412 



NATURE 



{Sept. I, 1 88 1 



exceptiin to this order of events. There are those who discern 

 even in the writings of Newton expressions which show that 

 he was in possession of some ideas which, if followed out in a 

 direct line of thought, would lead to those now entertained on 

 the subjects of energy and of w orl;. Bnt however this may be, 

 and whosoever niioht be reckoned among the earlier contributors 

 to the general subject of energy, and to the establishment of its 

 laws, it is certain that within the period of which I am now 

 speaking, the names of Seguin, Clausius, Helmholtz, Mayer, 

 and Colding, on the Continent, and those of Grove, Joule, 

 Rankine, and Thomson, in this country, will always be associated 

 n ith this great work. 



Prof. Frankland has been so good as to draw up for me the 

 following account of the progress of Chemistry during the last 

 half-century. 



Most of the elements had been discovered before 1830, the 

 majority of the rarer elements since the beginning of the century. 

 ]n addition to these the following five liave been discovered, 

 three of them by Mosander, viz.: — lanthanum in 1S39, didymium 

 in 1842, and erbium in 1843. Ruthenium was discovered by 

 Claus in 1S43, and niobium by Rose in 1844. Spectrum analy- 

 sis has added five to the list, viz. : — Caesium and rubidium, which 

 were discoveied by Bunsen and Kirchhoff in i860 ; thallium, liy 

 Crookes in 1861 ; indium, by Reich and Richter in 1S63 ; and 

 gallium, by Lecoq de Boisbaudran in 1S75. 



In organic chemistry the views most generally held about the 

 year 1830 were expressed in the radical theory of Eerzeliu*. 

 This theory, which was first stated in its electro-chemical and 

 dualistic form by its author in 1S17, received a further develop- 

 ment at his hands in 1834 after the discovery of the benzoyl- 

 radical by Liebig and Wohler. In tlie same year {1834), how- 

 ever, a discovery was made by Dumas, which was de>tined 

 profoundly to modify the elect ro-chemical portion of the theory, 

 and even to overthrow the form of it put forth by Berzelius. 

 Dumas showed that an electro-negative element, such as chlorine, 

 might replace, atom for atom, an electro-positive element like 

 hydrogen, in some cases without much alteration in the character 

 of the compound. This law of .substitution has formed a neces- 

 sary portion of every chemical theory which has been proposed 

 since its discovery, and its importance has increased with the 

 progress of the science. 



Chemi-ts have been engaged in determining, by means of de- 

 compo;iiion-, the molecular architecture, or comtittUion &% it is 

 called, of various compounds, natural and artificial, and iu veri- 

 fying by synthesis the correctness of the views thus arrived at. 



It was long supposed that an impassable barrier existed between 

 i.iorganic and org.inic substances : that the chemist could make 

 the former in his laboratory, while the latter could only be 

 produced in the living bodies of animals or plants, — requiring for 

 their construction not only chemical attractions, but a supposed 

 "vital force." It was not until 1S2S that Wohler broke down 

 this barrier by the synthetic production of urea, aiid since his 

 time this branch of science in the hands of Hofmann.has made 

 great strides. 



In connection with the rectification of the atomic weights it 

 may be mentioned that a so called natural system of the elements 

 has been introduced by Mendelejeff (1869), in which the pro- 

 perties of the elements appear as a periodic function of their 

 atomic weights. By the aid of this system it has been possible 

 to predict the properties and atomic ^^eights of undiscovered 

 elements, and in the case of known elements to determine many 

 atomic v\ eights w hich had not been fixed by any of the usual 

 methods. SeveriJ of these predictions have been verified in a 

 remarl.able manner. A periodicity in the atomic weights of 

 elements belonging to the same class had been pointed out by 

 Newlands about four years before the publication of Mendelejeff's 

 memoir. 



In Mechanical Science the progress has not been less remark- 

 able than iu other branches. Indeed to the improvements in 

 mechanics we owe no small part of our advance in practical 

 civilisation, and of the increase of our national prosperity during 

 the last fifty years. 



This immense development of mechanical science has been to 

 a great extent a consequence of the new v^rocesses which have 

 been adopted in the manufacture of iron, for the following data 

 with reference to which I am indebted to Captain Douglas 

 Galton. About 1S30, Neilson introduced the Hot Blast in the 

 smeltin.; of iron. At first a temperature of 600° or 700° Fahren- 

 heit was obtained, but Coviper subsequently applied Siemens' 

 regenerative furnace for heatmg the blast, chiefly by means of 



fumes from the black furnace, which were formerly wasted ; and 

 the temperature now practically in use is as much as 1400° or 

 even more ; the result is a very great economy of fuel and an 

 increase of the output. 



