NATURE 



417 



THE IRON AND STEEL INSTITUTE 



THE Third Annual Meeting of the Iron and Steel 

 Institute was last week held in London, under the 

 presidency of Mr. Henry Bessemer, and has been 

 numerously attended by representatives, not only of the 

 principal iron and steel works in the United King- 

 dom, but also by those of many of the most important 

 metallurgical establishments on the Continent, which in 

 several instances have sent special delegates to this 

 meeting. 



It will perhaps be remembered that the Iron and Steel 

 Institute was founded barely three years ago, and that 

 upon the occasion of the Inaugural Address, delivered 

 by the first president (the Duke . of Devonshire), 

 it had then only received the adherence of some two 

 hundred gentlemen connected with the trade ; whereas, 

 on this occasion, notwithstanding that the rules 

 of the society only allow the admission of those 

 either practically engaged in the manufacture or ap- 

 plication of iron and steel, or connected therewith by 

 their scientific attainments, it has increased so rapidly 

 in this short interval as to number at present about five 

 hundred members, including in this list nearly all the in- 

 fluence and talent associated with the iron and steel indus- 

 tries of Great Britain. It is self-evident, therefore, that 

 its establishment must be regarded as a complete success, 

 such as could not have been expected had it not supplied 

 a tacitly acknowledged previously existing want. That 

 this conclusion is one accepted not only here at home, 

 but also in every part of the world where the manufacture 

 of these metals is carried on, may be considered as 

 demonstrated on the occasion of this last meeting of the 

 Institute, by the attendance of gentlemen connected with 

 the iron and steel trades of France, Belgium, Germany, 

 Sweden, Russia, Spain, and the United States, several of 

 whom, although foreigners, have, we understand, been so 

 impressed with the good service which the Institute is 

 doing to these metallic industries, as to have enrolled 

 themselves on its list of members. 



This unexampled success is no doubt in great part 

 due to the fact that the Council of the Institute have con- 

 scientiously adhered to the original programme, in not 

 allowing any of what may be termed trade or purely mer- 

 cantile considerations to interfere with the true objects for 

 which the Institute was from the first established ; these 

 objects being, the scientific and practical inquiry into and 

 the open discussion of all subjects bearing directly or in- 

 directly upon the production and working of iron and 

 steel, to provide the members with a means of inter- 

 communication of their ideas and practical experiences, 

 and to supply them with as accurate information as pos- 

 sible as to what is being done in the same direction in 

 foreign countries as well as at home. How far these aims 

 have been attained in practice, may best be judged of by 

 the rapid increase in members, and by referring to the 

 volumes of the Journal already published by the Institute, 

 which, both abroad as well as at home, have been uni- 

 versally admitted to sustain the high standard aspired to 



VOL. V. 



from the first by this young but vigorous institution, and 

 to stand alone in theirjline, whether regarded from a purely 

 scientific or a practical point of view. 



The two annual (London and country) meetings of the 

 Institute may be likened to those of a permanent technical 

 tribunal, before which everything new in connection with 

 iron and steel has to be brought forward, and judged upon 

 as to its merits, after having first passed through the ordeal 

 of cross-examination by the scientific and practical mem- 

 bers of the Institute, with the object, as the president 

 tersely expressed it, of sifting out the grain from the chaff ; 

 and short as the existence of the Institute has as yet been 

 it has still been long enough to prove how much the iron 

 trade in general, and inventors in particular, may gain by 

 the constitution of such a tribunal. 



The most interesting and important feature of the 

 present meeting has been the reports of the committee on 

 machine puddling. The operation of puddling in the 

 conversion of cast into wrought iron is one of so arduous 

 and trying a nature to the workmen that it is daily be- 

 coming, in great part owing to the spread of education 

 and the growing desire of men to better their position in 

 society, more difficult to find hands willing to engage in 

 such heavy work ; and as it requires long training to make 

 a good puddler, it has now become altogether impossible 

 to obtain a supply of such workmen sufficient to keep pace 

 with the increasing demand for the product ; for which 

 reason we find the manufacturer of wrought-iron com- 

 pletely at the mercy of these men, who, besides not rank- 

 ing very high in the scale of humanity, keep the iron- 

 masters in a perpetual state of terror by their frequent 

 strikes, which, as a rule, do not benefit either party, yet 

 always result in damaging the general iron trade of the 

 kingdom, by driving it abroad and otherwise. This state 

 of things has, as might naturally be expected, given rise 

 to numerous attempts to supersede manual labour in 

 puddling, by machinery, although it may be said, as yet, 

 unsuccessfully ; since, notwithstanding that attempts have 

 been made in all directions, and on the most opposite sys- 

 tems, no one of them, when carefully examined into by 

 the Puddling Committee of the Institute, has been con- 

 sidered to fulfil all the conditions requisite to insure its 

 general adoption. When, therefore, at the meeting of 

 the Institute last autumn, in Dudley, Mr. Danks (an 

 American, although born in Staffordshire) declared that 

 he had successfully solved this problem, his announcement 

 was received with considerable incredulity, and he was 

 requested to explain his system before the Institute. 

 To the surprise, yet it may also be added gratification, ol 

 all, his explanations, after having been submitted to a 

 severe cross-examination, were considered so far feasible 

 that the members of the Institute unanimously decided 

 upon taking up the matter, and at once sending out a 

 commission (at an expense of some two thousand pounds) 

 to test the system there, with the furnaces and machinery 

 already erected by Mr. Danks, at the Cincinnati Iron- 

 works, but taking with them sufficient pig-iron and other 

 materials from England and Wales to enable them to 

 thoroughly test the system on the large scale, and 

 thereby insure that the process is adaptable to the 

 products we have to treat in this country. After a 

 most patient and painstaking investigation, the three 

 gentlemen who composed this committee — Messrs. 



