35^ 



NATURE 



[August 7, 1890 



" On Recent Improvements in the Mechanical Engineering 

 of Coal Mines," by Emerson Bainbridge, of Sheffield. 



" Description of the Park Gate Iron and Steel Works," by 

 C. J. Stoddart. 



" Description of the Sheffield Water Works," by Edward M. 

 Eaton, Engineer. 



"Description of the Loomis Process for making Gas Fuel," 

 by R. N. Oakman, Jun., of London. 



"On Milling Cutters," by George Addy, of Sheffield. 



" On some Different Forms of Gas Furnaces," by Bernard 

 Dawson. 



"On the Elihu Thomson Electric Welding Process," by W. 

 C. Fish, of London. 



The first five papers only were read, the other three being 

 adjourned until the next meeting. 



Steel rails first occupied the attention of members, Mr. 

 Sandberg opening the business part of the meeting by reading 

 his paper. The author attributed the well-known greater 

 durability of the first Bessemer rails made in Sheffield, to 

 the hammered blooms and slow running mills of early days. 

 There is no doubt that hardness is a virtue in railway lines, and 

 hardness may be obtained by work ; but it can also be obtained 

 chemically. By the latter means, however, other desirable 

 features may be jeopardized. In the tables showing results of 

 tests, given as an appendix to the paper, this point was strongly 

 brought out, the amount of phosphorus being, in the case of 

 some Russian rails, exceedingly high, in fact dangerously so in 

 the opinion of some of our best authorities. In dealing with 

 the question of silicon, the author gave a seasonable reminder 

 as to the different composition required for steel which was to be 

 used in bridge and ship work, and that intended for rails. This 

 point was taken up in the discussion, Messrs. Windsor Richards, 

 Jeremiah Head, and others speaking on the question of me- 

 chanical tests. Tensile tests were generally pronounced as un- 

 desirable, being costly, and of little or no use ; the falling 

 weight test, and a test for hardness, together with such light as 

 might be thrown by chemical analysis, being considered suffi- 

 cient. It may be pointed out, however, that there is no well- 

 established means of testing for hardness. Mr. Wicksteed 

 spoke to the point when he referred to the desirability of 

 ascertaining the percentage of elongation, although, as will 

 be seen, this is not a sure guide. This question leads ' 

 up to another which arose in the discussion. Some of the 

 rail-makers present exclaimed against engineers insisting 

 on steel containing a given percentage of certain alloys. 

 The engineers have nothing to do with chemical analysis, 

 the metallurgists say ; it is a subject they know little or 

 nothing about, and yet they lay down the law to the steel 

 makers, whose business it is. Let the engineers be satisfied with 

 results, and leave to those who understand the question the 

 means of attaining these results. This is very good logic as far 

 as it goes, but unfortunately it is not easy to make tests which 

 will definitely settle the question of practical use. One speaker 

 very well said that he looked on the Metropolitan Railway as 

 the best testing machine for rails in the world ; and so long as 

 engineers find that a given chemical analysis gives a durable and 

 safe steel rail, they will be justified in asking for that analysis as 

 supplementary to mechanical tests. Speaking on the latter 

 question, the author says in the paper : "As for tensile tests, 

 they tell us very little ; for soft rails broke at only 33 tons per 

 square inch, instead of 41 tons for the good rails ; while the 

 brittle rails gave almost the same tensile strength as the good 

 rails, and even more elongation and contraction." Could the 

 transverse test under a falling ball have been substituted 

 for these slow and costly tensile tests, it would have shown 

 better the merits of safe or brittle rails. It may be mentioned 

 in passing that the hardness machine of Prof. Turner, of Mason's 

 College, Birmingham, to which Mr. Hadfield made reference, 

 appears to promise well as a means of determining the second 

 desirable feature in steel rails. By the tables to which reference 

 has been made, it was shown that 0-24 per cent, of silicon in 

 steel rails gave the best results. This the author considers the 

 most striking feature in the analysis. 



