iron and Steel Manufacture.

Progress, Volume I, Issue 12, 1 October 1906, Page 339

NEW DIRECT PROCESS OF Iron and Steel Manufacture.

In this age of wireless telegraphy, radium, and other important scientific discoveries, with invention approaching ever nearer to the coveted secret of aerostation, and research seeking to unravel the very riddle of the Universe, the thinking portion of the commercial world, at least, will not be disposed to look askance at the introduction of a method for the production of steel by what is best described as the direct process. That is to say, the immediate conversion of iron ore into malleable iron, or steel, as the case may be, by a continuous system instead of the existing indirect method with its tardy process of manufacture, and its relatively large expenditure. The advantages to be derived from such a system and its stupendous potentialities for the production of wealth need not be enlarged upon here : the millions acquired by Mr. Andrew Carnegie and other Iron Kings will convey sufficient idea of the opulence that is hidden in. a discovery that should not only supersede existing methods of production throughout the world, but embrace all future productivity within its folds. Such a system has been discovered, and is being daily utilised at large works erected at South Melbourne by the " Iron. Steel and Metals Manufacturing Company, Limited " ; the object of this Company is to continue the work there and elsewhere on a scale commensurate with the wants of Austialasia, besides introducing the system into all the great iron centres of the world. Progress readers will be interested to learn how important a discovery was brought about. To so explain this it is necessary to go back to 1882, when Mr. T. J. Heskett, engaged as an engineer at Middlesborough, the great iron and steel producing centre, first conceived the idea — possibly as the outcome of sub-conscious speculation as to the enormous expenditure that might be saved if the old tardy process could be done away with and a direct method introduced in its stead. And so, after what was a natural conception in view of the atmosphere m which he was working, with huge blast furnaces roaring about him — many of them 100 feet high and with a capacity of no less than 40,000 cubic feet, after proceeding from the mere incubation of the idea to patient practical research,

after having left the Old World and made experiments for many years upon the wonderful deposits of iron and sand on our West Coast, Mr. Heskett had found the " open sesame " to a valuable secret, th° result of which, it is said, may be the revolutionising of the whole world's method of steel production. In 1903 Mr. Heskett went to Melbourne in quest

of the necessary capitalistic aid to enable him to carry out experiments on a large scale. It was then that he met Mr. Montague Moore, whose knowledge of chemistry immediately enabled him to perceive the drift of the mighty idea to which, the patient experimentation of Mr. Heskett had apparently given substance ; and it is perhaps equally due to this gentleman's kindly encouragement, finesse, and the courage with which he adhered to his conception of the possibility of the consummation of so long-felt a commercial desideration, that the many difficulties and embarrassments that beset the path of the inventor were smoothed away, and the Iron, Steel and Metals Manufacturing Company sprang into existence. The works at South Melbourne were soon proiected and established, and there with all the assistance the mind of the inventor could wish for, with the sympathetic collaboration of experts in chemistry and mechanics, Mr. Heskett proceeded from mere models and tests by sure and certain stages to the actual working gear for the manufacture of malleable iron and steel in marketable form. Nor is this all the malleable iron and steel have already been manufactured there, and have been adjudged by qualified experts as very good material, too. Excellent cutting tools of the finest

quality have made from the steel manufactured, and may be seen at the offices of the Company. In an article such as this a disquisition on the various degrees of calorics to be utilised in the process, or upon the chemical symbols and their equivalents, could not but be tiresome and confusing to the average reader. It will therefore suffice to give a general idea as to how steel is now made by the direct process. The prime factor m the system is the early reduction of the ore into a fine state, and the separation of the gangue by electro-magnetic treatment, 01 other approved methods of concentration, leaving behind a pure oxide of iron. From an ore-feeding hopper a constant stream of powdered iron ore is delivered into a revolving cylinder. This cylinder is lined with fire brick and is furnished with projecting shelves, the office of which is to continually raise the ore as the large barrel revolves. From this cylinder it passes into another and thence into a melting hearth. But the ore is heated to a ce±tain point in the first cylinder, is deoxidised in the second, and is next " balled up " for wrought iron, or melted for steel, according to requirement, in the hearth. The process appears quite simple, bu l . has been arrived at by means of very careful calculations and patient scientific investigation. For instance, the fuel in the plant at South Melbourne is of crude oil or hydro-carbon gas, made from any carbonaceous material ; and therefore either deoxidising or oxidising gas can be used as required. The deoxidising gas is passed into the second cylinder where it comes into contact with the ore, which has been heated by the waste gases from subsequent operations brought into the upper or first cylinder, after having passed through a regenerative gas furnace. Thus the deoxidising gas in the second cylinder has reduced the oxide of iron to

to metallic iron without fusing or melting. These particles of iron are automatically passed from the second or reducing cylinder into the melting hearth in which is a bath of molten metal or slag. The gas and reduced particles of iron enter the hearth through a fire clay pipe which is protected in front by the furnace lining, and by a forced down draught of deoxidising gas. The particles fall into the molten bath of metal or slag, where they are either melted or converted into steel, or fused and " balled up " as the case may be. The deoxidising gas covers and protects the reduced ore as it falls into the hearth, and thus effectually prevents any possibility or reoxidation before the finely divided iron particles become absorbed in a bath of metal or slag. No chemical reaction takes place in the furnace, and as a consequence the refractory basic lining is calculated to retain its form for a long time Electro-pyrometers are used in the working plant so that the temperature may be carefully watched, and valves are provided for regulating the heat in the various parts of the furnace. Such, in brief, is a rough outline of the manner in which commercially pure, malleable iron, or

steel, of any desired quality, may be drawn from the furnace in two or three hours after the ironsand or crushed ore has been passed through the hopper. And by this direct process results may be assumed of "even greater magnitude than eventuated from the Bessemer or Siemens inventions. Experts who have studied the new process affirm that amongst the many advantages that will accrue from it will be: — Reduced cost of plant by the direct method, as the outlay will not exceed one fifth of the cost of a blast furnace ; the saving of fuel by about two fifths ; the saving in fluxes by about nine tenths ; the cost of labour will be reduced to a minimum, as the process from the feeding hopper to the ingot truck is absolutely automatic ; and last, but by no means least, the saving of time. By the Moore-Heskett process pure iron or steel can be made within three or four hours, while the indirect process requires from thirty to forty hours. The saving claimed is equal to 25% as against blast furnace and converter process. From a perusual of the above it will be found that by a fairy-like process, over which, by the way, the Company waves the wand of its patent rights, the intermediate stage of pig iron is done away with. It is claimed that any ore may be treated by the method, but that the New Zealand iron sand, as a consequence of its extreme natural fineness, is particularly adapted for treatment. Enormous deposits of magnetic iron sand exist on the beaches of the West Coast of Australia, and so clearly is its value recognised that the Government has offered to take sixty-five thousand tons of iron smelted from the sand at English prices, with carriage and expenses added, and to give, moreover, a bonus of £1 per ton for the first twenty thousand tons produced as an encouragement

to the establishment of iron works there, conditionally upon a plant of a certain value being erected. As the magnetic sand under the new process is treated automatically and without the addition of any fluxing agent, the profits due to saving of cost in this direction alone should be considerable. Arrangements are being made for the erection of a plant in New Zealand, the scheme being financed by Sydney investors. The Company has also obtained a lease of three hundred and fifty acres at Lal-Lal, near Ballarat, upon which there is an extensive and rich deposit of haematite iron ore. We expect to hear much more of the MooreHeskett process of iron and steel manufacture in the near future.