TROCEEDINGS OF THE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION. 471 



earthy flavor. It is highly astringent and aror^atic, but is not drinkable 

 until it is three years old. The Emperor of Russia has of this wine forty 

 or fifty casks per annum. 



Iron Plates and Rivets. 



At a late mooting of the London Societ}' of Arts, the Duke of Somerset 

 first lord of the admiralty, presiding, William Fairbain, the well known 

 mechanician, read a paper " on the application of iron to the purposes of 

 naval construction." He spoke first on the strength of plates when torn 

 asunder by a direct tensile strain in the direction of tiieir fibre, and then 

 torn across it. Second. On the strength of plates when united by rivets, 

 us compared with the plates themselves. Third. On the resistance of 

 plates, in varied forms of construction, to the force of compression ; and 

 Fourth. On the distribution, strength and value of wrought iron plates and 

 frames as applied to ships and other vessels 



His views cannot be even condensed here except on a single subject, 

 the relative strength of riveted plates. Taking the strength of a plate at 

 100, the strength of the double riveted plate will be '70, and the strength of 

 the single riveted 50. 



In the discussion which followed the reading of the paper, Mr, Henshaw 

 begged to differ from the opinions expressed by Mr. Fairbain regarding the 

 use of punched instead of riveted holes. The speaker had advocated the 

 old-fashioned method of punching, but he (Mr. H.) had for yesivs practiced 

 the system of drilling the holes for the rivets, and was convinced of the 

 superiority of this method. He had no hesitation in saying, if the Brittan- 

 nia tubular bridge had been put together by drilled instead of punched 

 holes, the result would have been twenty or ;twenty-five per cent better. 

 He had used a machine which drilled thirty, fifty and even eighty holes at 

 once, and the work obtained was superior. On examining plates put 

 together by drilling and those by punching, the difference will be apparent 

 on sawing the plates asunder, it will be found that the line of demarcation 

 between the rivet and the plate in the first case will be scarcely visible, 

 while in the second case numerous interstices not filled up could be seen. 



Mr. J. Grantham thought in bridge building and in plain, straight work 

 where drilling could be easilj' done, it was preferable ; but Mr. Fairbain's 

 paper was devoted to ship-building, in which entirely different conditions 

 arose, and he agreed with the position taken in that paper. 



^Ir. Fairbain, in reply, said punching was the best test of the quality of 

 the iron. He had found that in drilling, the holes were not always found 

 coincident. 



Improved Water Communications. 



Mr. J. Nickles writes to the American Journal of Science and Arts, that 

 the almost certain success of the canal across the Isthmus of Suez fixes 

 attention more than ever upon other projects of the kind. The cutting 

 of the Isthmus of Malacca and of Darien awaits only the completion of the 

 Suez ship, canal. In France they are talking of uniting the Atlantic Ocean 

 with the Mediterranean by a ship canal, which would borrow part of its 

 route from the old Southern canal. In Holland a society is incorporated, 



