42 



NATURE 



[May 12, 1892 



of the new President, Dr. William Anderson, F.R.S. ; and the 

 second the report of the Committee appointed by the Institution 

 to make trials on marine engines. The President in his address 

 gave a brief review of the progress of the Institution since its 

 founfiation in 1847. For the first thirty years of its existence 

 the Institution was a provincial Society, having its head-quarters 

 in Birmingham, In 1877 it was determined to remove to 

 London, as it was thought that the wealth and influence that had 

 been acquired was sufficient to give a position of national im- 

 portance which could hardly be held by a Society having its 

 head-quarters in any other city than the metropolis. There was 

 naturally a strong opposition 10 the migration, but the change 

 was made, and since then the importance of the Institution has 

 gone on steadily increasing, until at the present day it is second 

 only to the Institution of Civil Engineers. The Institution was 

 started in 1847 with 107 members, the annual income being 

 £,S\'^. During the first thirty years the membership increased 

 about tenfold, but at the end of the fourteen years that the head- 

 quarters have been in London it has increased to twenty-fold ; 

 that is to say, in 1877, when the migration was made, the numbers 

 were about one thousand, whilst last year they were over two 

 thousand — actually 2077. The annual income was last year 

 ^7212, and the accumulated investments of the Institution are 

 now ;^22,536. 



A somewhat acrimonious correspondence has been published 

 lately in the pages of a weekly journal, and the President, some- 

 what unnecessarily perhaps, thought fit to reply to this. A 

 complaint had been made that the papers were few and poor. 

 Dr. Anderson referred to the large number of scientific Societies 

 now existing, and the difficulty of providing good papers. " We 

 have been spoiled and cloyed," he says, " by the rapid progress 

 of mechanical engineering ; so that papers which are not revela- 

 tions of something new are condemned as unworthy of the 

 Institution. Is there any form of steam-engine, for example, 

 which it would be worth while now to describe, unless it be 

 some monster of exceptional proportions, the details of which 

 we should like to see in our Transactions? Who would like to 

 read a paper on a bridge of even 800 feet span, and to illustrate 

 it with all the type and plates which characterized the two 

 accounts of the Britannia Bridge, when the Forth Bridge, a 

 structure of more than double that opening, has recently become 

 familiar to us ? I am afraid that, in consequence of the state at 

 which we have arrived, and, in respect of originality, the un- 

 toward age in which we live, we must be content with many 

 papers that may justly be termed poor so far as novelty alone is 

 concerned. We must, therefore, rely for excellence on a more 

 scientific treatment of our subjects, and on the care with which 

 the details of construction are worked out and presented in the 

 illustrative drawings. Our critics sliould remember also that 

 originality is not our only quest— that we are not all veterans to 

 whom design comes almost by instinct : we have a large body 

 of younger and less experienced members, and to them I feel 

 • sure, from my past experience, that our proceedings offer practical 

 examples and guidance which are appreciated all over the world, 

 and the desire to possess which is, I take it, the main cause of 

 the ever-increasing strength of the Institution." 



The President next referred to the work done by the different 

 Research Committees of the Institution which have been en- 

 gaged for some years past in investigating engineering subjects 

 upon which information appeared most desirable. 1 here have 

 been Committees on riveting, on friction, on steam-jacketing 

 engine cylinders, and other matters, including marine-engine 

 trials, the last report of the Committee on the latter subject 

 having been presented at the meeting now under notice. It would 

 be difficult to imagine a more useful and legitimate purpose 

 upon which the funds of the Institution could be spent. The 

 work that is over and over again done, generally in a partial 

 and imperfect manner, by private firms, in getting information 

 on many points of engineering practice, represents a sad loss of 

 time and money. The work of the Research Committees of the 

 Institution should put an end to a great deal of this, and will so 

 help the advance of engineering practice, to the benefit not only of 

 engineers, but of the whole civilized world. The President made 

 another suggestion which would tend to the same end, and which 

 it is hoped may be carried out. " There is," he said, "another 

 sphere of usefulness in which our abundant means would enable us 

 to do good service ; it is in the compilation of a brief reference 

 index to all mechanical matters at home and abroad. Were we 

 to establish a staff — and it might be a very modest one — whose 

 duty it would be to inaex under proper heads every important 



article relating to mechanical science which comes out week by 

 week, we should in time, and at moderate cost, form an invalu- 

 able record, from which an inquirer would be able to find in a 

 few minutes where to look for complete information on any sub- 

 ject connected with our special branch of engineering." The 

 Royal Society is doing a similar work for scientific papers 

 generally ; and in the United States Messrs. Haferkorn and 

 Heise have compiled a most useful index of books printed in 

 English relating to technical matters, but the work stops at 

 1888, and does not contain references to the isolated letters and 

 papers which appear in English and foreign journals. 



