4;o 



NA TURE 



[September 12, 1895 



all the layers to act in unison. The chemist has rendered it 

 clear thai even the smallest quantities of certain ingredients are 

 of supreme importance in aflfecting the tenacity and trustw orthi- 

 ness of the materials. 



The treatment of steel to adapt it to the \-ast range of duties 

 it has to perform is thus the outcome of patient research. And 

 the use of the metals — manganese, chromium, nickel, molyb- 

 denum — as alloys with iron hxs resulted in the production of 

 steels p<issessing \-aried and extraordinary properties. The steel 

 required to resist the conjugate stresses develo|x;d, lightning 

 fashion, in a gun necessitates qualities that would not be suitable 

 in the projectile which that gun hurls with a velocity of some 

 2500 feet per second against the armoured side of a ship. The 

 armour, again, has to combine extreme superficial hardness with 

 great toughness, and during the last few years these qualities are 

 sought to be attained by the application of the cementation 

 process for adding carbon to one face of the plate, and hardening 

 that face alone by rapid refrigeration. 



The introduction of quick-firing guns from '303 (i.e. about 

 one-third) of an inch to 6-inch calibre has rendered necessary the 

 production of metal cartridge-cases of complex forms drawn 

 cold out of solid blocks or plate of the material ; this again has 

 taxed the ingenuity of the mechanic in the device of machinery, 

 and of the metallurgist producing a metal possessed of the 

 necessary ductility and toughness. The cases have to stand a 

 pressure at the moment of firing of as much as twenty-five tons 

 lo the square inch— a pressure which exceeds the ordinary 

 elastic limits of the steel of which the gun itself is composed. 



There is nothing more wonderful in practical mechanics than 

 the closing of the breech openings of guns, for not only must 

 they be gas-tight at these tremendous pressures, but the 

 niech.ini>m must Ije such that one man by a single continuous 

 nil jvement shall be able to open or close the breech of the largest 

 gun in >ome ten or fifteen seconds. 



The perfect knowledge of the recoil of guns has enabled the 

 ircaction of the discharge to be utilised in compressing air or 

 springs by which guns can lie raised from concealed positions in 

 order to deliver their fire, and then made lo disappear again for 

 loading ; or the .same force has been used to run up the guns 

 automatically immediately after firing, or, as in the case of the 

 Maxim gun, 10 deliver in the .same way a continuous stream of 

 t'ullets at the rate of ten in one second. 



In the manufacture of shot and shell cast iron has been almost 

 superseded by cast and wrought steel, though the hardened 

 r.iUiser projectiles still hold their place. The forged-steel pro- 

 jectiles are produced by methods very similar to those used in 

 the manufacture of metal cartridge-cases, though the process is 

 carried on at a red heat and by machines much more powerful. 



In every department concerned in the production of warlike 

 stores electricity is playing a more and more important |)art. It 

 has enabled the j)as.sage of a shot to be followed from its seat in 

 the gun to its destination. 



In the gun, by means of electrical contacts arranged in the 

 bore, a lime-airve of the pa,ssage of the shot can be determined. 



From this the mathematician constructs the velocity-curve, 



•,nil i'r.,11 this, again, the pressures producing the velocity are 



1(1 used to check the same indications obtained by 



The velocity of the shot after it has left the gun 



i^ easily .Lvrertaineil by the Boulange apparatus. 



Klectririty and photography have been laid under contribution 



.; lecords of the flight of projectiles and the eflects of 



' the moment of their occurrence. Many of you 



■ Mr. \crnon Boy-s' marvellous photographs showing 



of the shot driving Ijcfore it waves of air in its 



and photography also record the pro|x;rtic5 of 

 I'ir alloys as determined by curves of cooling. 



V. ith which electrical energy can be converted 



' If.is l)een taken advant.age of for the firing of 



• ''irn can, by the same agency, be laiil on 



I f.inge-finders placed at a distance and in 



|visitions ; while the electric light is 



sights Rt night, as well as to search out 



■f the glow-Ump, the brightness of the 

 that the light is not due tr) combustion, 



' r. ' tl' • - the CNamination 

 :in<l other similar 

 ine llu- lliroLil nf a 



1350, VOL. 52] 



Influence of Intercommi-nicvtion afforded by the 

 British Association on Science Progress. 



