30^ 



NA TURE 



[August io, 1893 



according to opinions from the time of Kant up to the present," 

 by Herr Guizel, deals with the process of development of the 

 heavenly bodies, the case of comets receiving the writer's 

 special attention. 



Among the notes are found a few words about the sun and 

 magnetic storms, with reference to Lord Kelvin's recent views, 

 types of weather in Australia, driving ice in southern latitudes, 

 and several others. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 



The question of the death of Emin Pasha is again under dis- 

 cussion. It is one of the most difficult problems associated with 

 Africa to estimate the amount of credence due to native or Arab 

 reports. The dictum that bad news travels fast in Africa has 

 been repeatedly proved, but rumours of the death of every ex- 

 plorer of note who has buried himself for a time in the interior 

 have been so persistent and so often falsified, that hesitation 

 is justified in believing Emin dead. It may very well be that 

 he was killed, as Arab report affirms, in October last, while 

 on his great journey across Africa, by the very route which 

 brought Stanley to his rescue five years ago. But on the 

 other hand, it may very well be that he is pushing on leisurely 

 towards Lake Chad and keeping his movements secret for 

 political purposes. 



A NEW field of discussion in geography appears to be about 

 to open if we read literally the title "An Undiscovered Island 

 off the northern coast of Alaska," in the last part of the National 

 Geographic Magazine. The existence of an island in 734° N. 

 and 1534° W., north of Point Barrow, is inferred from some 

 rather vague reports of whalers, and some still vaguer stories of 

 the Alaskan Eskimo. Mr. Marcus Baker, who introduces the 

 new land, believes in it sufficiently to propose the name Keenan 

 Island for it ; but General Greely contributes a note to the paper 

 in which he shows good reason for believing that the whalers 

 were mistaken, the Eskimo misunderstood, and the new land 

 non-existent. 



The Revue de Geographie commences a series of articles on 

 "Questions Geographiques," with a paper on the gaps in our 

 knowledge regarding the vertical relief of France, by M. A. 

 Thalamas. To fill these he urges the importance of supplement- 

 ing the ordinary hypsometrical maps by sections, and by a 

 complete series of perspective photographic views taken from 

 characteristic points. 



The Rev. K. P. Ashe, author of the standard work on 

 Uganda, and for many years resident there as a missionary, has 

 returned to this country, bringing much valuable information 

 regarding the geography of Eastern Equatorial Africa, which 

 will doubtless soon be made public. 



A NEW Geographical Society has been established at Tunis, 

 having for its special aim the study of that protectorate. 

 Not only geography but history, archaeology, anthropology, 

 colonisation, commerce, and "natural science " have places on 

 its programme. 



THE INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL 

 ENGINEERS. 



'X'HE Institution of Mechanical Engineers held their annual 

 summer meeting at Middlesborough, under the presidency 

 of Dr. William Anderson, F.R.S., during last week. The 

 meeting commenced on Tuesday, August i, and lasted until the 

 following Friday. Two sittings were held for the reading of 

 papers, lour of which were read and discussed, as follows : — 

 On recent developments in the Cleveland iron and steel indus- 

 tries, by Mr. Jeremiah Head, past president, chairman of the 

 reception committee. — On the Middlesborough salt industry, by 

 Mr. Richard Grigg, of Middlesborough. Communicated 

 through Mr. E. Windsor Richards, vice-president. — On some 

 engineering improvements in the River Tees, by Mr. George 

 Clarke, of Stockton, engineer to the Tees Conservancy Com- 

 mission. Communicated through Mr. Thomas Wrightson, M. P., 

 chairman of the works committee of the Tees Conservancy Com- 

 mission. — Description of the electric rock-drilling machinery at 

 the Carlin How Mines in Cleveland, by Mr. A. L. Steavenson, 

 of Durham. Communicated through iiirLowthian Bell, Bart., 

 F. R. S., past president. 



NO. I 24 I, VOL. 48] 



