622 Meeting of the British Association. [Oct., 



should, when conducting inquiries on boiler explosions, be instructed 

 and empowered to avail themselves of competent engineering advice, 

 so that the cause of every explosion may be fully investigated, 

 while the information acquired should be widely circulated. 5. The 

 committee entertain a sanguine hope that this course alone would 

 do much towards the prevention of the present recurrence of steam- 

 boiler explosions, without any further governmental action. The 

 report was signed by Mr. Fairbairn, the Chairman of the com- 

 mittee. By way of supplement to the report, and for the purpose 

 of raising a discussion, Mr. Fletcher submitted a short paper " On 

 Government Action with regard to Boiler Explosions." The dis- 

 cussion took place on the following day, and it may be referred to 

 at this stage. Mr. Alcock, Mr. Bramwell, Mr. Longridge, Captain 

 Galton, Mr. Webster, Q.C., Professor Kankine, the President, and 

 others took part in it, and all deprecated Government interference 

 in the way of inspection. Various suggestions were made in refer- 

 ence to the stamping of boiler-plates by the makers ; to the persons 

 employed as boiler-tenters ; to the qualifications of boiler-makers ; 

 and in reference to the way in which boiler inspection should be 

 conducted. It was strongly urged by several of the speakers that 

 efforts should be made to strengthen the hands of the Coroner, 

 and render his court of inquiry a reality instead of a sham, and 

 that persons using steam-boilers should be made responsible for the 

 consequences caused by explosions. In the course of the discussion 

 Captain Gal ton stated that he had induced the Government to place 

 some hundreds of boilers under the inspection of the Association for 

 Guaranteeing Steam-boilers against Explosion. 



The report submitted by the Steamship Performance Committee 

 was a vary fuU and valuable paper, but notwithstanding its fulness 

 it only claimed to be a Jirst report, treating of only a portion of the 

 subject, namely, the resistance which ships offer to propulsion, and 

 to their behaviour in respect of rolling. The value of the report 

 "On the Treatment and Utilization of Sewage" can scarcely be 

 overrated. It had previously been submitted to the Chemical Sec- 

 tion by Dr. B. H. Paul, who compiled it. Its value did not depend 

 upon the opinions expressed by the Committee, inasmuch as they 

 did not express any, but upon the facts which it brought together 

 regarding the efforts at treatment and utihzation of sewage both at 

 home and abroad. Through the Home Office the Committee ob- 

 tained information from Hamburg, Saxe-Coburg Gotha, Holland, 

 Bavaria, Baden, Saxony, Prussia, Switzerland, Austria and Hun- 

 gary, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Turkey, Greece, Eussia, the 

 United States of America, and Wurtemburg; and by means of 

 schedules sent out to 338 local, sanitary, and sewer authorities, the 

 committee obtained replies from 107 places to the queries con- 

 tained in the schedules. Those queries referred to the population. 



