with the charge by means of openings. Precautions must also be taken to allow the condensed water and acid to escape from the botThe temperature at which the formation of the red charcoal takes place is 350° centigrade.

He added that he would like to explain briefly his views in regard to government superintendence in the matter of forestry, which had been alluded to by Dr. Raymond. Although not an advocate of the enactment of laws for which no basis has been laid, he was by no means opposed to the idea of government interference in regard to the preservation of forests. On the contrary he was convinced that it was the highest duty of the government to establish the basis for such legislation. He was convinced also that the time for action had arrived, and that it is dangerous to wait until the financial aspect of the matter had made itself conspicuous; he held that the climatological influence of the woodlands, the existence of which is now undoubtedly established, was a much stronger reason for governinental interference than any commercial question whatever. Finally, he expressed his thanks for the warm interest which the subject of forestry had found in the Institute.

ON THE USE OF RED CHARCOAL IN THE
BLAST FURNACE.

IN the paper by Mr. Fernow, on Red Charcoal, read at the first session of this meeting, it was suggested that this fuel might be used in the blast furnace with greater economy than ordinary or black charcoal. In the discussion which followed the paper, it was stated that the charcoal furnaces of the Lake Superior District have used imperfectly burned charcoal with success, and that these furnaces have given the best results in fuel economy on record.

On consulting some of our well-known metallurgical authorities the writer finds that the question of the use of red charcoal, or other imperfectly burned charcoal, or charred wood, is not at all new. In Percy's late work on Fuel, pages 409-414, are given a few facts, which are here condensed, as follows:

Sauvage reports in 1836 that an apparatus was constructed, over the mouth of the blast furnaces at an iron works in Northern France, for partially charring wood. From Sauvage's figures it would appear that a saving was made by using a mixture of the partially charred wood, or "brown charcoal," as it is called, with black charcoal. The scanty results, however, says Percy, are far from sufficient to lead to any trustworthy conclusion on the subject.

Guenyveau, formerly Professor of Metallurgy at the Ecole des Mines, in Paris, reports that in several iron works very good results were obtained by the use of what he calls semi-carbonized wood, but that at other works the results were not equally satisfactory, though no reason could be assigned for this difference. From a comparison of results obtained at several furnaces he inferred that one-third of the wood might be saved by the use of brown charcoal exclusively. But, after having thus reported, he adds that he was assured that the advantage derived from the use of brown charcoal was proportionate to the degree of charring, or, what is the same thing, to its approximation to black charcoal; and instead of heating the wood during four or five hours, it was found necessary to continue the process during ten hours. Moreover, he remarks that it had been the practice to reject as unfitted for blast furnaces any of the charcoal found to be imperfectly charred in circular piles.

A company in Mainz, says Percy, at the present time prepares wood for fuel by heating it to a degree sufficient to cause incipient carbonization, and change its color to reddish-brown. The name Rothholz is given to this product. Fresenius recommends it as being easily ignited, and therefore an excellent material for lighting fires; it may be conveniently conveyed and stored, and on burning produces a copious flame and is capable of developing intense heat. These properties, however, do not necessarily recommend it as a fuel for blast furnaces.

In concluding his remarks on these imperfectly prepared charcoals, Percy says that the difference in chemical composition between brown and black charcoal is of itself sufficient to prove that the former has less heating power than the latter. Brown charcoal contains more oxygen and less carbon than black. The main question remains, he says, whether in blast furnaces it would be more profitable to use brown charcoal than black. In the course of descent in the furnace, brown charcoal is converted into black, or, in other words, the carbonization of wood which has been left incomplete is completed in the blast furnace. But this can only be done at the expense of the heat con

tained in the gases ascending from the lower part of the furnace, and consequently the temperature of these gases will be proportionately reduced in the upper part of the furnace. Such reduction in temperature implies corresponding refrigeration, not only of the fuel, but also of the ore and flux, and may tend seriously to interfere with the process of smelting.

These remarks of Percy coincide almost exactly with those of Bell in his Chemical Phenomena of Iron Smelting, in reference to the use of raw coal in the blast furnace. Bell says: "The use of raw coal undoubtedly reduces the temperature of the escaping gases, but on the other hand they are increased in quantity, so that little heat would be available from this source. In consequence the necessary heat required to volatilize the gases of the raw coal, would have to be provided by burning so much more carbon at the tuyeres." He says further that a blast furnace using 22.5 cwts. of coke per ton of iron, ought, were its fuel used uncoked, to consume about 44 or 45 cwts. to do the work. The view is confirmed by what was done in the smaller furnaces in Scotland: "It would seem clear that the consumption of coal required in the furnace itself is actually considerably higher when it is used raw than when coked, for 27 cwts. of coke obtained from coal containing 65 per cent. of fixed carbon, is only equal to 41.5 cwts. of coal against 53 cwts. of the latter actually needful for the process."

