May io, 1894] 



NA TURE 



n 



of a candle flame, at approximate wave-lengths 4736, 5165, and 

 5635. There was also a fairly bright continuous spectrum from 

 the nucleus." 



Dknning's Comet.— M. L. Schulhof {Astr. Nac/i. 3227) 

 has computed an elliptic orbit for the comet found by .Mr. 

 Denning on March 26, as the parabolic elements previously de- 

 termined did not satisfy the observations The period of the 

 'Comet appears to be 6745 years. According to the criterion 

 published by M. Tisserand some time ago, the comet is 

 identical with either Grischow's comet {1743 I.) or Blanpain's 

 •(1819 IV.), or it may be with both, for the identity of these two 

 objects is admitted by some astronomers. .M. Schulhof points 

 •out that it is desirable that Denning's comet, which is fading 

 .rapidly, should be followed so long as possible with large tele- 

 scopes. Periodic comets can only throw light upon some 

 obscure points in celestial mechanics and cosmogony when they 

 have been observed during several apparitions. An ephemeris 

 extending to .May 15 will be found in Nature, vol. xlix. 

 p. 586. 



Stars having Peculiar Spectr.a. — In Aslronomische 

 JfachrUhlen, No. 3227, .Mrs. Fleming gives a list of five faint 

 objects having spectra of Type V., that is. of bright lines, dis- 

 covered from an examination of photographs of stellar spectra, 

 taken at the Peruvian Station of the Harvard College Observa- 

 tory, under the direction of Prof. S. J. Bailey. This brings the 

 list of bright-line stars up to sixty. Two new nebulas have also 

 been found by means of the photographs of their spectra. The 

 |X)sitions and descriptions of the objects are staled as follows : — 



THE IRON AND STEEL INSTITUTE. 

 /~\N Wednesday and Thursday of last week, the 2nd and 3rd 

 insts. , the annual spring meeting of the Iron and Steel 

 Institute was held at the Institution of Civil Engineers; the 

 President, Mr. E. Windsor Richards, occupied the chair. The 

 following is a list of the papers set down for reading and dis- 

 cussion : — 



"On the Physical Influence of certain Elements upon Iron." 

 i:y Prof. A. O. Arnold. 



" On the Capacity and Form of Blast Furnaces." By William 

 ilawdon. 



"On Scandinavia as a Source of Iron Ore Supply." By 

 Jeremiah Head. 

 " On the Walrand Process." By G. J. Snelus. 

 " On the Results of Heat Treatment on Manganese Steel 

 and their Bearing upon Carbon Steel." By R. A. Hadfield. 

 "On the Analysis of Steel." By II. K. Bamber. 

 "On the Application of Electricity as a Motive Power in the 

 Iron and Steel Industries." By D. Selby-Bigge. 



" On Methods of Preparing Surfaces of Iron and Steel for 

 Microscopic Examination." By J. E. Stead. 



"On the Relations between the Chemical Constitution and 

 Ultimate Strength of Steel." By W. R. Webster. 



The last four were taken as read. The usual formal pro- 

 ceedings having been transacted, the Bessemer gold medal for 

 1894 was presented to Mr. John Gjct.s, of Middlesborough, in 

 lecognition of his great services to the iron and steel industry. 



The President then proceeded to deliver his address, which 



dealt chiefly with the economic side of iron and steel production. 



i This industry appears to be passing throu;;h a period of extreme 



j depression, more pronounced even than that of 18S5. In the 



i latter year the production of Bessemer steel rails was 706,583 



j tons. That year was designated at the time as a period of 



great depression, but in 1S93 the production of rails was but 



579i386 tons, whilst in 1892 the output was 43,550 tons lower 



even than in 1893. The price of these rails, which in 1886 was 



jt4 13s- lod. per ton, fell as low as /J3 12s. in 1S93. The 



I question arose, the President said, whether this diminished 



demand was due Io any falling ofl^in quality of material, excel- 



1 Jency in finished products, or increased cost of manufacture. 



NO. I2{>0. VOL 



-so] 



