Augusi 1 6, 1877] 



NA TURE 



317 



fluid steel have greatly facilitated the application of chemical 

 means to the production of solid masses of considerable size, 

 thereby reducing, if not altogether dispensing with the necessity 

 for submitting large steel castings to costly mechanical opera- 

 tions with the object of closing up cavities caused by the escape 

 of occluded gas as the liquid metal cools. The success in this 

 direction which appears to have attended the addition of silicon, 

 in combination with iron and manganese, to the steel before 

 casting m preventing the formation of so-called blmv-hoL's, and 

 in contributing at the same time to the production of the 

 particular character of steel required, bids fair to be of special 

 importance in connection with the application of steel to the 

 production of projectiles for use against armour-plates, as 

 affording ready and comparatively very economical means of 

 ensuring the production of perfectly sound castings, or which 

 in compactness of structure will, it is asserted, compete success- 

 fully with carefully forged castings, and even with the magnificent 

 material which Whitworth produces by submitting the fluid 

 metal to powerful pressure. 



The part which silicon plays by its comparatively high suscep- 

 tibility to oxidation, in promoting the production of sound steel 

 castings is readily intellij^ible, but the functionsof the manganese 

 compounds which are an indispensable adjunct to \.he Bfsst-mfr 

 process, and the application of which has become an integral 

 part of steel manufacture, are still far from being thoroughly 

 understood, and there is ample scope for chemical research, in 

 co-operation with practical e.Nperiment, in the further study of 

 the influence not only of manganese in the production, and upon 

 the properties of steel, but also of elements such as titanium, 

 tungsten, and boron, and of chromium, which exists, associated 

 in considerable quantities with iron, in a very abundant 

 Tasmanian ore, to which promment attention has lately been 

 directed. The achievements of the mechanical engineer have so 

 facilitated the handling and perfected the means of production 

 and the mechanical treatment of malleable iron and of steel, 

 that the full advantage may now be reaped of any improvement 

 of a chemical nature which may be effected in the production of 

 those materials ; and it must be a source of pride to the chemist 

 to observe with what success the teachings of his science are 

 being applied by practical men of the present day in the con- 

 struction of furnaces capable of withstanding the high tempe- 

 ratures required for the production and working of iron and steel 

 in large masses, and in combining the perfect consumption and 

 consequent great economy of fuel with the attainment of those 

 high temperatures and with a thorough control over the character 

 of the gaseous agents to which the flaid metal is exposed in the 

 furnace. I need not quote the names of those men who have 

 already rendered themselves prominent by their services in this 

 particular direction, but may refer in special illustration of the 

 results achieved by purely practical men to the success in apply- 

 ing very simple furnace-arrangements to the attainment of the 

 above results which has recently attended the labours of Mr. 

 ■William Price, a principal foreman in the Royal Gun Factories 

 at Woolwich. 



A few experiments made in the early days of the application 

 of armouring to ships and forts appeared to demonstrate on the 

 one hand that steel was quite incapable of competing with mal- 

 leable iron of even very moderate quality as a material for armour- 

 plates, and, on the other hand, that the penetrative power of pro- 

 jectiles made of chilled iron upon the Palliser system could not be 

 surpassed or even attained with any degree of certainty, by projectiles 

 of steel produced at comparatively very great cost. But some 

 recent results obtained on the Continent, and especially in the 

 course of the important experiments instituted by the Italian 

 Government at Spezzia, have afforded decisive indications that 

 steel, the application of which to the construction of ordnance 

 has since that time been very greatly extended, may now be 

 looked to hopefully as capable of affording greater ]>ro- 

 tection against the enormous projectiles of the present day than 

 can be secured by proportionately large additions to the stu- 

 pendous iron-armouring of the most modern ironclads, and also as 

 applicable at a cost very moderate, when compared with that of 

 ten years ago, to the production of projectiles of large dimensions 

 superior in point of penetrative power and of uniformity in this 

 respect to those of chilled iron, the difficulties in the production of 

 which are very greatly increased by the formidable increase which 

 has lately been made in their size. Promising results have also qu ie 

 recently been obtained at .Shoeburyness with a new system of 

 applying steel in conjunction with malleable iron, by which a 

 perfect union of the two materials at one of their surfaces is 

 effected by the aid of heat. 



