THE NEW METALLURGY 51 



throw light on the wider questions of Physics and 

 Physical Chemistry in relation to the nature and 

 constitution of matter. Yet, parallel with this 

 development of a new science, there has occurred 

 an unprecedented advance in the metallurgical art, 

 and there can be no doubt that we have here a 

 definite connection of cause and effect that the 

 surprisingly rapid advance of metallurgical practice, 

 occurring at a stage when so much had already 

 been achieved that it was hard to imagine where 

 further progress could be made, is the direct result 

 of this new development in the investigation of 

 metals for their own sake. A brief review of these 

 parallel developments will serve as a striking 

 example of the manner in which purely scientific 

 research brings about, both directly and indirectly, 

 practical results of the highest value. 



The birth of the New Metallurgy is rightly 

 dated from the work of H. C. Sorby, who in 

 Sheffield, in the year 1861, first applied the micro- 

 scope to the study of metals. Although he worked 

 in Sheffield, Sorby was not a metallurgist but a 

 mineralogist, and by introducing the microscopic 

 study of rock-sections he first laid the foundations 

 of modern petrography. His devotion to this 

 science, which even to this day has found few 

 direct practical applications and is rightly pur- 

 sued for its own sake, shows how little Sorby 

 himself had practical ends in view when, seeking 

 further insight into the nature of meteorites, he 



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