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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



MISCELLANY. 



United States Board for testing Iron 



and Steel. We have already (in the July 

 number of the Monthly) called attention 

 to the researches proposed to be made by 

 the United States Board for testing Iron 

 and Steel, and recur to the subject in 

 order to stimulate those of our readers who 

 may be in possession of facts bearing on the 

 inquiry to communicate with the chairmen 

 of the various committees into which the 

 board has been divided. These commit- 

 tees are fifteen in number. The commit- 

 tee on abrasion and wear, chairman, R. H. 

 Thurston, has to examine and report upon 

 the abrasion and wear of railway wheels, 

 axles, rails, and other materials. Another 

 subject of investigation by this committee 

 is the wear of tools under the various con- 

 ditions of workshop practice. The com- 

 mittee on armor-plate, chairman, Lieuten- 

 ant-Colonel Q. A. Gillmore, U. S. A., will 

 make tests of armor-plate, and collect data 

 derived from experiments already made to 

 determine the characteristics of metal suit- 

 able for such use. A. L. Holley is chairman 

 of the committee on chemical research, 

 whose duty it is to plan and conduct inves- 

 tigations of the mutual relations of the 

 chemical and mechanical properties of 

 metals. The committee on chains and 

 wire-ropes, whose chairman is Commodore 

 L. A. Beardslee, U. S. N., is charged to de- 

 termine the character of iron best adapted 

 for chain-cables, the best form and propor- 

 tions of link, and the qualities of metal 

 used in the manufacture of iron and steel 

 wire-rope. The committee on corrosion of 

 metals, W. Sooy Smith, chairman, is to in- 

 vestigate the subject of corrosion of metals 

 under the conditions of actual use. 



The committee on the effects of tem- 

 perature, chairman, R. A. Thurston, will 

 investigate the effects of variations of tem- 

 perature upon the strength and other quali- 

 ties of metals. That on girders and col- 

 umns will arrange and conduct experiments 

 to determine the laws of resistance of 

 beams, girders, and columns, to change of 

 form and to fracture. Two committees on 

 iron, wrought and cast, chairmen, Com- 

 mander Beaslee and Lieutenant - Colonel 



Gillmore, will examine and report on the 

 mechanical and physical properties of 

 wrought and cast-iron. The committee on 

 metallic alloys, chairman, Prof. Thurston, 

 is to make experiments on the character- 

 istics of alloys and to investigate the laws 

 of combination. That on orthogonal simul- 

 taneous strains, chairman, W. Sooy Smith, 

 will experiment on such strains with a view 

 to the determination of laws. W. Sooy 

 Smith is also chairman of the committee of 

 physical phenomena, who will investigate 

 the physical phenomena accompanying the 

 distortion and rupture of materials. The 

 committee on reheating and rerolling, chair- 

 man. Commodore Beaslee, will observe and 

 experiment on the effects of reworking 

 metals ; of hammering as compared with 

 rolling, and of annealing metals. A com- 

 mittee on steels produced by modern pro- 

 cesses, A. L. Holley, chairman, will inves- 

 tigate the constitution and characteris- 

 tics of steels made by the Bessemer, open- 

 hearth, and other modern methods. Final- 

 ly, the committee on steels for tools, chair- 

 man, Chief-Engineer D. Smith, U. S. N., is 

 directed to determine the constitution and 

 characteristics and the special adaptations 

 of steels used for tools. Each of these com- 

 mittees has issued a circular, more particu- 

 larly defining the researches in which it is 

 engaged ; they can be obtained from the 

 secretary of the board, Prof. Thurston, 

 Stevens Technological Institute, Hoboken, 

 New Jersey, or from the respective chair- 

 men. 



Stanley's Expedition, Letters have beea 

 received by James Gordon Bennett, of this 

 city, from Henry M. Stanley, commander of 

 the expedition fitted out for the exploration 

 of the interior of Africa by the proprietors 

 of the New York Herald and the London 

 Telegraph. The letters were written at a 

 village called Kagehyi, on the extreme 

 southern shore of Victoria Niyanza. The 

 expedition reached that point on February 

 27, 1875, after an arduous march of 103 

 days from the sea-coast. There were in the 

 expedition, as soldiers and carriers, over 

 300 men, all native Africans except five, the 

 commander and four Englishmen. For the 

 first 175 miles Stanley followed Livingstone's 

 route nearly due west, but, having reached 