Mechanical engineering in coal-mines, as described in the 

 contribution of Mr. Emerson Bainbridge, next occupied the 

 attention of the meeting. We do not propose giving an abstract 

 of this paper in the present notice ; it would be like trying to 

 run the River Thames through a 12-inch main. The author 

 tanged over the whole field of mining engineering ; the illustra- 

 tions, which were shown by aid of the magic lantern, being 



NO. 1084, VOL. 42] 



more than a hundred in number. This paper had evidently 

 cost the author much trouble and time in its preparation, and 

 was one eminently fitted for the consideration of the members 

 of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Mr. Bainbridge is 

 well known in the north as a mining engineer of ability — a fact 

 which it is well to emphasize, as his paper was received by 

 some members, not themselves acquainted with its subject, in a 

 very ungracious spirit. It is to be hoped that the proposal 

 which he made to withdraw the paper from publication in the 

 Transactions will not be carried out. 



The papers of Messrs. Sandberg and Bainbridge were the 

 only two taken on the first day of the meeting, the sitting being 

 adjourned about one o'clock for the members to visit the various 

 works open to their inspection. 



On the members reassembling on the next day, Wednesday, 

 the 30th ult., the first paper taken was that of Mr. C. J. Stod- 

 dart. The author is the managing director of the Park Gate 

 Iron and Steel Works, and in his contribution he dealt with the 

 new plant for steel making lately erected there. Should it ever 

 be necessary to put these works into the market, the paper 

 would form an excellent auctioneer's catalogue, it reading 

 more like a document of that nature than a memoir to be 

 put before a meeting of a scientific or technical Society. There 

 were, however, a few passages of historic interest which we 

 reproduce. These works, which are near Rotherham, were 

 founded in 1823, and here many of the iron rails used on the 

 first railways were rolled ; am ongst some of the later ones were 

 those for the Metropolitan Railway, many of which were case- 

 hardened. Here, also, were rolled a large part of the iron 

 plates used in the construction of the Great Eastern ; whilst 

 armour plates were first rolled here also. The latter were pre- 

 sumably for the Warrior, as she was our first armour-clad ship, 

 and they were very-different from the compound steel and iron 

 plates now so elaborately prepared, being, it will be remem- 

 bered, no more than 4^ to 5 inches thick. Park Gate 

 has, however, had to abandon these early methods of iron 

 working, and, advancing with the times, has laid down within 

 the last two years a costly steel plant, the outline particulars of 

 which are duly set forth in Mr. Stoddart's catalogue. We are 

 not, however, disposed to quarrel with the author of the paper 

 for not going more fully into particulars, as he was liberal 

 enough, in his capacity as managing director, to invite the 

 meeting to make an excursion to his works on the day follow- 

 ing the reading of his paper. The members were therefore 

 enabled to see for themselves the Jfive blast furnaces, plate and 

 sheet mills, bar mills and their appurtenances, four 25-ton 

 Siemens furnaces, cogging mills, slab rolls, billet mills, and 

 plate mills duly set forth in the author's list of plant. The 

 capacity of the steel works is from seven to eight hundred tons 

 of steel and from four to five hundred tons of plates per v\eek. 



Mr. Oakman's paper on the Loomis process of making gas 

 fuel was next brought before the meeting. The apparatus 

 in which Loomis gas is made consists mainly of a generator and 

 steam boiler. The generator is not novel in principle, the air 

 being drawn through the charging door in the top, whilst an ex- 

 hauster is used to set it in motion. The result is producer gas, 

 which is superheated and then led through the boiler to produce 

 steam, finally passing to the gas-holders. This part of the 

 I process is carried on for about five or six minutes, after which 

 I the admission of air is suspended, and the steam which has been 

 generated is carried through the incandescent fuel, having been 

 previously superheated in the superheater. The second opera- 

 tion produces, of course, water-gas, which, however, has one 

 great advantage over ordinary water-gas, inasmuch as it 

 possesses a strong and characteristic odour. This proceeds 

 from the hydrocarbons taken up from the fuel, a bituminous 

 coal being used. The apparatus has been applied with success 

 in Sheffield, notably by the big steel house of T. Firth and Sons. 

 A representative of that firm stated during the discussion that a 

 saving of at least 50 per cent, in the cost of fuel in the manu- 

 facture of crucible steel was made by using Loomis gas, as 

 compared with the old method of melting by coke — a statement 

 which we have no difficulty in accepting when it is remembered 

 how extremely wasteful is the present usual method of firing. 



The discussion which followed the reading of the paper soon 

 fell into the familiar groove which seems to have become stereo- 

 typed for use whenever the question of gas fuel comes to the 

 fore. Mr. John Head and Sir Lowthian Bell both spoke. The 

 former naturally soon brought the subject round to the Sie- 

 mens furnace ; upon the merits of which he was speaking 



