40 



NA TURE 



[May 12, 1904 



The following is a continuation of the ephemeris pub- 

 lished by Herr M. Ebell :— 



Ephemeris oil. M.T. Berlin. 



May 22 

 „ 26 



14 37 10 ■- +57 57 



14 20 29 ... +5S I 



,, 30 ... 14 6 26 ... +57 44 



An error, due to the ambiguity of a necessarily brief 

 telegram, was contained in a previous paragraph concern- 

 ing this object. This comet is a new one discovered by 

 Mr. Brooks, and not the Brooks's comet of 1896 returned. 



Orbit of the Spectroscopic Bin.vrv t Peg.^si. — No. 53 

 of the Lick Observatory Bulletins is devoted to a detailed 

 discussion of the definitive orbit of 1 Pegasi by Dr. Heber 

 D. Curtis. The elements obtained have been derived from 

 measurements of forty-three plates taken during the period 

 October 7, 1897, and December i, 1903, inclusive. 



Three sets of elements, each one giving a nearer 

 appro.ximation to the observed values than the one pre- 

 ceding it, were evolved, and the derivation of each set is 

 given in full detail. The final set gives a velocity of 

 — 412 +01 1 km., and a period of 10-21312 + 000006 days. 

 Owing to the small eccentricity of the orbit, viz. 0-0085, 'he 

 epoch of periastron is not very certain, but is given as 1899 

 June 14-966 + 0-352 days. 



IRON AND STEEL INSTITUTE. 

 'T'HE annual meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute was 

 held at the house of the Institution of Civil Engineers 

 on May 5 and 6 under the presidency of Mr. .•\ndrew 

 Carnegie. The report of the council, read by the secretary, 

 Mr. Bennett H. Brough, showed that the institute continues 

 to make satisfactory progress. The president then pre- 

 sented the Bessemer gold medal to Mr. R. A. Hadfield 

 (Sheffield). The announcement was made that awards of 

 100/. from tlie Carnegie research fund had been made to 

 John Dixon Brunton (Musselburgh), Dr. H. C. H. 

 Carpenter (National Physical Laboratory), E. G. L. 

 Roberts and E. A. Wraight conjointly (London), Frank 

 Rogers (Cambridge), and Walter Rosenhain (Birming- 

 ham), and a renewed award of 50/. to O. Boudouard (Paris). 

 The Andrew Carnegie gold medal for research was awarded 

 to Pierre Breuil (Paris), and a special medal to Percy 

 Longmuir (Sheffield). 



The first paper read was by Mr. A. Dupr^ and Captain 

 M. B. Lloyd, H.M. Inspector of E.xplosives, on explosions 

 produced by ferrosilicon at Liverpool on January 12 and 

 21. The explosion was most probably caused by water 

 having got into the interior of the drums containing the 

 ferrosilicon ; the gas evolved formed, with the air in the 

 drums, an easily ignited explosive mixture, which was fired 

 by the heat produced by the friction of the hard lumps 

 against each other when the drums were moved about, or 

 possibly by the spontaneous ignition of some phosphuretted 

 hydrogen contained in a pocket in the material, and liber- 

 ated suddenly by the breaking of a lump on the drum 

 being moved. Although the accidents were not attended 

 by very grave results, it is important that all those who 

 have to handle ferrosilicon should be alive to the possible 

 dangers attaching to it, and by keeping it in a dry and 

 thoroughly well ventilated place prevent the accumulation 

 of inflammable gas as far as possible. 



Prof. H. Louis (Newcastle-on-Tyne) then read a paper 

 on the manufacture of pig iron from briquettes at Herrang, 

 Sweden. The mining and smelting of the ore present 

 many novel features. Briefly the scheme of operations is 

 as follows : — The ore as mined is conveyed from the various 

 mines by aerial wire rope-ways to the crushing works, 

 where it is broken and crushed wet ; the pulp runs to the 

 Tiiagnetic concentrators, which take out the magnetite ; the 

 latter is conveyed by a small aerial rope-way to the 

 briquetting house, where it is stamped into briquettes, which 

 pass next through the briquetting furnace, in which they 

 are burnt ; they are then hoisted up to the top of a pair 

 of charcoal furnaces, where they are smelted for high-class 

 pig iron ; the waste gases from the blast furnace fire the 

 briquetting furnaces, and supply gas-engines which furnish 



NO. 1802, VOL. 70] 



the blast and also drive the dynamos of a central electrical 

 station, from which power is conveyed to the concentrating 

 works, as well as to the various mines for hoisting, pump- 

 ing, &:c. Several of the principles embodied appear destined 

 to play an important part in the metallurgy of iron in the 

 near future. 



