Oct 2, 1879] 



NATURE 



541 



THE ALGERO-SPANISH TRIANGULATION 



WE have received from Algeria further details as to 

 the execution of the triangulation of the Algero- 

 Spanish geodetic arc. The stations in the Algerian pro- 

 vince of Oran are Msabia, a farm held by a colonist in 

 the Mordzago at an altitude of 585 metres, and Mount 

 Filhaoucen, at an altitude of 1,100 metres in Traras. 

 These stations are at a distance of 108 kilometres from 

 each other. The Spanish engineers have located them- 

 selves at Mulhacen, 3,500 metres altitude, in the Sierra 

 Nevada, and Tetica, in the province of Murcia, 2,400 

 metres altitude. The distance from Tetica to Mulhacen 

 is 88 kilometres. The two lines, Msabia-Tetica and 

 Filhaouccn-Mulhacen, are respectively 270 and 300 kilo- 

 metres long. In day-time signals were exchanged by sun- 

 light and reflected by silvered glass mirrors 30 centimetres 

 diameter ; at night a Gramme electric machine was used 

 in each station and worked by steam engine. The mirrors 

 used for the electric light are 50 centimetres diameter. A 

 telegraph line has been estabhshed from Oran to Msabia, 

 a distance of 16 kilometres, so that Msabia is placed in 

 direct communication with the European system. The 

 temperature of the Spanish stations was very low, and fell 

 several degrees under zero, while the heat was very great 

 in the Algerian stations, which must be taken into account 

 in the calculation of atmospheric refractions. Colonists 

 and especially Arabs showed much surprise at seeing 

 their mountains illuminated by a powerful ray of light 

 which the French officers were sending from Filhaoucen 

 and Msabia in the interval of operations. They were 

 heard to say that the French had inherited the power of 

 Allah, as they were making suns and stars. 



THE IRON AND STEEL INSTITUTE 



THE annual autumn or country meeting of this Associa- 

 tion was lield last week at Liverpool, in the concert 

 room of St. George's Hall, the proceedings being opened 

 with a few hearty words of welcome from the Mayor. 

 The report of council showed that the Institution con- 

 tinued to flourish in spite of the hard times in the trade, 

 fifty-eight new members having been added to the 

 list on the last ballot and the proposal papers of thirty- 

 eight received. The President then announced that the 

 Council had accepted an invitation, numerously signed by 

 representative firms in the iron trade of Westphalia to 

 hold the autumn meeting of 1880 at Diisseldorf, which 

 proposal was unanimously confirmed by the meeting. 



After the completion of the formal business, the pro- 

 ceedings commenced with a discussion on the very useful 

 method of determining manganese in iron ores, spiegel, 

 fcrromanganese, &c., by the volumetric method described 

 by Mr. Pattinson, of Newcastle, at the last meeting in 

 London, and which, according to the generally expressed 

 opinion of chemists present, seems destined, for com- 

 mercial purposes at any rate, to take the place of the more 

 tedious analytical methods now in use. 



Among the new communications prominence was given 

 to a paper by M. A. I'ourcel, of Terreuoire, on the causes 

 of dephosphorisation of iron and steel, the principal idea 

 in which was that the amount of phosphorus reduced from 

 phosphates contained in iron ores depends mainly on the 

 temperature and not on the reducing energy of the furnace 

 temperature, instancing the fact that from the same ores 

 pig-iron containing phosphorus in proportions varying 

 from i to 3 might be obtained in the blast-furnace, accord- 

 ing as the coke charge in the furnace was heavily burdened 

 or not, a conclusion that did not find much favour among 

 the members present. 



A second paper on the neutralisation of phosphorus in 

 iron and steel, by Mr. Richard Brown, of Ayr, proposed 

 the addition of small doses of bichromate of potassium 

 to the metal in the converter or melting furnace in 

 order to introduce a small proportion of chromium into 



the finished steel. According to the author's statement, 

 metal with from i to li per cent, of phosphorus may 

 be made to show fair working qualities, when containing 

 01 to o'2 per cent, of chromium as a corrective, but 

 from the results of the tests produced in support it 

 appeared to be extremely irregular, as regards extension 

 under strain. In the discussion on this paper some 

 interesting remarks were made incidentally by Mr. 

 Riley on the working of a chromiferous pig iron, which 

 was made to some extent in Tasmania, and from which 

 great things were expected, but it had been found 

 impracticable to produce clean iron from it in the puddling 

 furnace, owing to the refractory character imparted by 

 the chromium to the slag, .\nother paper by Mr. Bull 

 reproduced the old idea of dephosphorising by means of 

 steam, but no very new facts appear to have been brought 

 forward by the author. A useful method of compressing 

 the tops of steel ingots by the direct action of high 

 pressure on the surface of the molten metal, invented by 

 Mr. H. R.Jones, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, was described 

 by Mr. Davis. This appears to mark a real progress in 

 the manipulation of the metal, as the proportion of 

 unsound ingots is said to be notably reduced by its use. 

 Of more general interest than the formal papers, however, 

 was the statement made by Mr. Windsor Richards, on 

 the progress achieved in the dephosphorising of Cleveland 

 pig-iron in the Bessemer converter by the Thomas- 

 Gilchrist-Snelus process since the last meeting, which 

 Mr. Bell pronounced to be an absolute scientific success, 

 steel rails produced by this method at Eston from Cleveland 

 ore having satisfactorily passed the tests prescribed by the 

 North-Eastern Railway Company. Several minor papers 

 less intima ely connected with the main objects of the In- 

 stitution, such as the use of glass toughened by Siemens' s 

 process ot annealing for tramway sleepers, the progress of 

 iron and steel as constructive materials were also read 

 during the meeting. The afternoons, in accordance with the 

 usual custom, were devoted to excursions, the members 

 being fortunate enough to have the three finest examples of 

 the Transatlantic steamers belonging to the Cunard, Inman, 

 and White Star Lines in port and available for their 

 inspection at the same time. The Warrington Wire 

 Works, the largest manufactory of the class in the 

 country, the enormous locomotive engine, boiler, and 

 steel works of the London and North Western Railway 

 Company at Crewe, Messrs, MacCorquodale's Railway 

 Printing Office, and several of the large coUieries in the 

 Wigan district were also inspected by the members on 

 the remaining afternoon of this very successful meeting. 



NOTES 

 The Autumn Congress of the Sanitary Institute will be held 

 at Croydon from the 21st to the 2Sth inst., under the presidency 

 of Dr. B. W. Richardson. The exhibition will be opened at 

 3 P.M., on the 2lst, and in the evening Dr. Richardson will give 

 his presidential address. On the 22nd Dr. Alfred Carpenter 

 will give the address in the Section of Sanitary Science 

 and Preventive Medicine ; on the 23rd Capt. Douglas Gallon, 

 in the Section of Engineering and Sanitary Construction ; and 

 in the evening Prof. Corfield will give a lecture to the 

 Congress; on the 24th Mr. G. J. Symons will give the 

 address in the Section of Meteorology and Geology. Saturday, 

 the 25th, will be devoted to discussion. The results of the 

 examinations conducted by the Institute having shown the 

 necessity for some systematic plan of technical instruction m 

 sanitary science, the Council have decided to establisli a School 

 of Hygiene in London, to be opened during the month of 

 Novcml)cr next. The course of instruction will include the 

 following subjects :-Preventive Medicine. Practical Sanitary 

 Sciencc-(<J) Medical and Chemical; (*) Engineering and 

 Constructive. Jurisprudence and Sanitary Law. The foUowmg 



