COMMONWEALTH

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XL, Issue 8, 22 February 1908, Page 9

COMMONWEALTH

STEEL MANUFACTURE. MOORE-HERBERT PROCESS. CANADIAN RIGHTS PURCHASED A contract has been signed, purchasing the Moore-Heeketh rights by a powerful Canadian corporation for that country for £375,000, payable in five instalments. [An exhaustive trial of the Moore-Hes-keth process for direct production of iron and steel was made in Melbourne on November 19 of last year, in the presence of the Federal Prime Minister and a widely-representative gathering. Mr. Hesketh, the inventor of the process, was connected with the works for the conversion of ironsand a quarter of a century ago, when he conceived a direct process, which culminated in the epochmaking invention for which he has now received a colossal sum for the Canadian rights alone. It is claimed that the new process reduces the cost by the indirect method by 25 per cent., as well as effecting an enormous saving in time. At the Melbourne trial the test began at 11 in the morning, when the ore shafts were charged with limonite ore from Rylstone (N.S.W.). Within a couple of hours the charge was withdrawn and the molten steel and iron sent into the refining chamber. One of the essential features in the first operation was the ingenious manner in which the ore in passing through the reducers to the slag bath, was protected from oxidisation by a mantle of reducing gas, while another striking feature lies in the fact that, once started, the smelting of the ore and its conversion into steel are carried on without interruption. Just before four o’clock the charge from the refiner was drawn, and those assembled witnessed the casting of ingots of steel from ore which had gone into the reducers only five hours before. Loud cheering followed the accomplishment of the task. It was claimed for the process that it would treat New Zealand ironsand without the necessity of its first being converted into briquettes, and as cheaply as ordinary ore. An offer was received to purchase the Russian rights during the demonstration.]