| Show history of the hot blast in iron making the following article which we copy from the columns of the scientific american contains facts which may at least prove serviceable in any future experiments that maybe may be entered into for the purpose of manufacturing z iron in utah if indeed it does not furnish a key to the solution of the mystery hitherto acting as a barrier to complete success in this important branch of home manufactures the use of the hot blast in smelling smelting sm elting iron has proved to be one of the most original and valuable inventions 0 nr ecord it is isnow howem employed in all countries and its importance is 4 felt and acknowledged 0 everywhere in our last volume we pres presented anted an illustrated history of the apparatus for heating the bristand blas bli stand frand it has afforded us pleasure to nave ave received several letters expressing sincere satisfaction re regarding arding the publication of that information IV e now ow present something more relating to this invention from the inventor himself who is still living which makes the matter doubly doub y interesting our information we obtained from a p paper aper read before the institution of cal engineers england englana by mr neilson and lately published inthe in the magazine arwe I 1 six or seven years before the invention of the hot blast was brought out mr neilson had read an essay before the glasgow philosophical I 1 Socie the best mode of taking out the moisture from the tle atmospheric alrin summer time previous to its entrance into the of iron furnace furnaces sp as it was found that the manufacture of iron was much impaired iri in summer both in quality and quantity and he be had bad become satisfied that this was owing to the greater amount of moisture in the air at that season his ilia first proposed method was to pass the air through two long tunnels containing limesand lime and thus dry it thoroughly y by the lime absorbing the moie mole moisture ture on its bassage assa e to the cylinder of the blowing engine ut this is plan was not put on trial about this time ame his advice was asked by a friend mr james ewing of the muirkirk Muir kirk ironworks iron works in regard to a blast furnace situated hait halt a mile from the blowing engine which did not obtain a sufficient supply of air at that distance and of course did not novt make so much iron as two furnaces close to the blowing engine it then occurred to him that as air increased in vol ume according to its temperature if it were passed through ared wred hot vessel before entering in 0 the distant furnace furna turna cers ceUs its volume woud be in creased and it might be enabled to do more duty in the furnace being at that tameen time engaged aged as engineer in the glasgow gasworks gas works he e made an experiment upon the illuminating power of gas supplied by heated air brought up by a tube close to the burner and he found that by this means the combustion of the gas gaa was rendered more perfect and intense so that the illuminating power of the particles of cir clr carbon in the gas gaa was greatly augmented ile he then tried a similar experiment with a blacksmiths I 1 fire by blowing heated air into it by which the fire was rendered most brillian tand the heat exceedingly intense in in comparison with another fire supplied with cold air in the usual manner having obtained such remarkable results on a small scale it occurred to him that a similar increase in the intensity of heat could be obtained on a large scale in large lar coule blast furnaces but bein being a gas could d not persuade iron mast masters ers to allow him to make the necessary experiments at that time there was great need of improvement in the working of iron furnace sas many of them were standing idle for want of the blast because they were unable to supply the necessary heat for smelting smelling sm elting the iron and unless xa 2910 per tun could be obtained no profit was realized A strong prejudice then existed against meddling meddling with the furnaces a sort of superstitious dread of change prevailed owing to the great ignorance of furnace managers with respect to the real action going in on in the furnace mr neilson at length succeeded however in inducing mr charles macintosh of Gla gia glasgow t and mr colin dunlop of the clyde iron works to allow him to make an experiment this was done and although the air was only raised 50 it showed a marked diffie difference rence in the scoria more iron was obtained from the same quantity of ore than before this only made him anxious to try his plan on a more enlarged and perfect scale but he was still retarded reta retarded raed by the iron masters they objecting to any alteration in the furnace in one instance when he succeeded so faras far as to be allowed to heat beat the blast he wanted to make a bend in the pipe to bring the air more closely to the sides of the heated metal and increase the era of heating beating surface to elevate the temperature but his request was refused and ard it was asserted that if the pipe were bent the furnace would cease working these prejudices proved roved serious obstacles to anait early success and it was two or three yeara after this before he be was allowed to put a bend in the main heating beating pipe but after years yeal of cehe cebe was wab at length enabled toworu to work out the plan into a definite shape at the clyde ironworks iron works of mr rutherglen Ruther gleny in scotland the invention cf ef the hot blast in smelling smelting sm citing elting I 1 iron consists solely in heating beating the blast bee between the engine blower and the furnace audit is not associated with any particular construction st of the intermediate heating apparatus this was the cause of the success e ss which had attended the invention and alid in this respect it had much similarity to that of his bis country man james watt who in connection with the steam engine invented the plan of condensing densing the steam in a separate vessel from the cy cylinder inder and was successful in maintaining his invention by not limiting it to any particular construction of condenser mr neilson was glad to say that the english iron masters had stood by him in the attempts made in the early times of the hot blast to deprive him of the benefits of his invention and to them he was indebted for the successful issue of the severe cont contest esthe he harthen had then gone through such is the substance of mr Neil sons paper his invention is in very general use in this country and it has been the means of enabling us asto to smelt ores now have been lying in the earth as useless as the tho sand by the seashore sea shore in dit has hash been the means of I 1 enable enabling n g ir iron 0 n manula manufacture c tur lur i ers to produce pig kronwith iron with a profit for xa 2 ICs instead of CG 6 ye the lne former being less than one half the price or of what it was forty years ago mr neilson was not rot an iron manufacturer hence he had great difficulties to overcome in introducing his invention and had he be taken out an american catl patent ent it certai certainly certainly nl would have been for forfeited feite felte by our law as discussed by us on page of our last volume which would have been een a case of great hardship arid and injustice it seems that his own countrymen tried to rob him of the benefits of his invention but he triumphed over them through the sturdy support of english iron masters and he is now in in his old age enjoying his odium cum ease with dignity whether or not the attention of our iron mongers bongers has been called to this valuable discovery we are not informed if trial if it could be conducted on a small out much expense might lead to favorable results while this subject is before the community we are desirous of affording a every facility within our reach to brin bring the matter to a successful issue |
