Halifax Paper - The Homogeneity of Open-Hearth Steel

In the extending employment of open-hearth steel for structural purposes, it is a matter of prime importance that the test-piece shall represent with practical accuracy the characteristics of every portion of the heat from which it comes. In ordinary practice this homogeneity is assumed; but inasmuch as leading exponents of the revolving-hearth system have claimed that a reasonable uniformity could be obtained by their method alone, it may be pertinent to offer a few facts on the subject. The following heats made by the Pennsylvania Steel Company, for bridge-work, were tested by casting two four-inch ingots, one being taken during the first third and the other during the last third of the cast. Test-pieces obtained from these small ingots usually give results inferior to those obtained from larger sizes; but for purposes of cornparison they are equally conclusive. Many of the tests were made for experimental purposes within a few hours of the time of rolling, and before sufficient time had elapsed for the usual molecular redistribution necessary for the best results. All the tests were made on 3/4-inch rounds just as they left the rolls and without annealing; the results, therefore, are subject to the errors caused by variations in the diameter, and in the temperature at which the bar was finished. The tests from any one heat, however, were always nude as nearly as possible under the same conditions; and inasmuch as these data include the results of every heat so tested, and inasmuch as the errors could not by any chance always support any single theory, we may be certain that the unanimons testimony of the experiments indicates a valid conclusion.