TARANAKI IRON.

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 103, 1 May 1894, Page 3

TARANAKI IRON.

(BY TELEGRAPH—OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Wellington, this day. Sic Walter Bullek has handed bo the Premier a report upon a bar of iron smelted at Onehunga from Taranaki titanic sand. The iron was bested ab Lloyd's, and is . thus reported upon :— " Sample of caßb iron received from Mr De Costa (from the New Zealand courb of the Imperial Institute). This piece of casb iron, which was aboub ben inches long and one inch square, has been bested as follows:—-" Placed on supports of nine inches aparb with the planed side in compression, ib broke with a load of 28 cwb. Suspended ab the centre, the two pieces were prepared for tensile tests by being burned down to '627 in diameter for a parallel lerigth of two inches. One piece broke with a load of 3*l tons, the other with a load of 2*65 ton, giving a strength of ben tons per square inch respectively. These results show the strength to be pretty equal bo bhe average of casb iron. The broken pieces were afterwards Bubmibted to analysis by two independent) technical chemists, who reporb the composition to be as follows:—Silicon : No. 1, 2*700; No. 2 2.770. Phosphorus: No. 1 "880; No. 2, 1-490. Sulphur: No. 1, "065; No. 2, -062. Manganese: No.. 1, "900; No. 2, -921?. Carbon (graphite) : No. 1 and No. 2, 2-910. Carbon (combined), No. 1 and No. 2 -60. The amounb of phosphorus is so large as to render bhe iron altogether unsuitable for bhe manufacture of steel by either the acid Beesemer or the acid Siemens process, while ib is nob sufficient to enable it to be treated by the Thomas Gilchrist process (Bossiemor Basic) without its being first heated in a regenerative furnace for steel - making. Wibh the pig, the only process which could be applied is the open hearth basic, which would probably have to be combined with the Saaiter process for the elimination of sulphur. The large amounb of silicon, however, womld probably be desbructive of of the basic l:ining of the furnace, rendering frequent repairs and consequent expense necessary.—(Signed) B. Martell (Chief Surveyor), J. T. Milton (Chief Engineer), London, October 27th, 1893."