A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE 



" To th' solid grout a 

 Oj Nature trwts the mini which buills for aye." — WORDSWORTH 



THURSDAY, MAY i, 1884 



SCIENCE AND MANUFACTURES 

 ~PHE occurrence in one week of meetings held by the 

 1 Iron and Steel Institute, and by the Institution of 

 Mechanical Engineers, seems to offer a fitting occasion 

 for further remarks on the connection between science 

 and art, between practical construction and theoretical 

 investigation. A few months ago, in an article on the 

 same subject, it was pointed out how these two branches of 

 knowledge were found to work in harmony for the ends of 

 each— science instructing art, art supporting and minister- 

 ing to science ; and this truth was illustrated by a variety of 

 examples. Others which have occurred since that time 

 may be touched upon before we conclude. At this moment 

 we are anxious to insist once more on the need which 

 exists to draw this union between art and science closer 

 than it has ever been drawn before, and to remove all 

 obstacles which may stand in the way of its fullest 

 realisation. 



The necessity for this union lies in the fact that 

 England has an industrial supremacy to [maintain, and 

 that year by year its maintenance becomes more difficult 

 in the face of keen and jealous competition. Whatever 

 may be said in Parliament, all practical men are aware 

 that the great tide of prosperity, promised last year by the 

 President of the Board of Trade, has not yet begun to 

 flow ; that on the contrary there was never perhaps a time 

 when the special industries of England were more de- 

 pressed, or their outlook more gloomy. The fact that the 

 steel-rail makers of England have banded themselves with 

 those of France and Belgium into an association for the 

 maintenance of remunerative prices speaks volumes, not 

 only as to the severity of competition, but as to the sources 

 from which that competition comes. On the other side 

 we see the iron-masters of America extending their out- 

 put year by year, and her manufacturers entering into 

 competition with us in neutral markets, while jealously 

 excluding us from their own. 

 What is to be the remedy for this state of things ? How 

 Vol. xxx.— No. 757 



is the demand for manufactured articles, and for the raw 

 materials out of which those articles are made, to be once 

 more equalised with the supply? Unless some vast 

 market, such as China or Central Africa, can be opened 

 up to European commerce, the only chance seems to lie 

 in a new departure ; in some great cheapening of produc- 

 tion, or cheapening of transport, comparable to that which 

 was effected by the development of railways. Now what 

 is the physical fact lying at the basis of railway locomo- 

 tion ? It is simply this, that iron laid in the form of a 

 track offers a resistance to rolling which, as compared 

 with an ordinary road, is insignificant, whilst at the same 

 time it offers a resistance to sliding large enough to utilise 

 to the full the vast tractive power of the modern locomo- 

 tive. The first point had long been known ; the second 

 was seized by the practical genius of George Stephenson, 

 and enabled him at once to solve the problem of high 

 speed locomotion. In so doing he owed nothing to 

 science ; but science might have discovered the fact, and 

 would have done so with small trouble, if the idea had 

 been put into her head— if, in fact, there had been in 

 England that union of theory with practice which it is our 

 present aim to advocate. 



What is wanted now is that science shall point out 

 some other fact of nature, new or old, which practice may 

 seize upon, turn to her own ends, and make the basis of 

 some new industrial development. It is easy to indicate 

 various directions which such a development might take. 

 Thus there is great need of some system of light railways 

 which can be laid down on ordinary roads, and so cheaply 

 that the traffic available on such roads may be sufficient 

 to pay a fair return on the capital. It is impossible to 

 calculate the advantages which would spring from the 

 wide extension of such " third-class railways," as they are 

 called in Germany. Again, the storage of power, such as 

 that of the tidal wave, with cheap and ready means for 

 giving it out when and where it is needed, offers a wide 

 field for invention, and may lead to the most fruitful 

 results. The transmission of power to long distances 

 whether by electricity, compressed air, or otherwise, is a 

 somewhat similar problem, which at present occupies the 

 attention of many engineers and men of science. Lastly, 

 the more homely subject of house-building offers at this 



