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Iron, it was known, required a great heat to melt it, and this heat could not be so well applied to the iron ore as when there was a certain quantity of carbonate of lime within it. This carbonate of lime was supplied in very great quantity in the new iron-stone mine which had been discovered, and one great advantage of the discovery was the employment which it had created. Castleford people were engaged to take the ore to Newcastle, where they found coal, and there employed themselves and their vessels in whatever might turn out. The following gentlemen were then elected Members of the Society :— JAMES KITSON, Esq., of Leeds; G. E. DONISTHORP, Esq., of Leeds; Mr. WILLIAM RAMSDEN, of Wakefield. A Paper was then read.—

ON THE PROCESS OF SMELTING IRON WITH ANTHRACITE COAL AND THE HOT BLAST; AND ON THE ADVAN­ TAGEOUS USE MADE OF THE GASEOUS ESCAPE FROM THE BLAST FURNACES AT YSTALYFERA IRON WORKS, NEAR SWANSEA. BY W. S. WARD, ESQ., OF LEEDS.

The Paper was a recapitulation of the principal points in the communication of Mr. Budd, manager of the Ystalyfera Iron Works, made at the last meeting, at Swansea, of the British Association, with several additional observations by Mr. Ward, founded upon a careful personal examination of the works named. The original paper is about to be published at length in the Transactions of the British Association, and copious extracts from it have already appeared in the Athe- ncBum and other newspapers. Mr. Ward stated that he was precluded from publishing his paper in extenso, lest it should injure the more elaborate communication of Mr. Budd in the Transactions; and as we have thus indicated to those who are interested in the matter where they may procure the Downloaded from http://pygs.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on September 26, 2021 482

fullest information upon the subject, we shall content our­ selves with very briefly indicating the plan of Mr. Budd. The ironmasters of Yorkshire are generally favourable to the cold blast process; and it has long been a reproach upon all engaged in the smelting of iron, that so much waste of combustible gas should be permitted at the top of their blast furnaces. Many attempts have been made to introduce the principle of heating the blast before it enters the furnace, by collecting the gas at the top of the furnace, and other con­ trivances—all, by the way, forming part of the furnace itself; but from some radical defect in each of them they were abandoned. Mr. Budd, whose furnaces are fed by anthracite coal, found that to make fifty to sixty tons of iron weekly he consumed thirty-five tons of coal, and he therefore set about making a change in the process of smelting. He interfered in no way with the operations of the furnace; but he intro­ duced three or four horizontal flues leading into the chamber or stove, which made the requisite draught, and procured as much gaseous escape as was necessary for the process of smelting. By a contrivance which it would be difficult to describe without the aid of a diagram, the combustible gases, which usually escape from the top of the blast furnace chimneys, fouling the air and destroying the chimney itself, are collected and re-conveyed to the boilers; so that the escaped gas from the furnaces is applied to the smelting of the iron. The advantages of this are numerous:—there is a great deal more iron smelted without additional coal or labour; the blast is better and more regular; the pipes, instead of continually wearing, and thus causing enormous expense, are rendered tough and durable; a furnace which had been stopped may be resumed in a few minutes; the saving in coal alone, if this invention were adopted through­ out England and Wales, would be not less than £100,000 Downloaded from http://pygs.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on September 26, 2021 483 a year; and if its use became general, the saving in fuel, materials, and labour, would amount to the enormous sum of £1,000,000 annually. At the Ystalyfera works the escaped gas is made service­ able in the conversion of pig into malleable iron; and Mr. Budd considers it extremely probable that the fuel consumed in the blast furnaces will eventually be made available for all the other purposes of the works.

A brief discussion of a practical nature followed, in which the Chairman, Mr. West, Mr. Ward, and another gentleman took part.

The next Paper read was—

ON MALARIA AND DISINFECTANT^. BY JAMES HAYWOOD, ESQ., OF SHEFFIELD.

In applying the science of Chemistry to the explanation of the various natural phenomena with which we are sur­ rounded,—in endeavouring to trace the, manifestation of its changes in vegetable and animal life, and to discover the intricate decompositions which accompany these changes under the direction of vitality, is a task which has been left for modern chemists to prosecute and accomplish; and although the great cause by which these changes are effected is at present entirely hid from our comprehension, we have been able to acquire such an amount of knowledge of the effects, that we can now explain many of those vital trans­ formations with a degree of certainty which cannot admit of a doubt. The chemical changes which take place in the stomach during digestion—many of those which occur in the blood during its passage through the system—the constant decom­ position and re-formation of organised tissue in the body—is no longer a matter of speculation. The balance has even