72 



NATURE 



[May 16, 1878 



the rarer metals at the ordinary temperature ; gold also 

 can be welded cold, under certain conditions, as in 

 gold-beating. On the possession of these properties 

 depend most of the metal-fashioning crafts, those where 

 the metals are fused and cast being the main excep- 

 tions. 



Thus in the manufacture of steel pens, as carried 

 out by Messrs. Gillott and Sons, there are no less than 

 eighteen stages between the conditions of bar steel and 

 finished pen ; and most of the stages are different appli- 

 cations of these properties of metals in reference to the 

 shaping of the material into the required form. The bar 

 steel is first converted into thin sheets, which are again 

 rolled to the requisite degree of thinness ; from the rolled 

 steel "blanks " are punched out by a machine, leaving a 

 kind of skeleton or network of "scrap steel" (Fig. 3), 

 which is melted up or Avelded together and used over 

 again. Two "side slits" are then made in the blank 

 (No. 2), and a somewhat wider centre slit (No. 3) pierced, 

 a portion of metal being punched out in making this 

 orifice ; the metal is then annealed and marked with the 

 maker' s name ; a device or trade mark is raised by 

 embossing (No. 4), and then the hitherto flat pen is 

 converted into a portion of a cylinder, or curved (techi- 

 cally, "raised") by a suitable machine (No. 5); after 

 which it is hardened, tempered, and cleaned by scouring 

 with emery, &c. ; the tip is then " straight-ground," i.e. 

 the metal is thinned at the writing end by grinding in the 

 direction of the length of the pen, after which it is 

 "cross-ground," in the transverse direction. Finally the 

 slit from the nib to the punched-out central part is cut, 

 and the pen is coloured and varnished for sale. 



Again, the manufacture of table-spoons and forks, 

 many kinds of brass-work, cutlery, percussion-caps, cop- 

 per pans and kettles, medals, and coins, and a thousand- 

 and-one articles of every-day use, all depend upon the 

 possibility of forcing the metal into various shapes with- 

 out fracturing it, by mechanical processes, such as forging, 

 punching, pressing, embossing, and the like. One of the 

 prettiest illustrations of the application of pressing and 

 shaping force is afforded by the processes in use for 

 "teapot spinning," i.e. the production of a Britannia- 

 metal teapot by a process technically termed spinning. 

 The alloy being rolled into sheets of convenient thick- 

 ness, a circular disc is cut out and placed in a kind 

 of lathe as represented in Fig. 4, the metal disc being 

 pressed against a nearly hemispherical wooden chuck a. 

 The lathe being set in motion, ihe workman presses 

 against the off-side of the disc with a peculiarly shaped 

 tool, b, held steadily by means of the rest, c, so as gra- 

 dually to bend the disc over the mould, a, and so to 

 convert the disc into a bowl. The bowl thus formed is 

 ta'ien off the lathe and set with the con\ ex part fixed into 

 the concavity of a hoUowed-out chuck (shown in section 

 a, Fig. S) ; by the aid of two differently shaped tools held 

 one in each hand and applied, the one within and the 

 other without the rim of the bowl, the metal is gradually 

 bent inwards as it revolves, so as finally to take an 

 almost globular shape : Fig. 6 indicates the closing 

 stage of this operation, the nearly globular bowl thus 

 formed being shown in section in Fig. 5 b. Finally 

 the lid, spout, handle, &c., are attached, and the 

 whole brightened and polished for the market. During 

 the spinning the edge of the disc, some forty or fifty 

 inches in circumference, becomes diminished to almost 

 half that in the bowl, and to about one-quarter in the 

 globular pot, the metal being thus as it were pressed in 

 upon itself, as well as somewhat extended, the superficial 

 area of the outside of the globular pot being somewhat 

 greater than that of one side of the circular disc used in 

 the first instance. In a similar fashion jugs and analagous 

 vessels are "spun up," out of plates, the lips for pouring 

 being subsequently shaped by carefully hammering or 

 pressing out the metal on a wooden or metal mould. 



Silver articles, e.^., bowls, teapots, &c., are frequently 

 curved by an analogous operation ; the second stage, 

 however, cannot so well be applied to silver, so that if a 

 closed-in vessel is required like a teapot, it is usually made 

 in two halves, neatly soldered together. 



SCIENTIFIC RESULTS OF D'ALBERTIS' LAST 

 EXPEDITION TO NEW GUINEA 



"NJ OT long ago (Nature, vol. xvii. p. 383) we gave a 

 -'-^ short narrative of M. D'Albertis' recent expedition to 

 New Guinea. Through the kindness of Dr. George Bennett, 

 of Sydney, New South Wales (at present in London) we 

 are now able to add the following extracts from a letter 

 just received from that distinguished explorer respecting 

 the scientific results of his expedition : — 



" I forward to you a copy of the account of my last 

 voyage to New Guinea. I have not given any account 

 of the results of the voyage as regards the collections of 

 natural history, but I now inform you that the collection 

 made is certainly less than I anticipated. Still, con- 

 sidering the great difficulties I had to encounter I ought 

 to be satisfied. I have eight hundred skins of birds, 

 including about two hundred species, of which I hope 

 that twenty or twenty-five will prove to be new to science. 

 Others will be interesting from the localities in which 

 they were to be found and also from their rarity. I pro- 

 cured another specimen of the Harpyopsis nova guinea, 

 the fourth obtained by me in New Guinea, and it is 

 certainly remarkable that it has never been obtained by 

 any other traveller in New Guinea. I also found the 

 rare ground-pigeon, Gyninophaps albertisi, which I had 

 previously obtained at Dorey in 1872, but it is so rare 

 there that only one or two specimens were found by 

 Beccari and Bruijn, and I have likewise two or three 

 new parrots. Among the insects there are many very 

 beautiful, and no doubt many of them will be new. The 

 examination of my collections will be interesting to 

 naturalists as showing the capricious distribution of 

 animal life ; for among my beetles from Papua, there are 

 some found in Australia, and others indigenous to the 

 Philippine Islands. I may also mention that I found a 

 fine Buprestis {Siigmodera dttboulayi), Avhich is very 

 rare, and known only in Western Australia. I may also 

 have in my collection one or two new mammals, but this 

 will be decided when I bring my collections to Europe." 



THE REV. ROBERT MAIN, F.R.S. 



PRACTICAL astronomy in this country has sustained 

 a serious loss in the death of the Rev. Robert 

 Main, which took place at the Radcliffe Observatory, 

 Oxford, on the morning of May 7. Mr. Main entered at 

 Queen's College, Cambridge, and graduated as sixth 

 wrangler in 1834, and was Fellow of his college 1836-38, 

 taking clerical orders in 1836. On the appointment of 

 the present Astronomer-Royal he was selected to fill the 

 office of First Assistant in the Royal Observatory, 

 Greenwich, which position he retained, until, on the 

 death of Mr. Johnson, he was appointed, in June, 

 i860, to the direction of the Radcliffe Observatory. 

 During his connection with the Royal Observatory 

 he was a frequent contributor to the Memoirs of the 

 Royal Astronomical Society, his first paper "On the 

 Node and Inclination of the Orbit of Venus" having 

 been presented in June, 1837. This was followed by 

 memoirs "Onthe Correction of the Mean Distance, Eccen- 

 tricity, Epoch, and Longitude of the Aphelion of the Orbit 

 of Venus," and he returned to the same subject in two 

 subsequent communications read April 13 and December 

 14, 1838. In May, 1840, Mr. Main contributed a paper 

 on " The Present State of our Knowledge of the Parallax 

 of the Fixed Stars," which was of much value at the 