Besseurer, by his brilliant discovery, which he first brought 

 before the British Association at Cheltenham in 1856, showed 

 that Iron and .Steel could be produced by forcing currents of 

 atmospheric air through fluid pig metal, thus avoiding for the 

 first time the intermediate process of puddling iron, and 

 converting it by cementation into steel. These changes, by 

 which steel can be produced direct from the blast furnace 

 instead of by the more cumbersome processes formerly in use, 

 have been followed by improvements in manipulation of the 

 metal. 



The inventions of Cort and others were known long before 

 1830, but we were then still without the most powerful tool in 

 the hands of the practical metallurgist, viz., Nasmyth's steam 

 hammer. 



Steel can be produced as cheaply as iron was formerly ; and 

 its substitution for iron as railway material and in shipbuilding, 

 has resulted in increased safety in railway travelling, as well as 

 in economy, from its vastly greater durability. 



The introduction of iron, has, moreover', had a vast influence 

 on the works of both the civil and military engineer. Before 

 1830, Telford had constructed an iron suspension turnpike-road 

 bridge of 560 feet over the Menai Straits ; but this bridge was 

 not adapted to the heavyweights of locomotive engines. At the 

 present time, with steel at his command, Mr. Fovileris engaged 

 in carrying out the design for a railway bridge over the Forth, of 

 two spans of 1700 feet each ; that is to say, of nearly one-third 

 of a mile in length. 



But it is in railroads, steamers, and the electric telegraph, 

 that the progress of mechanical science has most strikingly 

 contributed to the welfare of man. To the latter I have already 

 referred. 



As regards railways, the Stockton and Darlington Railway was 

 opened in 1825, but the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, 

 perhaps the first truly passenger line, dates from 1830, while the 

 present mileage of railways is over 200,coo ndles, costing nearly 

 4,000,000,000/. sterling. It was not until 1838 that the 6'!V;Vm and 

 Great U't'shrii first steamed across the Atlantic. The steamer, 

 in fact, is an excellent epitome of the progress of the half- 

 centm'y ; the paddle has been superseded by the screw ; the 

 compound has rt placed the simple engine; wood has given 

 place to iron, and iron in its turn to steel. The saving in dead 

 weight, by this improvement alone, is from 10 to 16 per cent. 

 The speed has been increased from 9 knots to 15, or even more. 

 Lastly, the steam-pressure has been increastd from less than 5 

 lbs. to 70 lbs. per square inch, while the consumption of coal has 

 been brought dov\ n from 5 or 6 lbs. per hor»e-power to less than 

 2. It is a remarkable fact that not only is our British shipping 

 rapidly on the increase, but it is increasing relatively to that of 

 the rest of the world. In 1S60 our tonnage was 5,700,000 

 against 7,200,000 ; while it may now be placed as 8,500,000 

 against 8,200,000; so that considerably more than half the 

 whole shipping of the world belongs to this country. 



If 1 say little with reference to Economic Science and Statis- 

 tics, it is because time, not materials, are wanting. 



I scarcely think that in the prcent state of the question I can 

 be accused of wandering into politics if 1 observe that the esta- 

 blishment of the doctrine of free trade as a scientific truth falls 

 within the period under review. 



In Education some progress has been made tow-ards a more 

 rational system. When I was at a ]jublic school, neither science, 

 modern languages, nor arithmetic formed any part of the school 

 system. This is now happily charged. Much, however, still 

 remains to be done. Too little time is still devoted to French and 

 German, and it is much to be regretted that even in .'ome of our 

 best schools they are taught as dead languages. Lastly, with few 

 exceptions, only one or two hours on an average are devoted to 

 science. We have, I am sure, none of us any desire to exclude, 

 or discourage, literature. What we ask is that, say, six hours 

 a week each should be devoted to mathematics, modem lan- 

 guages, and science, an arrangement which would still leave 

 t« enty hours for Latin and Greek. I admit the difl:iculties w hich 

 schoolmasters have to contend with ; nevertheless, when we con- 

 sider what science has dene and is doing for us, we cannot but 

 consider that our present system of education is, in the words of 

 the Duke of Devonshire's Commission, little less than a national 

 misfortune. 



