76 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT. 



one best snitod for use in decimal subdivisions, and the one most 

 extensively adopted already. As regarded decimal siilxlivision, 

 the results of inquiries made by the Association had led them to 

 recommend the metre as adai)ted for the greatest variet}' of mea- 

 surements, and for the most numerous cases likely to occur in 

 daily life, anil to conclude that the inch did not in itself oiler any 

 advantage above the metre, even to mechanical engineers, since 

 accuracy of measui'cment depended not on the scale, but on the 

 measuring instrument em])loyed, Avhich ought to be applicable to 

 any scale; and tiie millimetre had l)een already tried to some 

 extent in this countr\% and was Annul convenient and suitable for 

 mechanical work. In reference to the extent of population adojit- 

 ing the metn; or the inch, it was believed that the numerical i)re- 

 ponderance was already in favor of tlie former, and was steadily 

 increasing by the more general adojition of th(? metre in other 

 countries ; and the simplicity and convenience of the metre system, 

 both for measures and weights, were urged, together with the 

 great importance of facilitating international communications, 

 •which were now so much interfered with by the incongruity of 

 the systems in use. — Mu. John Feknie, of Leeds, in London 

 Mechanics' Magazine, February, 1865. 



At the meeting of the National Academy of Sciences, held in 

 Washington, D. C., in January, 18GG, the Committee on Uniform 

 Weights, Measures, and Coinage, made the following report, 

 which was adopted by the Academy, and ordered to I)e conmnmi- 

 cated to the Treasury Department, and to the Congressional Com- 

 mittee having charge of the same subject: "The committee are 

 in favor of adopting ultimately a decimal system, and in their 

 oijinion the metrical system of weights and measures, though not 

 without defects, is, all things considered, the best in use. The 

 committee therefore suggest that the Academy recommend to 

 Congress to authorize and encourage by law the introduction and 

 use of the metrical s3-stem of weights and measures; and, with a 

 view to familiarize the people with the system, the Academy re- 

 commend that provision be made by law for the immediate manu- 

 facture and distribution to the custom-houses and States of metri- 

 cal standards of weights and measures ; to intr(;duce the system 

 into the ])ost-officcs, by milking a single letter weigh fifteen grains 

 instead of fourteen .and seventeen-hundredths, or half an ounce ; 

 and to cause the new cent and two-cent pieces to be so coined that 

 they shall weigh respectively five and ten grams, and that their 

 diameter shall be made to bear a determinate and simple ratio to 

 the metrical unit of length." 



CONVERSION OF CAST-IRON INTO STEEL. 



M. Galy-Cazalat, as reported in the " London Chemical News," 

 No. 320, has communicated a new process for quickly and eco- 

 nomically converting any mass of cast-iron into steel, which he 

 accomplishes Ijy passing supei-heated steam into the fused iron. 

 In traversing the mass the steam is decomposed ; the oxygen 

 burns progressively the carbon and oxide of iron, while the hy- 



