away samples of the inventors' product. The presence of these men attested the seriousness of the experiments, and it is reported that the inventors may have discovered a process as valuable as that of Sir Robert Hadfield, which is reserved for Government use in England, despite the demand on the part of private enterprise. The French inventors have no connection with the Government.

They call attention to the fact that ordinary Bessemer steel, because of the impurities of the metal, wears badly and irregularly. Hard steel having a much longer life can be made to bear the same strains with very much less content of material, and thus the country that, is able to produce high-grade steel at the cost of ordinary steel will benefit by the immensely increased output and will be able, because of superior methods, to compete on very favorable terms with Great Britain, the United States and other steel-manufacturing countries.

At a time when the whole world is in need of steel of every sort, the cheapening of the highest grades and the reduction in the amount of labor required to produce it are factors of capital importance in the general work of reconstruction.

It is pointed out that, while the electrical process for producing pure steel is excellent, it requires an enormous expenditure of energy and labor, and is consequently extremely costly. The Bessemer process, on the other hand, while relatively cheap, has hitherto failed to remove impurities. What the inventors say they can do is to obtain pure steel by the use of the Bessemer process with slight alterations.

Since the preceding was written the author has secured some information concerning molybdenum steel for which he has been searching during the last year or two, and which had been refused him by a high authority in the employ of an automobile manufacturing company—possibly with the thought that, if molybdenum were adopted for bridgework, there would not be a large enough supply left for the use of the automobile industry. Some six months ago, however, the author was so fortunate as to secure from the president of the Climax Molybdenum Company of New York and Colorado certain interesting general information concerning the alloying properties of molybdenum, with the promise of detailed data as soon as they could be collected and formulated for publication in pamphlet form. In accordance with that promise, there came to hand a short time ago an advance copy of a booklet entitled, "Molybdenum Commercial Steels," issued as a trade catalogue by the before-mentioned company. The work contains a mass of detailed information about the alloy; and, although the data apply directly to steel for automobiles, it has proved practicable to make from the tabular matter deductions indicating how the said alloy might be applied to bridge construction. It certainly contains sufficient statistics to enable an investigator to draft a programme of studies and tests for determining the best practicable combination or combinations of molybdenum and other alloying elements with iron in order to produce the high alloy of steel for bridgework for which the author has been searching these many years.

While it is true that the publication is unquestionably a trade catalogue for the promotion of the sale of molybdenum, it is pointed out therein that, in order to avoid any undue rose-coloring caused by the natural tendency in writing such a work to "put one's best foot foremost," the MS. was submitted  for  comment  to  the  officials  and  metallurgists  of  some