584 



NA TUKE 



{Oct. 20, 1881 



iron with raw or coked brown coal, and that the practical 

 difficulties have been partly solved ; for we learn that at 

 Kalan a blast-furnace was for a time worked with a 

 mixture of from 25 to 75 per cent, of brown coal, and 25 

 to 75 per cent, of co'ie. The great difficulty in the 

 utilisation of this fuel lies in the fact that, owing to the 

 high percentage of contained water, the raw coal is 

 liable, when heated, to splinter up into snail pieces, 

 somewhat similarly to anthracite, and the co'.ce formed of 

 it is also very small and tender. It is, however, satisfactory 

 to learn from Prof. Tiinner that these difficulties may be 

 in a measure obviated by the use of a strong bla^t, and 

 especially constructed furnaces. The chief difficulty 

 ' arises in continuing the operation when sponge-iron is 

 produced ; but it is suggested that the reduction might 

 be completed from this stage in a s nail furnace, such as 

 a Siemens furnace with co':ed fuel. 



The results of the further labours of the Committee will 

 be awaited with great interest. 



Mr. G. J. Snelus of Workington contributes a papar 

 on the Distribution of the Elements in Steel In,'ots. It 

 was till quite lately taken for granted that the steel plates, 

 .&c., produced from ingots were not only mechanically, 

 but chemically ho.nogeneous. When the disastrous failure 

 of the boiler plates of the Livadia took place, this subject, 

 amongst many others, was minutely investigated, and 

 samples of different portions of the plates were sub nitted 

 to chemical analysis, with the startling result that the 

 proportions of carbon, manganese, phosphorus, and 

 sulphur were found to vary greatly. At the spring meeting 

 of the Institute Mr. Stubbs announced, during a discussion, 

 that he had discovered that during the solidification of the 

 ingots a redistribut'on of the elements took place, the car- 

 bon, sulphur, and phosphorus going to that part which re- 

 mained fluid the longest. Mr. Snelus has now by experi- 

 ment confirmed this statement so far as large ingots are 

 concerned. This fact is brought out most clearly in the 

 -following table, which gives the analysis of carbon, 

 sulphur, and phosphorus, of six samples taken from a 

 slice 21 inches below the top of an ingot, measuring 

 7 feet X 19" X 19", and a similar number from a slice 

 i4 inches above the bottom ; the number in each case 

 being taken fro n the outside, number 6 from the centre, 

 and the remaining numbers from interitiediate positions : — 



Ti.p. 1 Botton. 



Phosph. 



■ "O44 

 •060 



. -086 



■ '097 

 . •Ill 



•142 



In exunining smaller ingots, however, Mr. Snelus found 

 that the metal was practically homogeneous, and conse- 

 quently the want of uniformity in the Livadids boiler 

 plates cannot be accounted for in this way, seei ig that 

 they were produced from relatively small ingots. 



Mr. E Iward Richards gave an account of a series of 

 •experiments on the strength of samples of mild steel. 

 The specimens were tested both for ordinary tensile 

 strength, and also for the tensile strength after the 

 -Samples had been submitted to long-continued tensile and 

 compressive strains approaching the elastic limit to tor- 

 sional strains, and to long-continued strains below the 

 -elastic limit. He also made experiments on the strength 

 of simples of plates which had been perfonted- 

 The results are of great interest, and will well repay 

 careful study, though they are too voluminous to be re- 

 printed here. We may however notice that in one sense 

 these experiments go to support the much-combated 

 opinion held by Dr. Siemens, that any mechanical treat- 

 ment to which mild steel is subjected, has invariably the 

 effect of increase of strength. 



THE ''QUARTERLY REVIEW" ON 

 EARTHQUAKES 



T^HE pages of the Quarterly Review constitute perhaps 

 ^ the very last place in which one would look for a 

 new theory on an important scientilic question, and the 

 perusal of an article in the July number of that journal 

 on " Earthquakes : their Cause and Origin," has left us 

 in grave doubt as to whether the author of it is writing 

 seriously or is perpetrating a gigantic practical joke. 



The article professes to be a review of the well-known 

 and valuable works of Schmidt, Heim, and Mallet on 

 Earthquakes ; but added to this list of books for review 

 we have " Scepticism in Geology, and the Reasons for it, 

 by Verifier" ! When we find that a considerable portion 

 of the article is occupied with passages quoted from this 

 last-mentioned book, in which the most absurd miscon- 

 ceptions and misconstructions of the writings of Lyell, 

 Darwin, Hu.xlcy, and others are embodied, we can 

 scarcely forbear from leaving the task of framing an 

 hypothesis concerning earthquakes, in order to indulge 

 in conjectures as to the relations which may possibly 

 exist between "Verifier" and the author of the article in 

 c|uestion. 



Ignoring the whole body of facts which have been 

 accumulated by seismologists concerning the amplitude, 

 direction, and velocity of earthquake- waves, the author 

 denies that the earthquake movements are waves at all; 

 and in his reasoning (if such it can be called) he hope- 

 lessly confuses the vibration with the shock which has 

 produced it. Dismissing with contempt the views of 

 others on the subject, he proceeds to offer his own con- 

 jecture as to the cause of earthquakes. It is no other 

 than our ol 1 friend electricity, written with capital letters. 

 Some well-known examples of electrical discharges taking 

 place from portions of the earth's surface are adduced, 

 and it is then naively assumed that such discharges of 

 terrestrial electricity would produce the effect of an 

 earthquake. The unJulatory movements are supposed to 

 be the result of a struggle of the electricity to break 

 through cushions composed of soft, non-conducting 

 materials, and the cracks and chasms opened m the soil 

 to the power of the " electric jet " to rip asunder the 

 surfa';e. 



The facts on which this extraordinary theory (or " con- 

 jecture," as the author very properly terms it) appears to 

 be based are of two kinds. In the first place it is noticed 

 that peculiar atmospheric and electrical disturbances have 

 occurred at the same tiaie as earthquakes. In the second 

 place Dr. Schmidt is quoted to prove that the earthquake 

 shocks which he had studied in Greece had very com- 

 monly a course from north-east to south-west. The 

 author adds to this the fact that an earthqu-ike-wave 

 occurring in the United States in the year 1870 took the 

 same direction. He then asks trmmph intly, " Is not this 

 the line of path habitually followed by electric currents ?" 

 E.xcited beyond all bounds by this supposed discovery 

 of the true cause of earthquakes, our author then pro:eeds 

 to make a number of sugge-tions which are certainly 

 rather sensational than practical. To the Society of 

 Tele-iraphic Engineers he appeals to invent a conductor 

 which shall ward off the electric currents and divert 

 earthquakes from their habitual haunts. Medical men 

 are requested to examine the bodies of people killed 

 during earthquakes in order to discover "lightning- 

 scars." And lastly, Sir William Thomson an! other 

 eminent electricians are asked to "direct their attention 

 to that storehouse of unlimited energy already filled 

 within the bosom of the earth," and to utilise it for useful 

 purposes. 



This curious article may at least serve one useful 

 purpose. Its author is e'fidently a man of some general 

 knowledge and considerable culture, and the absurd 

 errors into which he has fallen are manifestly the result 



