SfR WILLIAM SIEM1-:.\S, l-.R.S. 455 



and their open-hearth arrangement, and see what the consumption 

 of fuel was, and what time was necessary for the charge as com- 

 pared with the furnace constructed entirely in accordance with his 

 pluus. If it should be proved that the results were in favour of 

 his own construction, he thought he should have a good claim upon 

 tin- Department to come to him for designs before erecting further 

 turn aces. He need hardly say that these furnaces at Woolwich 

 had been erected and the process set to work without any com- 

 munication with himself. The Department considered themselves 

 above any such liability as patent rights, and therefore appeared 

 bound to follow out their own detailed designs. The paper went 

 on, moreover, to describe the unfortunate results obtained with a 

 Siemens furnace erected nineteen years ago at the Arsenal. Any 

 unprejudiced person, reading the paper, would think that he had 

 gone there promising them wonderful results from his furnace, and 

 that they, finding it a failure, had abandoned it, and resorted to 

 devices of their own. But if such a conclusion were come to by 

 any member, it would be a very erroneous one. The Department 

 at that time, acting on the principle that the Government was in- 

 dependent of patentees, did net address themselves to him, but to 

 a former draughtsman of his who had established himself in 

 business as a contractor. That gentleman svas permitted not only 

 to contract for the erection of a furnace, but to furnish his own 

 designs. Possibly the former circumstance had influenced him to 

 some extent to put in the enormous culverts that might have 

 answered for eight or ten such furnaces, and must have rendered 

 the construction very costly indeed. At that period furnaces had 

 been erected by him (Dr. Siemens) for precisely the same purposes. 

 Sir William Armstrong had at that time not one but several of his 

 furnaces for heating gun coils at his works, and how highly he 

 approved them was shown by his own allusions to the matter when 

 President of the British Association, and again as President of 

 Section G of the same Association at Birmingham. Members of 

 the Institute would recollect, moreover, that when visiting the 

 Creusot Works, three years ago, they saw there four splendid fur- 

 naces erected by Messrs. Schneider for heating large gun and other 

 forgings. At Krupp's the same furnace was also used, particularly 

 in connection with the Gun Factory ; and the same could be said also 

 with regard to Sir Joseph Whitworth. Having all the gunmakers 



