and Miscellaneous Articles. 3 1 7 



will, frankness, and the love of truth, are the only dominant senti- 

 ments. 



My own connexion with this Society during the two years I have 

 had the honour to preside over its councils, has been to me a source 

 of continued and heartfelt pleasure : and it would be with pain inde- 

 scribable that I should now quit this Chair and bid you farewell, did 

 I not think that I should very often meet the same friends, and partake 

 in the same discussions. 



Every man, whatever be his station, has a small circle of duties 

 which are paramount to all others : but after these are performed, 

 such powers as are given me shall ever be willingly devoted to your 

 service. I do not mean this for empty boasting ; that language would 

 ill become me at any time, and least of all when I am leaving this 

 Chair and descending into your ranks. Mine has been indeed but an 

 interrupted service j but I resign it to one of whose powers you have 

 had long experience, who can give them to you undivided, and whose 

 hands are in no respect less ready than my own. 



XLVIII. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



ON THE HARDNESS OF COPPER SLAG AS A MATERIAL FOR 

 ROADS. BY B. BEVAN, ESQ. 



To Richard Taylor, Esq. F.L.S. F.G.S. fyc. 

 Dear Sir, 



I HAVE availed myself of the first opportunity since my return 

 from London, to try the hardness of the copper slag you put into 

 ray hands for that purpose. I find it the hardest material for roads 

 I have yet met with, the number expressing its strength, conform- 

 able to the List in page 164 of your last Number, is 234, which is 

 quite double the highest number in the said list. The specific gravity 

 I find 4*32, which is nearly double that of the ordinary materials used 

 for roads. Should the substance be all of equal hardness with the 

 specimen I have tried, and not subject to decomposition upon ex- 

 posure to the atmosphere, and the price prove moderate, it may be 

 considered one of the most valuable articles for roads of great traf- 

 fic and heavy loads. 



By comparing its strength with flint, it will be found to possess 

 seven times the resistance of that article. 



I am, Dear Sir, yours very truly, 

 Leighton, March 22, 1831. B. BEVAN. 



[The specimen of copper slag was received from Mr. H. Fisher of Newgate- 

 street, whose laudable endeavours to procure it to be used for the carriage-way 

 of Blackfriars Bridge have not met with the attention they deserve from the 

 Common Council of London, or the Committee of General Purposes. It is 

 much to be regretted that the Corporation is about to re-pave the Bridge, and 

 thus to renew a cause of constant distress and injury to the horses which are 

 drawing heavy weights over it, the attempts to keep up a Macadamized road 

 having failed. The failure, however, is without doubt to be attributed to the use 

 of an improper material, the rolled flint of the London gravel, which is reduced 

 to powder by the first pressure to which it is subjected. How greatly inferior 

 a material flint is for this purpose, plainly appears from the results obtained by 

 Mr. Bevan R. T.] 



LECTURES 



