Buffalo Paper - Discussion on Tuyeres in the Iron Blast-Furnace (see pp. 666, 673, 902)

R. W. Raymond, New York City: In connection with the subject of multiple tuyeres, my attention has been drawn to the practicability of gaining, without the multiplication of tuyeres, the advantages which that measure is intended to secure ; and learning that this had been attempted in the invention of the Gaines radial-discharge or fan-shaped tuyere, I wrote to Messrs. Gustafson Brothers, of Sequachee, Tenn., who manufacture that tugere, for information concerning the invention itself and its performance in practice. To their courtesy I am indebted for most of the facts given below. I present these statements without expressing any personal opinion on the subject (having no personal knowledge of it), for the purpose of bringing this device to the notice of members, and calling forth both criticism and testimony concerning it. Admitting that definite advantages are to be secured by the multiplication of tuyeres, we must still confess that this change involves considerable expense in the increased number of blastpipes, tuyeres, coolers, connections, and pipes for water-circulation. There is, moreover, a serious question involved in the weakening of the furnace-wall by extra perforations. This consideration applies with special force to furnaces already built without reference to such an increase of tuyere-openings. Ledebur, in his Handbuch der Eisenhüttenkunde, says on this point (I translate from the edition of 1893, page 365): "A limit to increase in the number of tuyeres is given, in any case, by the circumstance that the perforation of the wall weakens it; in other words, that there must be left between the tuyeres a mass of masonry sufficient to carry the parts above. In most cases an appropriate number may be secured by giving to the furnace as many openings as there are meters in its circumference at the tuyerelevel. For instance, for a hearth-diameter of 2.5 meters, i.e., a circumference of 7.7 meters, seven or eight openings might be made, of which, however, one would