August. 7, 1890] 



NATURE 



355 



2. this is the eclipse of Stiklastad, and Mr. Stockwell's 

 computations appear to satisfy the account given by Hansen 

 in vol. ii., p. 388, of his "Darlegung." 



3. Observed at Alexandria by Theon. 



4. An annular eclipse which occurred before sunrise in any 

 part of Mesopotamia, so that it could not have occasioned the 

 phenomenon mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus (book xx. 

 chap. 3). 



5. This eclipse was total in the eastern parts of Mesopotamia 

 at 9h. som., and satisfies the phenomenon described by 

 Ammianus. 



6. The eclipse encountered by the fleet of Agathocles while 

 on its voyage from Sicily to Africa, 



7. The eclipse described by Thucydides as having occurred 

 during the eighth year of the Peloponnesian War. 



8. This eclipse is shown to be identical with that described 

 by Thucydides as having occurred during the first year of the 

 Peloponnesian War, when the darkness was so great that some 

 of the stars were visible. 



9. The account given by Aristides (" Scholiast," ed. Frommel, 

 p. 222) of the eclipse which took place while Xerxes was on 

 the march from Sardis to Abydos at the beginning of the Persian 

 War is confirmed by the computations. 



10. This is shown to explain the disappearance of the sun 

 described by Xenophon ("Anabasis," Book iii.) as having 

 occurred at Larissa. 



11. Contrary to the conclusions of Hansen and Prof. 

 Airy, Mr. Stock well finds that this eclipse does not satisfy 

 Xenophon's account. 



12. 13, and 14. Each of these has been supposed to be 

 Thales's eclipse. Mr. Stockwell finds that both 13 and 14 satisfy 

 equally well the astronomical conditions of the problem, but 

 thinks the former is rather the more probable of the two. 



15. The record of this eclipse was discovered on the Assyrian 

 tablets in the British Museum, and the computations show that 

 an eclipse happened at Nineveh at two o'clock in the afternoon 

 on the date given. 



16. Homer mentions a singular darkness that occurred during 

 one of the great battles of the last year of the Trojan War 

 ("Iliad," Book xvi.). Mr. Stockwell explains the darkness by 

 means of this total solar eclipse. 



Many of the conclusions arrived at with respect to the dates of 

 eclipses differ widely from those generally accepted, and are 

 open to much discussion. 



Coggia's Comet {b \%<^o).~Ediiibiirgh Circular No. 9 

 contains the following elements and ephemeris, computed by 

 Dr. Berberich, of Berlin, from observations made at Marseilles 

 on July 19, and at Kiel on July 21 and 22. Dr. Berberich finds 

 there must be an error in the comet's place deduced at Marseilles 

 on July 18, the date of discovery. He also points out that the 

 orbit closely resembles that of the comet of A.D, 1580. 



Elements of Comet Coggia. 

 T = 1890 July 7-9775 Berlin Mean Time. 



O / // 



■K-9. =84 20 52 ) 



iJ = 14 4 56 / Mean Eq. i890'o. 

 i = 63 28 17 ) 

 log q = 9*88007. 



Ephemeris for Berlin Midnight. 

 1890. R A. Dccl. Log A. Log r. Bright - 



h. m. s. J , ness. 



Aug. 7... 10 43 24 ...4-28 10 ... 0-2526 ... 9-9826 ... 050 

 8... 10 47 12 ... 27 10-4 



9. ..10 50 53 ... 26 20-3 ... 0-2601 ... 9-9929 ... 0-46 

 10... 10 54 27 ... 25 30-7 



II. ..10 57 55 ... 24 41-7 ... 0-2676 ... 0-0033 ••• o'43 



12. ..II I 16 ... 23 532 



13... II 4 31 - 23 53 ... 0-2752 ... 0-0137 ... 0-39 



14... II 7 41 ... 22 18-0 



15... II 10 45 ... 21 31-2 ... 0-2827 •■• 00240 ... 0-36 



THE INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL 

 ENGINEERS. 

