try in the
manufacture of castings. It seemed likely that Mr. Allen's agitator for
agitating the steel in the ladle so as to remove the gases would be
taken up largely for open-hearth castings and open-hearth mild steel, as
it had a wonderful effect. The Wilson gas producer, working in
conjunction with the open-hearth furnace, had recently produced some
extremely wonderful results. In some large works, steel was by its aid
being melted from slack which was previously absolutely a waste product.
The method of making open-hearth steel castings might be varied greatly.
The ordinary method generally practiced in this country was a
modification of the Terre Noire process. The moulds employed were only
of secondary importance to the making of the steel itself. Unless the
mould was good, no matter how good the steel was, the casing was
spoiled. The best composition which had been found for moulds was that
of a large firm in Sheffield, but unfortunately it was rather expensive.
A good steel casting ought to contain about 0.3 per cent. carbon and 0.3
per cent. of silicon and from 0.6 to 1 per cent. of manganese. Such a
casting, if free from other impurities, would have a strength of between
30 and 40 tons, and on an 8 inch specimen would give an elongation of 20
per cent. or even more. It was possible by the Terre Noire process to
produce by casting as good a piece of steel as could be made by any
amount of rolling and hammering.

The chairman said that, as they had so high an authority as Mr. McCallem
present, Staffordshire men would like to know his opinion upon the open
hearth basic system, in which they were greatly interested.

Mr. McCallem said that he believed that the basic process would be
worked successfully in this country in the open-hearth furnace before it
would be in the converter. At the Brymbo Works, in Wales, he had seen
the basic process worked very successfully in the open-hearth furnace;
and he was recently informed by the manager that he was producing ingots
at the remarkably low sum of 65s. per ton.

The chairman said that some samples which had been sent into
Staffordshire from Brymbo for rolling into sheets had behaved admirably.
He thought that the Patent Shaft and Axletree Company, at Wednesbury,
were at the present moment putting down an open-hearth furnace on the
basic process.

The discussion was continued with considerable vigor by Messrs. H.
Fisher (vice-president), James Rigby, J. Tibbs, M. M