The advances in engineering which have produced the steam- 

 engine, the railway, the telegrajih, as well as our engines of 

 war, may be said to be the result of commercial enterprise 

 rendereii possible only by the advances which have taken place 

 in the several branches of science since 1831. Having regard 

 to the intimate relations which the several sciences bear to each 

 other, it is abundantly clear that much of this progress could not 

 have taken place in the past, nor could further progress take 

 place in the future, without intercommunication between the 

 students of different branches of science. 



The founders of llie British -Vssociation based its claims to 

 utility ujxin the power it afl'orded for this intercommunication. 

 Mr. Vernon Harcourt (the uncle of your present t">eneral Secre- 

 tar)), in the address he delivered in iSj2, said : " How feeble is 

 m,an for any puriwse when he stands alone — how strong when 

 united with other men ! 



" It may be true that the greatest philosophical works have 

 been achieved in privacy, but it is no less true that these works 

 would never have been acconii)lished had the authors not mingled 

 with men of corresponding pursuits, and from the commerce of 

 ideas often gathered germs of apparently insulated discoveries, 

 and without such material aid would seldom have carried their 

 investigations to a valuable conclusion."' 



I claim for the British Association that it has fulfilled the 

 objects of its founders, that it has had a large share in promoting 

 intercommunication and combination. 



Our meetings have been successful because they have main- 

 tained the true principles of scientific investigation. We have 

 been able to secure the continued presence and concurrence of 

 the master-spirits of science. They have been willing to sacrifice 

 their leisure, and to promote the welfare of the Association, 

 because the meetings have afl'orded them the means of advancing 

 the sciences to which they are attached. 



The Association has, moreover, justified the views of its 

 founders in promoting intercourse between the pursuers of 

 science, both at home and abroad, in a manner which is afforded 

 by no other agency. 



The weekly and sessional reunions of the Royal Society, and 

 the annual soirees of other .scientific societies, promote this inter- 

 course to some extent, but the British -Association presents to 

 the young student during its week of meetings e.asy and con- 

 tinuous social opportunities for making the acqu.iintance of 

 leaders in science, and thereby obtaining their directing influence. 



It thus encourages, in the first place, op|iortunities of 

 combination, but, what is equally important, it gives at the 

 same time material assistance lo the investigators whom it thus 

 brings together. 



The reports on the state of science al the present time, as 

 they ajjpear in the last volume of our Transactions, occupy the 

 same im|x>rlanl position, as records of science progress, as that 

 occupie<l by those re|)orts in our earlier years. We exhibit no 

 symptom of decay. 



Science in Germany fostered hv thi; State and 



Mt'NICII'AI.ITlES. 



Our neighbours and rivals rely largely upon the guidance of 

 the State for the promotion of both science leaching and of 

 research. In Germany the foundations of technical and 

 industrial training are laid in the Kealschulcn, and suppleinenled 

 by the Higher Technical Schools. In Berlin that splendid 

 institution, the Royal Technical High School, casts into the 

 shade the facilities for education in the various Polytechnics 

 which we arc now establishing in London. Moreover, it 

 assists the practical w<irkinan by a branch deiiartmeni, which is 

 available lo the public for testing building materials, metals, 

 |>aper, oil, and other matters. The standards of all weights 

 and measures used in trade can be purchased from or tested by 

 the Government Department for Weights and Meji.sures. 



For developing pure scientific research and for promoting new 

 applications of science lo industrial purposes the t'lerman 

 (lovernment, al the instance of von Helmholli, and aided 

 by the munificence of Werner von Siemens, created the 

 Physikali-sche Keichsanslalt al Charlotlenburg. 



This eslablislimenl consists of twn divisions. The first is 

 charged with pure research, and is al the present time engaged 

 in various thermal, optical, and electrical anil other physical 

 investigations. The second branch is employed in operations of 

 delicate standardising to assist the wants of research students— 



