Page:Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute - Volume 1 (2nd ed.).djvu/471

Rh This paper was principally in reference to a newly-invented Fern-cutting Machine, a model of which was exhibited.

4. "On a new Chiton from Wellington Harbour, by W. T. L. Travers, F.L.S.

5. "On a Fluke from the intestinal Canal of a Snapper," by W. T. L. Travers, F.L.S.

Specimens of both were exhibited.

6. "On Suggestions and Experiments on the Smelting of Taranaki Ironsand," by R. Pharazyn, F.R.G.S.

The author had frequently heard it stated that one of the most serious difficulties in producing iron or steel from the well-known titaniferous ironsand of Taranaki, was owing to its mechanical condition, which made it exceedingly troublesome to smelt, the whole mass of iron in a furnace falling to the bottom like a fluid, thus preventing the blast from acting properly upon it.

It appeared to him that a remedy might be found by making, as it were, an artificial iron ore of the sand, and thus smelting it in the ordinary manner. He had tried some simple blow-pipe experiments, and found that although he could not obtain a temperature sufficiently high to melt the ironsand, yet it was easy to produce an ore compact and hard enough to stand considerable pressure. By mixing one-third in bulk of ordinary impure sandy clay with two-thirds in bulk of ironsand, at a full red heat, a hard ironstone was produced. This mixture of binding materials with the ironsand would in no way interfere with the subsequent process of manufacture, but might indeed be of assistance, since it is well known that about half as much limestone as iron, by weight, is used as a flux to promote the fusion of ordinary iron ores.

Mr. Pharazyn quoted from Percy's "Metallurgy" on the composition and qualities of slags and fluxes, and the way they aid in the extraction of particular metals. One of these consists of nearly the same combination of materials usually found in poor clays, with lime added, namely,— and a small percentage of magnesia and manganese. In Muspratt's translation of Plattner's work on the blow-pipe, a tabular view is given of the action of the different fluxes employed in what may be called smelting works on a small scale, from which it would be easy to arrive at some conclusion as to what might best be used in extensive operations. In the "Jurors' Reports of the New Zealand Exhibition, 1865," p. 452, a tabular