S//? WILLIAM SIEMENS, F.R.S. 361 



who, by his amiable, modest manner, impressed every one very 

 much in his favour. It was, however, not his personal qualities 

 wliivh the Institute had to look to. Professor Tunner was, it 

 iniirlit be said, at the head of a very ancient iron district. Styria 

 hud produced for centuries iron of very high quality. The cutler 

 of Damascus had for centuries forged his blades of Styrian iron 

 at any rate, Styrian iron had entered largely into the composition 

 of the material of which those blades were made ; and he remem- 

 bered that when, in 1851, the International Jury made certain 

 itnents upon the scythes sent from Styria, they were perfectly 

 surprised to find that the keen edge of those implements would 

 cut off the head of a nail without being injured by the operation. 

 Nature had been very kind to the ironmaster of Styria in providing 

 him with a spathose ore of extraordinary purity, and with a fuel in 

 abundance of the highest quality in the form of enormous and 

 beautiful forests. Still, with all those advantages, results such as 

 we heard of could not be realized without skill and the application 

 of scientific knowledge. In this country, we were very proud of 

 our achievements in blast furnaces, but the Styrian furnace, 

 although a different thing from the blast furnace of this country, 

 was one of peculiar merits, and the economical results which had 

 been obtained from it were very surprising. He learnt that a ton 

 of iron was smelted with something like thirteen cwt. of charcoal. 

 That result was a remarkable one, although, of course, it could not 

 be fairly compared with the results obtained from coke and the 

 inferior ironstones of this country. Professor Tunner might be 

 said to be the leading spirit in that centre of industry. It was 

 unnecessary to enlarge upon his literary works, which were well 

 known to members, and which were largely quoted in our excellent 

 "Metallurgy" by Percy ; but Professor Tunner had for many years 

 been active in educating young metallurgists who had done good 

 work in Austria, and who had also given us indirectly some 

 benefit. We were now receiving from the district of Styria a 

 large supply of ferro-manganese, a material which we could not 

 produce from substances of our own. Professor Tunner had been 

 active on many commissions, in which his practical sense, and his 

 thorough mode of investigation, going to the very foundation of 

 every matter that came before him, had left a remarkable impress 

 on inquiries into metallurgical subjects. I therefore think (the 