 'T'HE annual summer meeting of the Institution of Mechanical 

 -*■ Engineers was held last week in Sheffield. There could 

 be no more appropriate centre around which either this Institu- 

 tion, or the sister Society, the Iron and Steel Institute, could 

 gather. Sheffield has, however, of late years been somewhat 

 NO. T084, VOL. 42] 



tardy in offering a welcome to visitors. Six years ago it was 

 proposed that the Iron and Steel Institute should hold a session in 

 Hallamshire, but Hallamshire would not open its doors, and the- 

 Iron and Steel Institute had to journey to Chester. It is 29- 

 years since the Mechanical Engineers met in Sheffield, and now, 

 when they once more congregate there, they find but a partial 

 welcome. The fact is, the big Sheffield steel makers— the Browns, 

 Firths, Cammells, Jessops, and Vickers— have always pursu6d 

 an absurd policy of secrecy. There is as much Abracadabra 

 about these Sheffield steel makers as ever was practised by 

 the alchemists of old. One can walk into the other steel works 

 of the country with no more formality than presenting one's 

 card, and see all that is to be seen ; but these Sheffield works re- 

 main a sealed book. The reason given for this is that " The 

 Foreigner " comes over here and learns too much, imparting no 

 information in return. Unhappily for the cogency of this argu- 

 ment it is just the foreigner that the steel makers must admit. 

 All those firms who do work for foreign Governments must 

 admit foreign Government inspectors. These men come into- 

 the works to stay for months or even years. They are experts in 

 the business they are engaged upon. They come and go where 

 they will, ask what questions they will, make analyses, tests, 

 and experiments at will ; in short, they obtain a thorough and 

 complete knowledge of everything that goes on. When they 

 return home they would look on two or three hundred a year 

 as an ample income, or a hundred pound note as a handsome 

 consulting fee. 



In the face of such facts is it not childish to shut out the 

 necessary engineer, who simply wants to satisfy his scientific 

 curiosity regarding the chief material he uses ? 



Although the big steel makers had shut their doors on the 

 Sheffield visitors, there were still some things of interest left. 

 Many of the older class of crucible steel makers were willing to 

 explain the whole process of steel production as introduced by 

 Huntsman one hundred years ago, and indeed were able to give 

 practical illustrations of the same. Steel affords as much food 

 for contemplation to the industrial economist as to the physicist 

 and chemist. That the addition of less than one half of one 

 per cent, of carbon should so entirely change the character of 

 the metal is curious enough, although so familiar ; but that the 

 making of crucible cast steel should have stood, as it has, 

 through the last century of industrial change and revolution is 

 still more surprising. Watt, Faraday, and Thomson, nay, even 

 Bessemer and Siemens, have lived and laboured without writing 

 a single record on the process. Crucibles are still made by 

 hand, charged by hand, pulled out of the fire by hand, teemed 

 by hand, and in fact the steam-engine is not called into 

 requisition throughout the process. The steel manufacturer 

 makes no chemical analysis to find the grade of his steel. He 

 breaks a piece, and his eye tells him by the fracture the percentage 

 of carbon nearly enough for all practical purposes ; i.e. as nearly 

 as his neighbour knows, who does the same. And yet if one 

 wants trustworthy steel of the highest grade one has to go to 

 Sheffield for it, and pay the Sheffielder's price. All the scienee 

 of all the engineers, chemists, and physicists of the last hundred 

 years, allied with the industrial activity engendered by the 

 fierceness of modern competition — even the mingling of science 

 and commercial acumen, as in the persons of Siemens and 



. Bessemer— has failed to unseat the ancient steel trade of Sheffield. 



I No wonder the grimy town remains the stronghold of industrial 

 empiricism, where they fall down and worship with the prophets 

 of the rule of thumb. 



But though the crucible steel maker is conservative in his 

 method of working, he proved liberal in showing his work to 

 others, and the members of the Institution had a good opportunity 

 of seeing the way in which the finer kinds of steel they use are 

 produced. The works of Messrs. Seebohm and Dicckstahll, 

 Samuel Osborn and Co. , and many others in which crucible 

 steel making is carried on, were open to inspection ; but, had 

 not Park Gate come to the rescue, those who were unacquainted 

 with the Bessemer or Siemens processes would have had to go 

 to South Wales, Glasgow, or the north-east, where they could 

 find works open to their inspection quite as well organized as 

 any they missed seeing at Sheffield. 



There were eight papers down for reading during the meeting, 

 the sittings being held on the 29lh and 30th ult. in the large 

 hall of Firth College. The President of the Institution, Mr. 

 Joseph Tomlinson, presided throughout. The papers on the 

 agenda were as follows : — 



"On Steel Rails, considered chemically and mechanically,"" 

 by C. P. Sandberg, London. 



