4IO 



NATURE 



[August 29, 1889 



by causing what would otherwise be waste heat to warm 

 the air or gaseous fuel used in the process of combustion. 

 Thus we have a "regenerative condenser for high-pres- 

 sure and low-pressure steam-engines " ; a " regenerative 

 steam-engine " ; the regenerative furnace applied to glass 

 houses and to various metallurgical processes— to the 

 manufacture of steel, the puddling of iron, &c. 



Towards the close of his life, Siemens took up warmly 

 the question of abatement of smoke in large towns, and 

 economy in domestic heating and lighting. Accord- 

 ingly we find interesting and important papers on the 

 use of coal-gas as a fuel, and on gas supply both for 

 heating and illuminating purposes. These papers con- 

 tain a description of a regenerative domestic fire and a 

 regenerative gas-lamp. It is very surprising that the 

 views of Siemens on these important subjects have been 

 so little appreciated by the gas companies on the one 

 hand, and by the general public on the other. The 

 smoke nuisance becomes year by year more and more 

 terrible in our large towns ; while the gas companies 

 are undoubtedly neglecting to take advantage of sources 

 of enormously increased profits to themselves. 



Space fails us to enter into any detailed account of the 

 important papers on metallurgy contained in the second 

 part of the volume just now before us. In these are 

 elaborated the descriptions of his improvements in iron 

 processes. The two main features of the inventions are, 

 first, the production of " mild steel," as it is called, of a 

 quality surpassing that obtained by older processes ; and, 

 second, the production of first class steel by the " direct 

 process "— ithat is, directly from the ore instead of from 

 the pig-iron of the blast-furnace, or from puddled iron. 

 It is probable that even now, when there are over a mil- 

 lion tons of steel being produced annually in Great Britain 

 alone by the processes of Siemens, we are far from seeing 

 in full the results of these improvements. It must be 

 remarked, however, with regard to the direct process that 

 the very existence of the enormous estabhshment of 

 blast-furraces in this and other countries constitutes a 

 formidable adversary to its introduction. 



The volume containing the papers of Siemens on elec- 

 trical subjects is naturally divided into two parts : one 

 containing papers on cable-laying, &c., and the other on 

 the production of electricity by the dynamo-electric 

 machine, and its application when so produced. The 

 life of Siemens was intimately associated with the elec- 

 trical developments which have made the last forty years 

 startling in the rapidity of growth and improvement. By 

 the electric telegraph, the commercial and social rela- 

 tions not only of individuals, but of the nations, have 

 been revolutionized ; while with regard to the dynamo - 

 electric machine, much as its invention has accomplished , 

 there can be no doubt but that its past and present are 

 but infinitesimal compared with its future importance. 

 The papers of Siemens must always have exceptional 

 interest in connection with the early history of these two 

 industries. 



We cannot do more here than mention a few of them. 

 First we have three papers largely taken up with land- 

 line telegraphs, and giving an account of the progress 

 which Dr. Werner Siemens was making in Germany, 

 both in the construction of telegraph lines and in the 

 improvement of telegraph instruments. Next we meet 



with a paper describing a machine for covering telegraph 

 wires with india-rubber. Then we have contributions to 

 the tests of deep-sea cables ; and again, a paper on 

 the outer covering of deep-sea cables. A most interest- 

 ing paper gives an account of the steamship Faraday 

 and her appliances for cable-laying. The Faraday was 

 built with the object of laying the Direct United States 

 cable, and was fitted with every appliance which the 

 experience of former great submarine cables had sug- 

 gested as important. A number of minor papers give 

 descriptions of accessory instruments and appliances 

 connected with the work of laying down deep-sea 

 cables. Thus we have a deep-sea thermometer, the 

 bathometer, &c., described in short interesting memoirs. 



The papers connected with the production of electri- 

 city by the dynamo-electric machine, and of the uses of 

 the great currents so produced, deal with a department 

 of science and industry in which Sir William Siemens 

 and his brothers were pioneers. The Siemens family,, 

 and the manufacturing firms of Siemens in this country 

 and in Germany, designed and produced machines which 

 undoubtedly were the best of those early days, and which 

 served Siemens in setting on foot the first electric rail- 

 ways, the first electric furnaces, and first and only 

 experiments on horticulture by electric light. 



Only a few lines remain to us in which to refer to the 

 third of these volumes. A man of Siemens's power and 

 standing, and one who was able to speak with authority 

 on so many subjects of high scientific and commsrcial 

 interest, was naturally called on to give many more or 

 less popular expositions of these subjects. Many lectures 

 and addresses were therefore obtained on various occa- 

 sions from this gifted and public-spirited man. These 

 are collected in the third volume of the papers. Here 

 we find addresses on deep-sea telegraphs, testing electric 

 cables ; on fuel, a popular lecture to the working classes 

 under the auspices of the British Association at Bradford ; 

 on air-engines and steam-engines, in which the regenera- 

 tive principle is explained ; on utilization of heat, a 

 lecture under the Glasgow Science Lectures Association • 

 on waste, delivered to the Coventry Science Classes ; 

 several addresses and speeches on subjects connected 

 with the production and uses of steel. We have also 

 addresses which he delivered as President of various 

 learned Societies— as President of the Mechanical Sec- 

 tion of the British Association ; two addresses to the 

 Society of Telegraph Engineers, two to the Iron and 

 Steel Institute, his address as President of the British 

 Association in 1882, and many other minor addresses 

 and speeches. 



Among other subjects on which Siemens had thought 

 deeply, is the highly important one of technical educa- 

 tion, which is exercising the minds of so many at the 

 present time. He had more than common opportunities 

 for forming a correct judgment on the requirements o: 

 those who are to advance the various arts and industries 

 of the world ; and his knowledge of Germany and 

 England, and of German workmen and English \voik- 

 men in very varied departments, gave him special title 

 to speak with authority on this subject. The con- 

 sequence is that in many of his shorter addresses and 

 speeches very valuable remarks and criticisms are to be 

 found on this question so vital to our national prosperity. 