Mr. Cosmo Johns (Sheffield) read a paper on the pro- 

 duction and thermal treatment of steel in large masses. 

 He indicated some of the conditions which differentiate 

 works' practice from laboratory research. 



An interesting feature of the meeting was an exhibition 

 of pyrometers. At the Barrow meeting of the Iron and 

 Steel Institute, the suggestion was made that, in view of 

 the growing importance of pyrometers to the steel industry, 

 arrangements should be made to enable members to see 

 the actual working of different pyrometers in order to 

 enable them to form their own opinions of the relative 

 merits of the appliances available for metallurgical purposes. 

 The council readily adopted this suggestion, and appointed 

 a committee, consisting of Mr. R. A. Hadfield (vice-presi- 

 dent), Mr. J. E. Stead (member of council), and Mr. B. H. 

 Brough (secretary), to make the necessary arrangements 

 for the exhibition. Invitations were sent to all the leading 

 makers to exhibit pyrometers and to furnish brief descrip- 

 tions of them. The descriptions occupied a pamphlet of 

 sixty-two pages, and dealt with the following types : — (i) 

 Baird and Tatlock pyrometer, (2) Bristol's recording air 

 pyrometer, (3) Callendar and Griffith resistance pyrometer, 

 (4) Le Chatelier pyrometer, (5) Mesur^ and Nouel optical 

 pyrometer, (6) Roberts-Austen recording pyrometer, (7) 

 Rosenhain and Chalmers pyrometer, (8) Siemens electrical 

 pyrometer, (9) Siemens water pyrometer, (10) Uehling 

 pneumatic pyrometer with Steinbart automatic recorder, 

 (ii) Wanner optical pyrometer, (12) Wiborgh's thermo- 

 phone, (13) Zaubitz pyrometer. In conclusion, a list of 

 patents relating to pyrometry, compiled by Mr. H. G. 

 Graves, and a full bibliography of the subject virere given. 



Mr. C. Lowthian Bell (Middlesbrough) read an important 

 paper on the manufacture of coke in the Hiissener oven at 

 the Clarence Iron Works, and its value in the blast furnace. 

 The results show that with this oven a coke can be made 

 giving as good results in the furnace as that made in the 

 old beehive oven. 



Dr. H. C. H. Carpenter and Mr. B. F. E. Keeling sub- 

 mitted a paper on the range of solidification and the criticat 

 ranges of iron-carbon alloys. The research, w^hich was 

 carried out at the National Physical Laboratory, confirms, 

 broadly speaking, the accuracy of Bakhuis-Roozeboom's 

 diagram. Further, the results indicate that the diagrann 

 will be amplified in certain parts when the equilibrium 

 between the various phases has been more fully studied, 

 viz. on account of (i) the small thermal change at about 

 790° for alloys with carbon content 08-4-5 ' (^^ ''''^ slow 

 thermal change at about 600° found over the whole range 

 of alloys ; (3) the evolutions of heat at about 900° found ir» 

 alloys with carbon content of 3 .S7 and 4-50. 



Mr. H. C. Boynton (Harvard University) submitted a 

 paper on troostite, in which he gave the results of experi- 

 ments made with the object of furnishing facts in regard 

 to the identity of this constituent of steel, which, althoughi 

 mentioned by prominent metallurgists, has not apparently 

 been generally accepted or understood. 



A paper on the synthesis of Bessemer steel was presented 

 by Mr. F. J. R. CaruUa (Derby), in which he gave par- 

 ticulars of the manufacture of steel rails in 1874 by the 

 acid process of a quality so uniform as to leave nothing to 

 be desired. He urges that modern requirements should be 

 equally well fulfilled, and that endeavours should be made 

 to introduce improvements in the Bessemer process so as 

 to prevent its being altogether put aside in favour of the 

 open-hearth process. 



Mr. W. J. Foster (Darlaston) submitted a paper on the 

 thermal efficiency of the blast furnace, in which he gave 

 the results obtained with the furnace at Darlaston 725 feet 

 high, in which the materials smelted are chiefly silicates 

 of iron. 



Mr. W. Rosenhain (Birmingham) contributed a paper on 

 the plastic yielding of iron and steel. He described some 

 new observations explaining the curved slip-bands in iron' 

 and mild steel. This curvature is shown to be probably 

 due to a multitude of minute steps, and a reason is thus 



