196 Sir Frederick Bramivell on Welding hy Electricity, [April 18, 



and could show you work done on T-iron and on various other 

 forms of metal. But there is not time to do so, and I, of all men, 

 should not offend by exceeding the allotted hour, for if I did I could 

 not as Secretary, call others to account. The most difficult metals can 

 be dealt with in this machine. You will remember Dr. Percy tells us 

 that the great difficulty in welding most metals is to find out the critical 

 point of temperature and to maintain it. I wish now to prove to 

 you that the current is under absolute control in the machine, and 

 the object to be welded being under continuous observation during 

 the operation, one is enabled to deal with any one of the refractory 

 metals in the required way, and so to get a union, by bringing the 

 surfaces into the necessary pasty condition of temperature and at the 

 right moment to operate upon them. 



We have here a much smaller welder, which is automatic in its 

 action. It is intended for welding together pieces of wire, &c. By 

 the time the two portions are sufficiently heated and are pressed 

 together, the machine is automatically thrown out of gear, and the 

 operation is completed. Two pieces of copper wire are in now, and, 

 it you observe the machine you will see that when the work is done, 

 it of itself, stops the current. There is the welded wire, and I think 

 you will admit that the work is good ; for you see I cannot by 

 bending it backwards and forwards break it at the weld. Now we 

 will try a piece of aluminium. That is commonly supposed to be a 

 very difficult metal to unite, but this machine will do it easily. Here 

 it is, welded, and you see that it is perfectly competent to be bent 

 without breaking at the weld. And now a piece of German silver, 

 this being the metal which, you will remember, gave such a high 

 resistance when we used it before. 



I regret that time does not admit of my showing you other 

 different kinds of work done in the machines, and that I must bring 

 my remarks to a conclusion by saying: — I think it is obvious that a 

 machine which gives us this power of heating any metal, with 

 absolute control over the heat, and that affords such thorough facility 

 for inspecting the work during the heating, must have many uses 

 in the Arts. Indeed, there can be no doubt that the existence of 

 such a machine will of itself give rise to a large number of new uses. 



[F. B.] 



