620 Meeting of the British Association. [Oct., 



At the first clay's sitting there were read papers by IVFr. Fair- 

 bairn, Col. H. Clerk, R.A., and lS\v. E. Eaton. Mr. Faii'bairn's 

 was a " Further Eej)ort on the Mechanical Properties of Steel." 

 It was very elaborate and highly statistical. A point of consider- 

 able importance in connection with the communication was the 

 reliable details given regarding the properties of the Heaton steel. 

 Mr. Fau'bairn's experiments referred almost exclusively to the 

 Heaton steel, and to the Barrow Company's haematite steel. The 

 last-mentioned substance has very great " ductility combined with a 

 tensile breaking-strain of from 32 to 40 tons per square inch. 

 With these qualities," said Mr. Fairbairn, " I am informed that the 

 proprietors are able to meet the requirements of a demand to 

 the extent of 1000 to 1200 tons of steel per week, which, added 

 to a weekly produce of 4500 tons of pig-u'on, enables us to form 

 some idea of the extent of a manufacture destined in all probabihty 

 to become one of the most important and one of the largest in 

 Great Britain." 



The paper by Colonel Clerk, entitled " Description of the Hy- 

 draulic Bufiers and Experiments on the Flow of Liquids through 

 Small Orifices at High Velocities," gave rise to a very interesting 

 discussion. The author of the paper being desirous of applying 

 some method of checking the recoil of heavy guns, consulted Mr. 

 Siemens about two years ago, and suggested magnetism as the 

 form of force to be employed ; but the " magnetic doctor," as 

 Mr. Siemens has been styled, suggested hydropathic treatment 

 rather than magnetic, and in Col. Clerk's hands it has proved to 

 be most valuable, so valuable, indeed, that the hydrauhc compressor 

 or buffer invented by Col. Clerk is now being tried in a modified 

 form by railway engineers. The buffer has been used on shore 

 with guns up to 25 tons weight, and at sea with hght guns of 

 1\ cwt. and 8 cwt. in boats, and with 9-inch guns of 12 tons on 

 board H.M.S. ' Prince Albert,' and in all cases with great success. 



Mr. Eaton's paper was " On Certain Economical Improvements 

 in obtaining Motive Power." It contained an account of a modifi- 

 cation of the steam-engine recently made and brought into use in 

 Nottingham by Mr. George Warsop, the son of an air-gmi maker, 

 born with aerial ideas, educated at a Sunday-school, and sent to 

 work at ten years of age. Later in life he was a working mechanic 

 in the employment of Ericsson, in New York, and had an oppor- 

 tunity of noting the weak points of that eminent engineer's air- 

 engines, and profited by the experience gained. IMore recently 

 Mr. Warsop has dcAased, in the words of Mr. Eaton, " a marvellously 

 simple system of mechanism, which, as far as present experience goes, 

 promises complete success by means which, happily for the cause of 

 economy and progress, are compatible alike with physical science 



