486 



Manchester Society : — 



occurred, and made some remarks on the general characters of these 

 beds. He obsen^es that probabl)' no locality more nearly represents 

 the conditions of the Red Crag Sea during the accumulation of the 

 materials of its bed than the existing Bay of Christchurch, where 

 the conflicting tidal currents mix the fossils of several beds with 

 recent shells. 



MANCHESTER SOCIETY. 



March 9, 1858.— W. Fairbairn, F.R.S. &c.. President, in the 

 Chair. 



A paper was read by the President on "Experiments to determine 

 the strength of some alloys of Nickel and Iron, similar in composi- 

 tion to Meteoric Iron." 



The object of the experiments in this paper was to ascertain 

 whether an infusion of nickel, in a given proportion, would increase 

 the tenacity of cast iron, as originally imagined from the analysis of 

 meteoric iron, found to contain 2^ per cent, of nickel. Contrary to 

 expectation, the cast iron, when mixed with the precise quantity of 

 nickel, indicated by the analysis of meteoric iron, lost considerably 

 in point of strength instead of gaining by it. Hopes were enter- 

 tained that increased toughness and ductility would be the result of 

 the mixture ; but the experiments which follow clearly show that 

 there is a diminution in place of an increase of strength. 



From the first class of experiments recorded in the paper, it 

 appears that the nickel was prepared from the ore, and melted in 

 the crucible, as follows : — 



30 lbs. of roasted ore. 

 5 lbs. of pure sand. 

 2 lbs. of charcoal. 

 2 lbs. of lime. 



These were kept six hours in the furnace, and after being sepa- 

 rated from the slag, the metal was cooled and remelted with -i- lb. 

 of roasted ore and ^ lb. of pure bottle glass ; about 25 per cent, 

 of nickel was obtained. Two and a half j)er cent, of this was fused 

 with Blaenavon No. 3 pig iron, and run into ingots, or bars, which 

 were then subjected to experiment as follows : — 



Results derived from 1-inch square bars, subjected to a transverse 

 strain 2 feet 3 inches between the supports. 



