Iron and Steel Division - The Sampling and Analysis of Liquid Steel for Hydrogen - Discussion

G. Derge—With the development of this last weapon, there is not much of a chance for hydrogen. It is certainly a very interesting paper, and it gives us more confidence in sampling liquid steel for hydrogen than we have ever had before. This satisfactory work gives considerable confidence to all of the chilled methods of sampling which should be more or less successful depending upon the degree of chilling obtained. J. T. MacKenzie—How do you handle a nonmagnetic specimen in that device? D. J. Carney (authors' reply)—I left that out in going over the analytical procedure. For the 18-8 steel, what was done was to get some iron wire which was degassed. One turn of wire was made around the sample; it was inserted into the analytical apparatus, and that was enough to allow the magnet to pull the sample and drop it in the furnace. Other methods could be devised for this apparatus to do the same thing. This was just a quick method. C. E. Sims—This method of sampling and analysis is very ingenious, and the results obtained attest to a satisfactory degree of accuracy. It was noted in the paper that the samples are satisfactory only when there is a complete absence of pipe. This should be empha- sized, particularly in view of the fact that they are cut off under water. Some reservations are held in regard to the adequacy of the method of sample storage prior to analysis. Cooling on dry ice undoubtedly slows down the rate of diffusion to a marked degree, and it obviously suffices when the analysis is made within a few hours. All of the samples, except some of high-nickel steels, were analyzed within 12 hr. It is still unknown how long this method would be safe. In the work at Battelle Institute, it was impracticable always to start analysis within 12 hr for various reasons. Some samples did not reach the laboratory for several days, and some were held as long as a month before analysis. During this period, they were held over mercury, and the gas evolved at room temperature was collected and analyzed. It should be mentioned that both the mercury and the container must be kept very clean.