From careful observations which he had made, Mr. Windsor 

 Richards was convinced that our metallurgists and manufac- 

 : turers still keep a foremost position. The lo<s of the conti- 

 j nental trade was due solely to protective tariffs, and even the 

 I importation of continental rails was to be attributed to the 

 same source, strange as it might seem. The reason for this is 

 I that to produce steel economically, it is necessary that it should 

 be made in large quantities; in consequence of the protective 

 I tariff the continental manufacturer is freed from foreign 

 [ competition at home, and can therefore obtain an exorbitant 

 1 price for his goods. This enabled him to sell in foreign mar- 

 I kets, where he had to meet competition, at a lower price than 

 those who had not the same lucrative home market. In fact it 

 was necessary to produce largely, and the surplus quantity could 

 in this way be sold at what would otherwise be a loss. In face 

 of these facts, the President said it was useless to expect relief 

 by resource to labour-saving machinery and other methods of 

 1 cheapening cost, and it was to be remembered that the foreign 

 j manufacturers could take these up as readily as we could. Tech- 

 I nical education, he also seemed to think, would be powerless to 

 avail us against the conditions he had pointed out. "Never," 

 said the address, "since the organisation of this Institute (a 

 period it may be mentioned of over twenty-five years) has the 

 j nietallurgist experienced a more difficult time than the depres- 

 sion we are now passing through. Added to his commercial 

 troubles were constant demands from the workmen for either 

 higher wages or fewer hours of work. We may well anxiously 

 look round to see where markets for our products, and employ- 

 ment for our workmen and capital are Io come from." Some 

 English steel makers have been building hopes on the relaxation 

 of the American tariff, but these hopes the President looked on 

 , as fallacious, and indeed the United States steel makers have 

 been passing through a period of greater depression than even 

 ; we ourselves in this country. It is to our colonies, therefore, 

 that Mr. Richards tells us we must look for relief, and he points 

 out the vast field there is for the further development of rails in 

 India, Australia, and Africa. The introduction of steel for 

 rails has not proved an unmixed blessing for the iron and steel 

 manufacturer. The President quoted an instance in which 

 Goliath rails of 105 lbs. per yard had been laid down five years 

 ago on a continental railway, and it was shown that on the 

 basisof the wear already observed during those five years, such 

 rails would last a century. The carbon in the steel was from 

 ■4 to 5. Rails are being laid down even harder than this, 

 coniaining from 6 to 7 carbon. The extreme hardness obtained 

 in this way entailed, the President said, an unnecessary risk. The 

 address next went on to speak of the uncertainty of phosphorus 

 analyses, and to the desirability of dealing with steel in large 

 masses, in the ingot. He slated that Messrs. John Brown and 

 Co., Sheffield, are having constructed a forging press for steel 

 ingots, which will exert a force of 1000 tons, whilst ingots 

 6 ft. 9 in. square, and weighing up to 70 tons, are being dealt 

 with by the forging press, the appliance used in handhng them 

 having a capacity of 100 tons. 



The first paper read was by Mr. G. J. Snelus, and was on 

 the Walrand-Legenisel process for steel casiings. This process 

 consists of adding Io the metal in the converter at the end of 

 ihe ordinary blow a definite quantity of melted ferro-silicon, then 

 making the after-blow, turning down when the extra silicon has 

 been burned out, and adding the ordinary final additions of 

 ferro-manganese, &c., as circumst.-inces required. The advantages 

 of this process are that firstly an ordinary Bessemer pig can be 

 used with 2 to 3 per cent, silicon, thus insuring a steel perfectly 

 free from carbon ; secondly, the combustion of the added silicon 

 produces such a large amount of heat at the right time, and so 

 rapidly that the metal becomes very fluid ; the third advantage 

 claimed is that as the silicon burns to a solid, it leaves the 

 metal perfectly free from gas, and the sleel is sound and free 

 from gas cavil ies ; fourth, that in consequence of the metal 

 being so fluid and already free from oxide of iron, the ferro- 

 manganese or other substances added, such as aluminium, are 

 more effective and remain in the final steel. Another advantage 

 secured by this process is that in consequence of ihe fluidity of 

 the metal much more time and facility is given for casting 

 operations. The author gave detailed descriptions of experi- 

 ments he had seen made with this process, and quoted figures in 

 support of his contentions. The system of casiing is, however, 

 confessedly expensive, and it would seem to be more especially 

 suitable for those engineering works where it is desirable to have 

 a sleel foundry attached, and in which the demand would 



