
NATURE 
361 

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1871 


THE IRON AND STEEL INSTITUTE 
py TER having on so many different occasions dwelt 
upon the importance and advantages to be derived 
from the cultivation of Science by those engaged in the 
industrial undertakings of this country, we cannot do 
otherwise than refer in terms of deep interest to a meeting, 
which took place during the past week at Dudley, under 
the presidency of Mr. Bessemer, in the heart of the oldest 
iron-making district of Great Britain. 
About three or four years ago a few gentlemen in 
Cleveland, the youngest seat of the iron trade in the 
world, propounded the idea that it would be beneficial to 
all concerned to organise an association of those interested 
in the manufacture of iron and steel, to meet and discuss 
all matters connected with these branches of metallurgical 
science, but from which all questions of a merely trade 
character should be carefully excluded. 
To dispel any idea of this Iron and Steel Institute, as it 
is designated, being intended by its original promoters to 
be confined to their own locality, they solicited and 
obtained the consent of the Duke of Devonshire to act 
as their first President. Looking at his Grace’s position 
as one largely interested, but in an entirely different dis- 
trict, in the manufacture this body was intended to foster, 
and having regard to the literary and scientific attain- 
ments of this distinguished nobleman, a more judicious 
selection could not have been made. 
From the day of the first introdnction of this associa- 
tion to the public to the present, we find an unflagging in- 
terest has been maintained in the papers submitted at the 
gatherings, and in the discussions which have followed 
their reading. Asa natural consequence we are glad to 
find that among its 450 members is included almost every 
name of note in this very important branch of our 
national industry. 
We know of no manufacturing operation requiring for 
successful enterprise a more extensive acquaintance with 
scientific truth than that of the iron-smelter and its asso- 
ciated branches. His work is conducted in apparatus of 
a very costly and gigantic character, and under circum- 
stances which render experimental research very difficult ; 
while, on the other hand, its prosecution upon a com- 
mensurate footing is attended with so much expense as to 
render failure almost ruin. 
It unfortunately happens also, that the pursuit of pure 
scientific inquiry connected with the subject is impeded 
by obstacles of no ordinary character. A blast furnace 
containing twenty or thirty thousand cubic feet of space 
and filled with nearly 1,000 tons of materials, chiefly in a 
state of intense ignition, is not a field to which the chemi- 
cal philosopher can, without considerable preparation, 
transfer his labours. From the crucible of the laboratory 
to such an enormous and almost inaccessible mass, the 
focus of very intricate and violent chemical action, is too 
great a step to be made by the chemist for a few hours 
with any chance of success ; for the very questions in 
which the iron-master would desire his assistance are the 
results of anterior circumstances, which themselves must 
VOL, IV. 

be well known to him who attempts to explain their 
consequences. 
On the Continent—in France, in Belgium, in Germany, 
in Sweden—there are to be found men of great reputation 
who have identified themselves with this union of science 
with art, because in these countries are to be found edu- 
cational establishments so located as to afford the pro- 
fessors who fill the respective chairs abundant opportunity 
of making themselves personally acquainted with the 
action of the iron furnace, and, indeed, with every step 
in this and in other branches of manufacture. 
We can adduce no better proof of the real value of the 
labours of the Iron and Steel Institute than the estima- 
tion in which they are held by some of the Continental 
professors, two of whom we noticed were present at the 
meeting to which we have alluded. 
In our own country, without saying to whom the blame, 
if any, belongs, men of science and men of industrial 
occupation have not been brought sufficiently together. 
As a rule our schools of science are remote from the 
scenes where science is practically applied. In conse- 
quence our professors are, perhaps, less familiar with 
and less interested in, pursuits, which, in the eyes of a 
Leoben cr Louvain teacher of metallurgy, possess suffi- 
cient attraction to induce him to undertake a long journey 
to be present at a meeting, or to study the operations of 
our owniron makers, rarely or never visited by the learned 
of their own nation. 
It is this reflection, perhaps, more than any other, which 
has induced us to notice so favourably the proposition to 
found in the centre of a great mining and manufacturing 
district the proposed College of Physical Science at 
Newcastle-on-Tyne. We regard it as a desideratum no 
less important to the philosopher than to those who may 
seek for instruction within its walls, for it is one which 
will afford to him who has to instruct ample opportunity of 
studying the application of those great and important 
truths which it is his office to teach. 
We cannot conclude this brief notice without heartily 
commending the spirit in which the members of the Iron 
and Steel Institute, throwing aside all narrow-minded 
prejudice and jealousy, communicate to each other the 
result of their own individual research, and make known 
for the use of all the progress each has effected in his 
own sphere, It seems to us that everyone is acting under 
the feeling that, on giving information, he is in reality 
promoting his own advancement. However this may be, 
society at large, not the least interested in their progress, 
cannot fail to profit by assistance thus rendered and re- 
ceived, and therefore we most cordially wish all prosperity 
to the Iron and Steel Institute. 

INSTRUCTION TO SCIENCE TEACHERS AT 
SOUTH KENSINGTON 
(LNG the months of June and July, a number of 
science teachers from various parts of England, 
Scotland, and Ireland, were assembled in London, for the 
purpose of attending special classes, arranged for their 
instruction under the auspices of the Science and Art 
Department. We propose to give some account of the 
course of instruction in the principles of Biology, which 
was directed by Prof. Huxley, to whose suggestion, we 
believe, liberally accepted by Mr. Forster and acted upon 
U 
