116 REPORT— 1849. 
brought out what is termed Damascus iron, which is constructed of alternate layers 
of steel and iron faggoted, drawn down into rods, then tortuously twisted, and when 
welded into barrels forms the Damascus barrel. The success of this experiment, 
both in point of beauty and strength, was so great, as to be under-estimated at 
50 per cent. as compared with the strength of stub twist iron. The next experiment 
was to blend more intimately than the above steel with the horse-nail stubs in the 
proportion of one to two of the latter. The paper described the mode of this; and 
then went on to narrate that the next and most important improvement in metals 
was the manufacture of gun-barrels from scrap steel entirely, and for this purpose 
old coach springs were generally in request: by clipping these into pieces, perfectly 
cJeansing them, and welding in an air-furnace, a metal is produced which surpasses 
in tenacity, tenuity and density any fibrous metal ever before produced. The tena- 
city of it when subjected to torsion in a chain-testing machine is as 8 to 2} over 
that of the old stub twist mixture. The perfect safety of barrels produced from it 
is astonishing; no gunpowder yet tried has power to burst them when properly 
manufactured. These experiments had induced others on a more extensive scale ; to 
effect this, ingots of cast, steel were taken to the mill made to No. 3 in the scale 
of carbonization. These, after rolling into flat bars, were clipped into small pieces, 
immediately mixed and welded as before in the air-furnace, drawn down into rolls, 
and re-faggoted ; these were subsequently drawn down, and were then ready for 
being made into gun-barrels, either with or without spirally twisting them, to form 
Damascene barrels. It was discovered that the density and tenacity of the metal was 
sufficiently great to effectually resist the enormous force of the great charge of gun- 
powder. The manufacture of swords was another article to which this improvement 
applied. All the investigations of the writer had tended to satisfy him that the Arabs 
thus produced their finely-tempered Damascus swords ; namely, using two steels of 
different carbonization, mixing them in the most intimate manner, and twisting them 
many fantastic ways, but observing method in that fancy; and it was a fact that no 
European sword has ever yet been produced equal to the Damascus. The Government 
inspector of small arms was of opinion that the swords made in Birmingham were not 
fit to be used in the army. The writer’s investigations had satisfied him that tem- 
pering by crystallizing the steel, that is to say, tempering in the ordinary way, was 
far from the wisest. The Damascus blade in its fibrous state or hammer hardened 
is more difficult to break by 100 per cent. than the best English-made blade. This 
had been tried ; but temper it the same way, and it showed no greater tenacity than 
our own; the Damascene figure was destroyed by the carbon becoming equally 
diffused ; nor would acid develope it—it was entirely gone. From these and other 
facts the conclusion might be drawn, that swords constructed of dissimilar steels— 
tempered by condensation of its fibres, either by repeated rollings, hammering, or 
many other processes, which our perfect machinery gave us the facility to do—are 
the best. Therefore in time we might hope to see every soldier of the empire armed 
with a weapon as good if not so costly as the highly-prized Damascene. The re- 
maining part of the paper referred to a subject already much discussed—the manu- 
facture of railway axles. 
On the Cause and Prevention of the Oscillation of Locomotive Engines on 
Railways. By Grorce Heaton, Birmingham. 
The author exhibited a model to show the cause and prevention of the oscillation © 
of locomotive engines upon railways, made to a scale of 3, to represent a locomotive 
engine with driving wheels 6 feet diameter, cylinders 16 inches diameter; stroke of 
piston 22 inches. A handle in connexion with the machine turns once round for 20 
strokes of the piston. When the handle is turned slowly round, the machine stands 
still where it is placed; but by increasing the speed, it will begin to oscillate and 
jump about, although each wheel has a balance-weight in it equal to the weight of 
the crank-pin and the weight that the connecting rod bears upon the crank-pin. 
If weights are placed on the wheels equal to the weight of the pistons and gearing, 
or all that moves in a horizontal line, the oscillations will cease, but the machine will 
begin to jump perpendicularly up and down. 
This machine is intended to show the importance of moving weights in opposite - 
