Last week I went to Univ. of Virginia and the Albemarle Iron Works site.

At UVa I spent a considerable amount of time in the Science & Engineering
Library reading about iron, steel, and metallurgy.  Most of the references to Ti
were in relation to the creation of Ti alloy steel, and had no bearing on my
inquiry.  The following are the relevant extracts :

Stougton, Bradley
 1908 The Metallurgy of Iron and Steel.  Hill Publishing Company, NY.

"Magnetite (Fe3O4) ...is often mixed with other impurities, such as silica,
titanium, and phosphorus, so much so as to render the ore either too poor in
iron to be smelted profitably,... or so high in titanium as to interfere with
the blast furnace smelting by producing sticky slags which are not easily
handled."  (p15)

"Titanium hs often been found in pig iron in very small quantities, but its
presence in the blast furnace is usually objected to, because it causes the
slags to be so infusible and sticky...  use of electric furnaces overcomes this
problem because of higher available temperatures."  (p419)

Francis, C.B.
 1940 The Making, Shaping and Treating of Steel.  Carnegie-Illinois Steel
Corporation, Pittsburgh.

"Titanium enters the furnace as titania, TiO2, combined with some base.  Titania
is similar to silica, SiO2, except that it is more difficult to reduce at
temperatures attainable in the blast furnace, and all but traces of it, which
are found in the iron, pass out with the slag." (p285)

Lankford, William T., Jr.
 1985 The Making, Shaping and Treating of Steel.  10th Edition.  United States
Steel Corporation, Pittsburgh.

"Titanium is found with iron in several important iron-bearing deposits...  The
titanium oxide is reduced to carbonitrides.  These materials have a limited
solubility in iron and often can be found in iron salamanders as their presence
makes the iron viscous and raises the solidification temperature.  If the TiO2
content of the burden exceeds 13 kilograms per metric ton (26 pounds per net
ton) of iron, the slag and the metal are usually very viscous and the iron forms
skulls in the trough, the runners, and the ladle." (p579)

I spent about four hours at the Albemarle site.  Over an hour of it wading in
very cold water.  I checked both banks and in the river for about 100 yards
above and below the furnace seat.  I did not find any glassy furnace slag.  The
site has been owned by one family for over 100 years.  The present landowner
(50s college professor) said the only "glass" he's ever seen was bottle glass.
This is a very swift flowing stream with a lot of scouring.  How far downstream
is the glassy slag likely to be washed?

The river is full of accreted masses of ore, iron, charcoal, and slag (ranging
in size up to 2-3' in diameter).  They begin adjacent to the furnace and extend
downstream at least as far as I checked.  This is not the kind of industrial
waste I associate with a successful iron furnace.  What have I got here? I'm
hoping to get Dave Harvey at Colonial Williamsburg to look at it.

JH Brothers IV





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