December 12, 1895] 



NA TURE 



141 



T. Sterry Hunt, Hon. LL.D. of the University, has been pre- 

 sented to the same Museum Vjy Mr. Douglas, of New York. 



The Walsingham Medal, given annually by the Lord High 



Steward for an essiiy on a biological subject, has been awarded 



to Mr. I. L. Tuckett, Fellow of Trinity College. Essays 



tor the next award are to be sent in to Prof. Newton, by 



^ October lo, 1896. 



I Dr. Joseph Griffiths has been appointed an Examiner in 



F Surgery. 



The Special Board for Medicine propose a new scheme for 



the degree of Master in Surgery, whereby the degree. will be 



open to M.A.s and B.C.s who have made contributions of 



illicient merit to the advancement of the science or art of 



igery. 



I'rof. J. G. McKendrick, F.R.S., has been appointed an 

 Klector to the Chair of Physiology, in the place of the late 

 I'rof. Huxley. 



A grant of ;i^50 has been made by the State Medicine 

 \ ndicate to the Department of Pathology, in aid of the course 

 ! bacteriology there given. 



The Agricultural Science Syndicate report an increase in the 

 umber of candidates for the University's diploma in agricul- 

 ire. AH of the candidates at the recent examination were 

 trained in Cambridge, and one of them obtained the silver medal 

 of the Royal Agricultural Society. Seventeen students, all of 

 them members of the University, are now attending the courses 

 provided in the sciences bearing on agriculture. The fees for 

 the examination are not yet sufficient to meet the expenses. 



The Calendar (1894-95) of the Imperial University of Japan, 



which has come to hand from Tokyo, should be seen by all who 



desire to know something about the history of that University, 



and the work that is being done. The number of professorial 



chairs in the several Colleges appears surprisingly large to those 



who are not familiar with the character of the University. 



There are twenty-three chairs attached to the College of Medi- 



- cine, twenty-one to the College of Engineering, seventeen to the 



[ College of Science, and twenty to the College of Agriculture, 



i not to mention those in the Colleges of Law and Literature. 



From each of the Colleges valuable memoirs on special researches 



s have been issued, and the University seems to be carrying out 



I the objects of its founders, viz., " the teaching of such arts and 



I -sciences as are required for the purposes of the State, and the 



prosecution of original investigations in such arts and sciences." 



Mr. William Tate, of the Royal College of Science, South 



Kensington, has been appointed Professor of Chemistry at the 



Civil Engineering College, Sibpur, Calcutta. 



Prof. R, A. Sampson has been appointed to the chair of 

 Mathematics in Durham University, vacated by the resignation 

 ■of the Rev. R. J. Pearce. 



The parts of the University of Virginia destroyed by fire are 

 "being rebuilt. Science states that reconstruction of the Rotunda, 

 the central building of the group recently destroyed, has already 

 Tjeen begun. The necessary money to do this, about ;^i6,ooo, 

 "has been practically subscribed. It is proposed to build a 

 ^general academical building costing £\%,qoo, a physical labora- 

 tory costing £booo, a building for mechanics and engineering 

 i -costing .1^6000, and a building for the law school costing ;^4000. 

 ! •Governor O'Ferrall has promised to recommend in his message 

 \ to the State Legislature a prompt and liberal appropriation to 

 i arepair the losses of the school, and it is hoped that ;if 40,000 will 

 I l»e received from this source. Appeals are being made to friends 

 of the University and of education to contribute to the rebuilding 

 and enlargement of the University. 



The annual meeting of the National Association for the Pro- 

 motion of Technical and Secondary Education was held on 

 Tuesday, the Duke of Devonshire being in the chair. After , 

 the eighth annual report of the Association, presented by Sir 

 Henry Roscoe, had been adopted, the Duke of Devonshire ! 

 •opened a conference of representatives of technical education I 

 committees of county and borough Councils. The subjects j 

 •discussed were evening continuation schools, the award and j 

 tenure of scholarships, and trade and technical classes. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Institution of Civil Engineers, December 3. — Sir 



