Atlanta, Ga Paper - A Comparison of Recent Phosphorus Determinations in Steel (see Discussion p. 1012)

In December, 1894, the Cambria Iron Company made a number of heats of Bessemer steel to be used in structures by one of its customers, subject to inspection and tests by a firm of consulting engineers, one of the requirements being that the material should riot exceed .08 per cent. of phosphorus. In other respects the requirements were such that they could only be met by material of good quality; but the general spe cification is not introduced here, as it is not the purpose of this paper to deal with anything except certain difficulties encoun tered in determining the phosphorus-content of the material in a manner satisfactory to both seller and buyer. Preliminary determinations of phosphorus were made in sample-ingots from each of the heats from which material was rolled for the order in question, and these preliminary chemical tests, made in the laboratory of the Cambria Iron Company, showed that, with very few exceptions, every heat was within the prescribed limit of phosphorus. After the material had been rolled, sample-drilling8 of finished material were taken from the various heats in the regular manner in use at the works, these samples being thoroughly mixed and divided into two parts, one of which was analyzed at the works' laboratory and the other sent to the inspecting engineer. Several hundred determinations were made from this mate rial without reaching an agreement between the work of the inspector's chemist and that of the works' chemist; but as it is not the object of this memorandum to treat of this part of the subject at length, it is considered sufficient to present herewith only a few of these first determinations. The analyses given in Table I. are those of the original series made on the heats which were afterwards resampled for final determination by an arbitrator; and they are selected for this reason, as the entire " comparison is thus rendered more complete.