Show AN experimental BLAST FURNACE A new experimental iron blast furnace which embodies all the best features determined by observation of the performance for mance of other furnaces constructed by department specialists has been completed and blown in at the minneapolis experiment station of the bureau of mines the new experimental furnace is larger than the one constructed last year which was the first successful experimental blast furnace in in the history of metallurgy it is expected that metallurgical studies made possible by the construction of the new blast furnace will reveal valuable information relative to the production of liron from tl iron ores which cannot be smelted smelter under present practice since the united states has tremendous reserves of these iron ores the problem of their successful smelting smelling sm elting is not of great importance to the iron industry the present furnace which was was erected in in cooperation with the universe Uni university versi ty of minnesota is 36 inches in di wars arneter ameter at the hearth and 30 feet high the first run lasted 10 days air was supplied to the furnace at the about cubic feet per minute consuming approximately 8 tons of coke per day from 15 to 20 tons of lirot of varying maryin b man manganese b anese content was produced during the experiments peri ments the most striking feature of the furnace experiment in contrast with previous ones lies in the fact that a rather 1 I complete survey of the composition of the gas stream in in the furnace shaft was possible by introducing water cooled sample tubes through various test holes it was possible to cover completely six planes As early as 1839 bunsen determined the composition of the gas in the blast furnace at various elevations from the tu y ere to the stock lint line pits his results have been duplicated in a dozen or more investigations gat ions in all this research samples were taken from an only one point in each horizontal plane during the thirty fourth and thirty fifth runs with the bureau of mines furnace furi I 1 over one thousand gas samples were taken at five elevations in the furnace shaft these samples however all lay along a single b diameter of the furnace section the necessity of sampling over a complete section has long conj been recognized but the difficulty of obtaining such samples I 1 I 1 in practice has heretofore not been overcome I 1 A considerable number of samples of raw ma materials teriaN slag and metal taken during the run await analyzing A study of the analyses of these samples as well as the samples of gas removed from the charge column within the furnace should throw considerable light upon the mecha mechanism nisin of the gas reactions taking place within the blast furnace shaft and should result in the obtaining of much valuable information relative to the production of spie claisen from iron ores |