Benjamin Baker, K.C.M.G., President, in the chair.— The 



Influence of Carbon on Iron, by Mr. John Oliver Arnold. This 



NO. 1363, VOL. 53] 



paper embodied the results of researches undertaken by the 

 author primarily to determine whether, at high temperatures, the 

 carbon still remained in combination with the iron. A series of 

 eight 3-inch square crucible-steel ingots, ranging in carbon 

 between 008 per cent, and i 47 per cent., the total impurities 

 other than carbon averaging oz per cent., were hammered and 

 rolled to i ,V inch diameter. They were then submitted to 

 chemical, mechanical, microscopical, thermal, and magnetic 

 tests, in three standard physical conditions, namely : normal, or 

 cooled in air ; annealed, or very slowly, cooled ; and hardened, 

 or very rapidly cooled. The diffiirential analyses for carl)on con- 

 firmed the conclusion arrrived at by the author in a previous 

 research, that the hard plates of Sorby's lamina; consisted of 

 pure crystallised FcjC ; and under certain conditions contained 

 practically the whole of the carbon present in the steel. The 

 mechanical tests showed that in normal steels the tenacity 

 increased with carbon up to i -2 per cent. , a further addition of 

 carbon causing a diminution in the stress. The ductility of 

 normal steel diminished with the carbon ; the elongation with 

 o-i per cent, of carbon being 47 per cent., and at 1-5 per cent. 

 3 per cent, on 2 inches. Under compression the softness of 

 normal steel decreased with the carbon until o'9 per cent, of 

 that element was present. Annealed steels under compression indi- 

 cated a maximum hardness at 09 per cent., and were distinct 

 softer than the normal metals. Steel with i"5 per cent, of carbon 

 was softer than iron containing o'l percent. In hardened steels the 

 rigidity of the metals increased enormously as the carbon rose. 

 The microscopical investigation showed that pure iron consisted 

 of cubic and octahedral crystals. The general results of the 

 microscopical examination sustained the theory that the hardness 

 of quenched steel was due not to a hard allotropic modification 

 of iron, but to a definite sub-carbide corresponding to the 

 formula Fe24C. The magnetic observations on hardened steels 

 had led the author to the conclusions that (i) the magnetic 

 permeability varied inversely as the carbon present ; {2) the per- 

 manent magnetism was directly proportional to the carbides of 

 iron present ; and (3) in iron containing between 0"i per cent, 

 and 0-9 per cent, of carbon the permanent magnetism was 

 directly proportional to the sub-carbide of iron present. The 

 author based the existence of a sub-carbide of iron, possessilff^ 

 the formula Fe24C, to which the phenomena of hardening and 

 tempering were due, on the following experimental facts : (i) the 

 well-marked saturation points in the micro-structure of normal, 

 annealed, and hardened steels ; (2) a sharp maximum in a curve, 

 the co-ordinates of which were heat evolved or absorbed at the 

 carbon change point, Ar. i, and the carbon percentage; (3) a 

 point in the compression curve of hardened steels at which 

 molecular flow ceased ; and (4) a sharp maximum in a curve, the 

 co-ordinates of which were the carbon percentage and permanent 

 magnetism in hardened steels.— The Dilatation, Annealing, 

 and Welding of Iron and Steel, by Mr. Thomas Wrightson. 

 This paper dealt with investigations of some of the physical 

 changes which occurred in iron during its passage from 

 the homogeneous molten state to the solid and more per- 

 manent condition. With regard to the alleged floating of solid 

 iron upon molten iron of the same kind, the author had found 

 that if the piece of solid iron was lowered into the liquid metal 

 by means of an iron fork, it always descended with the fork, but 

 in a few seconds left the prongs and floated to the surface. For 

 some time the sphere continued to rise above the surface until, 

 at such a temperature that it melted, it quickly joined the molten 

 metal. On first sinking the ball proved itself to be denser than 

 the liquid iron. It then expanded and became considerably less 

 dense than the liquid ; and lastly, a reversal took place and the 

 ball in melting became of the same density as the liquid. The 

 assumption that dilatation was continuous and uniform during 

 the passage from the liquid to the solid state was therefore 

 erroneous. In order to eliminate the errors due to the emergence 

 of the floating body above the surface of the molten metal, the 

 author used for subsequent experiments an instrument by which 

 the specific gravity of a 4-inch cast-iron ball, completely sub- 

 merged in the metal, could be observed and continuously 

 recorded. A specimen of the record obtained from the apparatus 

 was given. Experiments upon grey Cleveland iron showed that 

 the specific gravities of the cold solid iron, molten iron, and of 

 plastic ir )n, were 6-95, 6-88, and 6*50 respectively ; and that in 

 passing from the solid to the plastic condition, the iron under- 

 went an increase of volume of 6 92 per cent. , followed by a 

 quick contraction as it became liquid. The order of experiment 

 was afterwards reversed, and the change of volume was measured 

 as the molten iron solidified. Into two spherical moulds of dried 



