Au^tist 28, 1879] 



NATURE 



417 



Germany, and especially in Posen. The report had spread far 

 and wide that all Catholic children with black hair and blue eyes 

 were to be sent out of the country, some said to Russia, while 

 others declared that it was the King of Prussia who had been 

 playing cards with the Sultan of Turkey, and had staked and 

 lost 40,000 fair-haired blue-eyed children ; and there were Moors 

 ti'avelling about in covered carts to collect them ; and the school- 

 masters were helping, for they were to have five dollars for every 

 child theyj handed over. For a time the popular excitement 

 was quite serious ; the parents kept the children away from 

 school and hid them, and when they appeared in the streets of 

 the market-town the little ones clung to them with terrified looks. 

 Dr. Schwartze, the-well-known mythologist, took the pains to 

 trace the rumour to its sources. One thing was quite plain, that 

 its prime cause was that grave and learned body, the Anthropa- 

 logical Society of Berlin, who, without a thought of the com- 

 motion they [were stirring up, had, in order to class the population 

 as to race, induced the authorities to have a census made through- 

 out the local schools, to ascertain the colour of the children's 

 skin, hair, and eyes. Had it been only the boys, to the Govern- 

 ment inspection of whom for military conscription the German 

 peasants are only too well accustomed, nothing would have been 

 thought of it ; but why should the officials want to know about 

 the little girls' hair and eyes ? The whole group of stories which 

 suddenly sprang up were myths created to answer this question ; 

 and even the details which became embodied with them could 

 all be traced to their sources, such as the memories of German 

 princes .selling regiments of their people to pay their debts, the 

 late political negotiations between Germany and Russia, &c. 

 The fact that a caravan of Moors had been travelling about as 

 a show accounted for the covered carts with which they were to 

 fetch the children ; while the schoolmasters were naturally im- 

 plicated, as having drawn up the census. One schoolmaster, 

 who evidently knew his people, assured the terrified parents that 

 it was only the children with blue hair and green eyes that were 

 wanted — an explanation which sent them home quite comforted. 

 After all, there is no reason why we should not come in time to 

 a thorough understanding of mythology. The human mind is 

 much what it used to be, and the principles of myth-making 

 may still be learnt from the peasants of Europe. 



When, within the memory of some here present, the Science 

 of Man was just coming into notice, it seemed as though the 

 study of races, custom-, traditions, were a limited though in- 

 teresting task, which might, after a few years, come so near the 

 end of its materials as no longer to have much new to offer. Its 

 real course has been far otherwise. Twenty years ago it was 

 no difficult task to follow it step by step ; but now even the 

 yearly list of new anthropological literature is enough to form a 

 pamphlet, and each capital of Europe has its anthropological 

 society in full work. 80 far from any look of finality in anthro- 

 pological investigations, each new line of argument but opens 

 the way to others behind, while these lines tend as plainly as in 

 the sciences of stricter weight and measure, toward the meeting- 

 ground of all sciences in the unity of nature 



SECTION G 



MECHANICAL SCIENCE 



Opening Address by J. Robinson, Prf.s. Inst. Mech. 

 Eng., Prisident of the Section 



On the Development of the Use of Steel during the Last Forty 

 Years, considered in its Mechanital and Economic Aspects 



Much has been written by poets and others of a succession of 

 the Ages of the human race in comparing their degradation with 

 the various kinds of metal, considered metaphorically— thus we 

 liave the golden age, the silver age, the age of brass, and the 

 age of iron. 



Our own time may very appropriately and literally be de- 

 scribed as a branch of the latter age, and be named the age of 

 steel. 



In the metropolis of the steel manufacture it would seem fitting 

 that the Mechanical Section of this great scientific association 

 should direct its attention to this wonderful metal, the uses of 

 which are daily becoming more numerous and important. 



But it may be said, on the other hand, that as the use of this 

 material is perpetually growing more common, so are discussions 

 as to its manufacture, com])osition, and characteristics, becoming 

 almost wearisome from their frequency. 



Kotwithstandiiig an appcarp.nce of truth in this objection to 

 our occupying more time in referring to the subject, I would 

 venture to entertain the hope that a treatment of the question in 

 its mechanical and economic aspects may prove not uninteresting 

 to this meeting. 