Dr. Anderson, as every one knows, holds the important post 

 of Director-General of Ordnance Factories, and it was natural 

 he should make some reference to the various establishments — 

 the chief of which, of course, is Woolwich Arsenal— under his 

 control. Here, again, public criticism has been exercised of 

 late, not altogether favourably, and a good part of the address 

 was taken up with an apology for Woolwich. Taking the side 

 of the case selected by Dr. Anderson for discussion, there is no 

 doubt he made out a very good case. It is perfectly impossible 

 that all inventions should be adopted, and therefore it is evident 

 the authorities with whom these matters rest must reckon with 

 a great many hostile critics. The address gave some interesting 

 details of the way in which the Ordnance departments are 

 managed, but into this question we need not now enter. The 

 difficulty of finding subjects for papers which were altogether 

 novel had been previously referred to in the address ; but, not- 

 withstanding that there is little scope for originality. Dr. Ander- 

 son pointed out that some prol)lems still remain to be solved. 

 Among them is one which is of the greatest practical importance 

 to mechanical engineers, while at the same time it is of extra- 

 ordinary theoretical interest. This was the question of the 

 nature and composition of steel, and alloys generally. Since the 

 year 1879 the Institution had been engaged in trying to unravel 

 the mystery which surrounds the behaviour of steel in connec- 

 tion with its chemical and molecular composition, combined 

 with changes of temperature. The researches of Sir Frederick 

 Abel, Dr. Sorby, Mr. Osmond, Mr. Hadfield, and Prof. 

 Koberts-Austen, aided by the Le Chatelier pyrometer, have 

 given the inquiry new life. Dr. Anderson expressed great 

 hope that the active measures taken by the Institution, 

 through the Alloys Research Committee, would result, at 

 no distant time, in the solution of the enigma, and in 

 the establishment of definite laws. The problem, how- 

 ever, is excessively involved. It amounts, in fact, to a considera- 

 tion of the number of permutations or combinations possible 

 among some ten variables, the relations of which to each other 

 are also dependent, not only on actual temperature, but also on 

 the rate of its changes, and on the uniformity of these 

 changes, throughout the mass. The address next made 

 reference to the fact that pure iron is aliotropic, and exists 

 in both the hard and soft state. Carbon also exists in two forms 

 in steel, either combined or suspended in the mass ; and there 

 are other ingredients necessary to take into account. In con- 

 sequence of changes due to temperature also, the chemist is: 

 impotent to pronounce from mere analysis what the quality of 

 steel may be. On the other hand, the ordinary mechanical tests are 

 not of much avail, because the specimens are not and cannot be 

 in the same condition of internal stress — on which again the 

 molecular arrangement appears to depend— as the masses from 

 which they are cut. Moreover, specimens for mechanical test- 

 ing cannot always be taken from the central parts of the 

 huge forgings and castings now in use for many purposes. 

 Under these circumstances Dr. Anderson considered that the 

 method of noting the rate of cooling by curves automatically 

 traced — as now so ingeniously worked out by Roberts- Austen — 

 affords the best promise of placing in the hands of the inechanic 

 a means of judging at any rate of the uniformity in com- 

 position of the material, and even perhaps of its actual chemical 

 nature, so far as this affects his wants. As additional advan- 

 tages the thermo-electric autographic apparatus is cheap ; it 

 occupies but little space, it can be employed in an ordinary room, 

 and the results sought can be obtained in a few minutes. 



The use of petroleum or mineral oil next occupied a place- 

 in the address, the author being of opinion that as a source o 

 power it would rapidly gain ground. In 1888, Priestman Bros, 

 brought out their engine, working with a heavy oil having a 

 high flashing temperature. That engine was tested by the pre- 

 sent Lord Kelvin (then Sir William Thomson) and the author 

 independently, and gave an efficiency of one brake horse-power 



NO. TI76, VOL. 46] 