Mr. Head's paper, as its title denotes, was of a very comjilex 

 nature. The author traces the rise and progress of the iron 

 industry in the Cleveland district, which, before the develop- 

 ment of the ironstone in the Cleveland hills, was practically a 

 purely agricultural country. The opening of the Stockton and 

 Darlington Railway inaugurated a new era, which was to dawn 

 over this part of the kingdom, and substituted for the calm fru- 

 gality of a pastoral calling the grime, smoke, wealth and squalor 

 of a manufacturing industry. John Vaughan was the man who 

 made Middlesborough, and rightly his statue stands in the 

 middle of that unlovely town. He was a typical pioneer, 

 dogged of purpose, shrewd yet kindly. He probably did more 

 towards advancing the commercial supremacy of this country 

 than any six statesmen the century has produced. The first 

 blast furnaces were erected in the Cleveland district by his firm, 

 Bolckow, Vaughan and Co., at Middlesborough, in 1852. 

 These were quickly followed by others at Port Clarence near 

 by. They were erected by Bell Brothers, and Sir Isaac Low- 

 thian Bell, the head of the firm, attended at the meeting and 

 spoke in the discussions on the papers. Although advanced in 

 years he is still a keen man of business and of vigorous intellect ; 

 the present Mayor of Middlesborough is his son. After the 

 date we have mentioned Middlesborough grew like a gourd and 

 flourished like a bay-tree. Her prosperity seemed as firmly 

 founded as her gigantic blast furnaces, which were then the 

 wonder of the whole iron-making world ; but a greater man 

 than either Vaughan or Bell arose, and with the invention 

 of Henry Bessemer, the iron age gave place to the age 

 of steel. Happily for Middlesborough it is difficult, to 

 divert the course of trade although the Cleveland ore is not 

 suitable for steel making ; or at any rate, was not until 

 the basic process was introduced years afterwards. Middles- 

 borough is well situated for communication by sea with the con- 

 tinent. The great deposits of haematite ore, from which by far 

 the greater part of British steel is made, were discovered at 

 Bilbao, in Spain, and Cleveland set vigorously to work to 

 improve the naturally insignificant stream upon which she is 

 situated. With characteristic northern energy the Tees was 

 transformed from a creek with three and a half feet at low water, 

 spring tides, to an estuary with twenty feet as a minimum depth 

 and thirty-seven feet at high water. The ironmasters of the 

 district, whohad become numerous and influential, quickly laid 

 down the necessary plant and machinery for making steel. 

 Unfortunately, in a few instances, but those important ones, 

 the vigorous parent stock was succeeded by a more debased 

 growth and that for a time checked to some extent advance, or 

 at any rate gave other districts an advantage ; still the iron 

 industry of Cleveland was so firmly established that it still 

 remains the leading iron-producing district of England. At the 

 present time Middlesborough is suffering, like all other parts of 

 the kingdom, from the dulness of trade. There are more blast 

 furnaces, more converters, more open hearth furnaces, and more 

 steel and iron-producing machinery in the world than the world 

 has call for. The engineer has so multiplied manufacturing 

 facilities that we make more than we want, great as is the 

 demand for iron and steel in modern economy. When process 

 was cheapened by the ingenuity of inventors, those wlio first 

 took advantage of the new means at their disposal became 

 quickly rich. Investors and speculators crowded on to the 

 held, and before the fact was known the producing power of 

 man in the iron industry had been overdone. Sometimes in 

 those .strange fluctuations of trade which are the baneful charac- 

 teristic of the present day, the demand more nearly reaches the 

 power of supply ; then for a few months, on the crest of this 

 wave of inflated prosperity, works are busy and prices high. 

 That lasts but a short time, and during the recent meeting the 

 members of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers had the 

 mournful spectacle presented to them of idle plant and unem- 

 ployed workpeople, although each works manager put as bold 

 a face as possible on his adversities, and strove to crowd as 

 much work as his order book contained into the one day's visit 

 of the institution. 



To return, however, to Mr. Head's paper. We find that in 

 1872 there were thirty-seven iron works in the north east 

 district. Twenty-one have since disappeared or are now inopera- 

 tive ; whilst nineteen rem.ain. The figures are delusive, for the 

 size and power of production per works are now far beyond what 

 they were at the earlier date. To show how steel has super- 

 seded iron, we find by the paper before us that the trade in iron 

 rails has declined nearly 99% since 1872 ; whilst other kinds of 