At the time when railway extension was becoming general, 

 about forty years ago, the use of steel in this country was con- 

 fined mainly to toe Is for mechanical purposes, including files 

 and other articles, springs for vehicles, weapons of various 

 sorts, and implements for agricultural and domestic uses ; and it is 

 proposed to measure the scientific and mechanical energy brought 

 to be.-ir upon the manufacture and improvement of this metal 

 by the increase in the number of purposes to which it is applied, 

 and the diminished price at which it can be obtained, as com- 

 pared with the price at the time of its introduction for construc- 

 tive works. There are, however, several important exceptions 

 to this method of appreciation to which reference will hereafter 

 be made. 



We will take, then, the simplest form in the preceding list, 

 viz., tool steel, the price of which for ordinary purposes varied 

 from 50.'. to s6j-. per cwt. at the period I have named ; and we 

 shall find that the development of the manufacture of steel in 

 general has but little affected this particular material, which is 

 still produced in much the same fashion, i.e., by the use of 

 carefully selected Swedish iron, carburised by exposure in ovens 

 to the heat of burning charcoal, and then recast from crucibles 

 and hammered down to the required size. The result of a some- 

 what stationary condition of manufacture has been the mainten- 

 ance of prices, at the same, or about the same, level up to the 

 present time. 



A superior quality of tool steel has been produced by the 

 adoption of a process invented by Mr. R. Mushet, in which 

 titanium is introduced in the manufacture, and which dates back 

 to the year 1838-39. This steel is of great endurance when 

 applied to the working of steel and iron of considerable hard- 

 ness, and its higher price of \\os. per cwt. is quite justified by 

 the excellent results obtained from its use, and other steels of 

 similar fine quality are produced by several manufacturers, who 

 make specialties of them. 



Some twenty-seven or twenty-eight years ago, Krupp, of Essen, 

 gave an enormous impulse to the application of steel, by his 

 method of producing much larger masses of crucible steel than 

 had previously been possible. He at that time accomplished the 

 casting of an ingot of "crucible" steel of 50 cwt., a weight 

 then considered incredible, and this was followed up by the 

 production of weldless cast steel tyres in 1852, wliich led to the 

 very rapid development in the use of his steel for railway tyres, 

 cranked axles for locomotive and other engines, straight axles 

 and shafts, and parts of machines in general. 



It is most interesting to consider the prices of such of these 

 objects as have up to this time maintained similar forms, with the 

 object of ascertaining by the selling price, the progress in the 

 scientific and mechanical appliances used for the production of 

 the materials just referred to. 



At the time of their coming into use, about twenty-five years 

 ago, the price of cast steel tyres was 120s. per cwt. ; it is now 

 from 18^. to 25^. per cwt. The price of forged steel cranked 

 axles was, wheh first introduced, 15/. per cwt. ; it is now from 

 65^. to 70J. per cwt. 



The price of straight axles and shafts was from \Qs, to 50?. 

 per cwt. ; it Is now from 19.?. (>d. to 23^. per cwt. 



Now to what do we owe this enormous reduction of price and 

 consequent more frequent and more economic application ? The 

 answer must be that, following the initiation of Krupp, our 

 English engineers and men of science set themselves to work to 

 discover and apply new processes for the production and manu- 

 facture of this most wonderful metal ; and I venture to say that 

 in the whole history of metallurgy, from the time of Tubal Cain 

 downwards, there has been no such progress in invention and 

 manufacture as has been realised by the aid of such men as Mushet, 

 Krupp, Bessemer, Siemens, Whitworth, Martin, Vickers, Bell, 

 Bauschlnger, Styffe, and many others within the period com- 

 prised in this retrospect ; and our national predilections wi.'l 

 perhaps lead us to the opinion that our own country may 

 fairly appropriate a large share of merit for the results 

 achieved. 



Another of the uses of steel to which attention may be given 

 is that of the production of cannon of large size. 



Efforts had been made by some of our enterprising workers in 

 metal to produce large guns of solid wrought iron ; but the 