The superiority of soft and very homogeneous steel over 

 wrought iron of the best quality in regard to lightness, combined 

 with strength and toughness, are leading to its very advantageous 

 employment in the construction of a particular class of vessels 

 for the navy ; and the perfect confidence which can he placed in 

 the uniformity in structure and strength of steel of such character 

 as is produced by the Whitworth system of manufacture has 

 greatly facilitated the production of air-chambers of small 

 weight, but capable of being quite safely charged with sufficient 

 air, under a pressure of 1,000 pounds on the square inch, to 

 carry the Whitehead torpeiio through water to a distance of 

 1,000 yards in little more than a minute and a half 



Thus, the results of the recent development of steel-industry, 

 to which the labours of the chemist have not unimportantly 

 contributed, give promise of erecting a great influence upon the 

 resources of nations for defence and attack. Although the 

 necessity for the continual expansion of such resources cannot 

 but be deeply deplored, there can be no doubt that the 

 problems which it presents, and the special requirements to 

 which it gives rise, must operate, and perhaps as importantly 

 as the demands created by peaceful industries and commercial 

 enterprise, in encouraging the metallurgist, the chemist, and 

 the engineer to continue their combined work in following up 

 the successes, to the achievement of which the results of scien- 

 tific research have greatly, though indirectly, contributed. 



If it were necessary to add to the illustrations which Mr. 

 Perkin gave in his address last year of the practical fruits of 

 research in organu chemistry, I might be tempted to dilate 

 upon the importantresults which have, especially during the last 

 ten years, grown out of the discovery and study of the pro- 

 ducts of the action of nitric aci i upon cellulose and glycerine. 

 During the six years which have elapsed since I had the honour 

 of bringing before the members of the British Association the 

 chief points of scientific interest and practical importance 

 presented by the history of those remarkable bodies, their 

 application to technical and war purposes has been greatly 

 developed. Nitro-glycerine and gun-cotton may now be justly 

 classed among the most interesting examples of the practical 

 importance frequently attained by the results of chemical 

 research, while the history of the successive steps by which 

 their safe manipulation and efficient application have been 

 developed affords more than one striking illustration of the 

 achievements effected by combined physical and chemical re- 

 search in the solution of problems of high scientific interest 

 and practical importance, and in the vanquishment of difficulties 

 so formidable as tor a time to appear fatal to the attainment of 

 permanently practical success. 



It is to a careful study of the influence which the physical 

 character of gundowder (its density, hardness, &c. ) and its 

 mechanical condition (i.t'., form and size of the masses and 

 condition of their surfaces^, exert upon the rapidity of its explo- 

 sion under confinement, that we chiefly owe the very important 

 advance which has been made of late years in controlling its 

 explosive force ; in its applications as a propelling agent, and 

 the consequent simple and effectual means whereby the violence 

 of action of the enormous charges now used in siege and ship- 

 guns is effectually reduced to within their limits of endurance 

 without diminution of the total explosive force developed. But, 

 concurrently with these important practical results, the applica- 

 tion of combined chemical and physical research to a very 

 extended and comprehensive investigation of the action of fired 

 gunpowder has furnished results which possess considerable 

 interest from a purely scientific point of view, as in many re- 

 spects modifying, in others supplementing, the conclusions based 

 upon earlier experiments and theoretical considerations with 

 respect to the nature and proportions of the products formed, 

 the heat developed by the explosion, the tension of the pro- 

 ducts of combustion with the conditions which regulate it both 

 when the explosion is brought about in a close vessel and when 

 it occurs in the bore of a gun. The results of these physico- 

 chemical researches have, moreover, already acquired practical 

 importance in regard to the light they have thrown upon the 

 influence exerted by variable conditions of a mechanical nature 

 upon the action of and pressure developed by fired gunpowder in 

 the bore of a gun, and in demonstrating that modifications in the 

 coitiposition of gunpowder, not unimportant from an economical 

 jioint of view in dealing with the very large charges now em- 

 ployed, may importantly contribute to render the storing of the 

 maximum of work in the projectile, when propelled from a gun, 

 compatible with a subjection of the gun to comparatively very 

 moderate and uniform strains. 