Prof. John A. Church, in his paper in the Transactions, vol. iv, p. 119, speaking of the excellent work of the Bay Furnace, near Marquette, Michigan, which used only 1922 pounds of charcoal per ton of iron, says: "The fuel used is charcoal, so burned as to retain most of the combustible volatile part, which before the utilization of furnace gas was burned away." It is to be regretted that he does not give us the analysis of this fuel. Prof. Akerman in his report on the iron manufacture in the United States, treating of the charcoal furnaces of the Lake Superior district, recently translated in Iron, accounts for the economy of these furnaces by the mechanical structure of the chracoal, but if I mistake not, says nothing of this charcoal being imperfectly burned.

The use of brown or red charcoal in the blast furnace appears to the writer precisely analogous to the use of raw or uncoked coal. The combustible portion of the fuel consists of two parts, the fixed carbon and the volatile hydrocarbons. The office of a fuel in the blast furnace is twofold, first to generate heat, secondly to produce a gas which shall reduce the oxides of iron to the metallic state.

The hydrocarbons in the blast furnace cannot generate any heat, as they are volatilized in a zone in which there is no free oxygen to burn them. They are not burned till after they leave the furnace. They are moreover of no service as reducing gases, for they are volatilized at a temperature below that at which they have any important influence in reducing the ores. The reduction of the ores probably takes place in a zone beneath that in which the hydrocarbons are volatilized. They are therefore useless in the blast furnace, or rather worse than useless, since their volatilization requires the burning of an extra quantity of fixed carbon at the tuyeres. These facts would appear to be conclusive against the economy of using red charcoal in blast furnaces.

In one case, however, there may be an economy in its use, namely, when the escaping gases from a furnace using black charcoal, are from any reason so highly charged with carbonic acid that they do not • burn well under the boilers and in the hot-blast ovens, then the use of a small proportion of red charcoal, or of any fuel containing volatile hydrocarbons, would improve the quality of these escaping gases and render them more combustible.

THE NICKEL ORES OF ORFORD, QUEBEC, CANADA.

BY W. E. C. EUSTIS, A.B., S.B., BOSTON, MASS.

(Read at the Philadelphia Meeting, February, 1878.)

IN September last I had my attention called by Mr. R. G. Leckie to a deposit of nickel in the township of Orford, province of Quebec. In many ways it has proved to be a subject of great interest.

As this ore is, as far as I can learn, entirely new in mineralogy and metallurgy, it has seemed to me that it would be a matter of interest to the Institute to have laid before it, in a short paper, the peculiarities I have met with in studying it.

This deposit of nickel was first described by Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, our President, in the Geology of Canada, 1863, p. 738, in the following terms:

"The general diffusion of nickel throughout the magnesian rocks of the Quebec group has been already noticed. It has, however, never been met with in any considerable quantities in these rocks, although workable deposits of its ores may reasonably be looked for

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in some parts of their distribution. On the sixth lot of the twelfth range of Orford, the sulphuret of nickel (millerite) is met with in small grains and crystals, disseminated through a mixture of green chrome-garnet, with calc-spar, and through the adjacent rock. Explorations were made at this place a year or two since in the hope of obtaining copper, which was supposed to be indicated by the brilliant green of the garnet; and lead, small quantities of which are found in the vicinity. The ore of nickel is sparingly disseminated in small grains through the garnet and calcareous spar, and the masses submitted to analysis did not yield more than one per cent. of nickel. It is, perhaps, doubtful whether this small quantity could be extracted with profit."

On page 497 is the following:

"It (the garnet) forms granular masses, or is disseminated with millerite in a white crystalline calcite. The largest crystals are found in druses in the massive portions, but do not exceed a line in diameter, and are dodecahedrons with their edges replaced.

. . This garnet resembles closely the ouvarovite from the

Urals. "This beautiful garnet, if obtained in sufficiently large crystals, would constitute a gem equal in beauty to the emerald.”

My first visit to the mine occupied several days. We were encamped on an island in Brompton Lake. A half mile distant lay the nickel mine, on the side of a hill. On this deposit there are two shafts being sunk, 180 feet apart; No. 1 is down 41 feet, No. 2 45 feet. At the present depth of No. 1 the vein has an average width of nine feet nine inches.

The hanging wall is a magnesian limestone, the percentage of magnesia is, however, small. The width of this has not yet been determined, but on the surface other smaller veins and branches of the spar and garnet are visible. The foot-wall, a dark-colored serpentine, is very clearly defined.

At a considerable distance south of No. 1 shaft the line of strike is cut at right angles by a sharply defined band of clay slate.

The vein has now pretty much the same characters as before described in the Geology of Canada, viz., green chrome-garnet, calcite, and millerite; besides these, small particles of chromite are found. There is no trace of copper or cobalt present, possibly a trace of arsenic, though I have not thoroughly established that yet. The hanging wall contains nickel in small grains.