456 THE SCIENTIFIC PAPERS OF 



of great importance throughout the world using the regenerative 

 furnace as designed by him, why was it that at the Royal Gun 

 Factory, and only there, it was a failure, and was now for the first 

 time publicly so described ? The fact was, it was a failure there 

 because it had been put up without knowledge. It was true that 

 after the furnace had been erected and failed, he had received a 

 letter from the War Office to go and see what was the matter. He 

 expressed his surprise at being called upon at so late a date to see 

 to it, but he immediately went, and reported that, although he had 

 not seen the furnace in operation, it was evidently constructed iu 

 a manner to prevent its proper action ; amongst other things there 

 was no sufficient ventilation provided below the seat of the furnace, 

 although it was to work with a cinder bottom. The coil would 

 therefore stand in the fluid cinder, and this could not be altered 

 without pulling down the furnace, and re-erecting it in accordance 

 with approved designs. This was the course he recommended, 

 and he received instructions to prepare plans, but before these 

 were quite finished, he received another letter, stating that the 

 estimates for the year did not contain an item for rebuilding such 

 a furnace, and its consideration must be postponed ; and it had 

 been postponed to the present day. 



He thought that the question of patents as regarded public 

 departments should be inquired into and cleared up. He was 

 quite sure that if the Government had not claimed immunity from 

 such liability, they Avould have come to him in the first instance, 

 and they would have had the benefit of all the experience which he 

 had gained at that time. A good furnace would have been erected 

 for much less money than they had paid, even if they had in- 

 cluded some few hundreds for royalty and personal charges which 

 might have been incurred. By this time they would have saved, 

 indeed, many thousands of pounds, while he would have been 

 richer not only by the amount of royalty he might have received, 

 but because the reputed failure in question had stood in his way 

 for years and years in the introduction of his furnace. He had 

 felt aggrieved regarding this for the last eighteen years, but now 

 was the first opportunity that had been given him for publicly 

 relating the circumstances of the case. 



Before sitting down, he would say only a few words regarding 

 the very careful and practically valuable paper of Mr. Butter. 



