May 1, 1902] 
abstract science. Such men recognised the value of certain 
metals and alloys for definite uses, they investigated their 
mechanical properties, and proclaimed their merits to engineers. 
The intervener then disappeared, leaving behind some coefficient 
or constant bearing his name by which he was gratefully re- 
membered. As an instance, Galileo’s estimation of the tensile 
strength of copper cylinders, and Young's determination of the 
rigidity of steel (which had resulted in Young’s modulus) were 
cited. 
It was not easy to fix the period in industrial history at which 
the merallurgist began to give the engineer material assistance. 
If in this country Stonehenge were taken as a starting point, 
the architect-engineer who designed that crowning example of 
Neolithic art could not have received any assistance from the 
metallurgist. That stately structure arose from the plain at a 
time when bronze tools were known but were not in general use, 
and this period had recently been fixed by Mr. Gowland at 
about 2000 Bc. In another phase of engineering work it was 
known that Rome, in the days of her occupation of this country, 
trusted to the metallurgists of our island to supply the lead 
which wasso extensively used in the Eternal City. The fourth- 
century wrought-iron column, discovered in India, and the 
girders and beams of the Orissa temples, rendered it necessary 
to exercise great caution as to the period at which iron was 
used in construction. Such magnificent efforts as those given 
were, however, not maintained, and no widespread or con- 
tinuous records of the metallurgists’ contributions to early con- 
structive work could be presented. On the other hand, the 
civil engineer had, to quote the charter of the institution, 
“advanced mechanical science and directed the great sources of 
power in Nature for the use and convenience of man,” for ages 
before the metallurgists rendered more than incidental service. 
As examples of great engineering works into the construction of 
which no metal entered, the lecturer referred to, and gave illus- 
trations of, the primitive cantilever bridges of pine trees used to 
cross mountain torrents in Savoy. The interesting thirteenth 
century cantilever bridge made up of 20-foot beams given in the 
note-book of Villars de Honnecourt was also shown, as was a 
bascule bridge of the middle ages. The dome of Milan 
Cathedral, as designed by Leonardo da Vinci, the great Tuscan 
painter, engineer and architect, was also referred to as an 
example of a structure in which metal was not used. The 
employment of cast iron from the time of Queen Elizabeth to the 
present day was then dealt with, and the proposed cast-iron 
bridge of 600-foot single span, by Telford and Douglas, was 
referred to, and it was pointed out that in the nineteenth century 
metallurgists, by creating the age of steel, more than atoned for 
their somewhat tardy and intermittent efforts to supply engineers 
with suitable materials. . 
As regarded the use of cast iron and malleable iron, the 
influence of Watt in developing the steam-engine was traced, 
and it was admitted that the necessity for pumping water out 
of mines was the main factor in the evolution of the steam- 
engine, and, in turn, the development of British metallurgy of 
iron and steel dated from the time when the steam-engine of 
Watt enabled air to be readily pumped into the blast-furnace 
employed for the production of cast iron. It was then pointed 
out that more than half of the last century had elapsed before 
the ‘‘age of steel” began, and that towards the end of the 
century great attention was devoted to considerations con- 
nected with the molecular structure and properties of steel, and 
to enforcing the action of carbon, the element which gave steel 
its properties, by the addition of other elements than carbon in 
very small proportions. With regard to the slow growth of 
confidence in the qualities of steel, the opinion of successive 
presidents of the Institution, as expressed in their addresses, was 
quoted ; Sir John Hawkshaw, Sir John Fowler, Sir Frederick 
Bramwell, Mr. W. H. Barlow, Lord Armstrong and Sir George 
Bruce being specially alluded to. In 1887, when Sir George 
Bruce delivered his address, the merits of steel had at last 
received recognition, and, as regards the crowning triumph of 
the age of steel—the Forth Bridge—Sir George exultingly ex- 
claimed :—‘‘ At the Menai Bridge, the total quantity of iron 
was 11,468 tons ; at the Forth Bridge, there will be 50,000 tons 
of steel and iron.” No one had done more than Sir Benjamin 
Baker to insist on the importance of phenomena which engi- 
neers used to consider ‘‘ mysterious” in connection with the 
behaviour of steel, and his warnings and example were at last 
being regarded and followed. The lecturer pointed out that 
when metallurgists gave engineers mild steel, they provided a 
NO. 1696, VOL. 66] 
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19 
cinder-free solid solution of iron and carbon. All subsequent 
advance had been due to the recognition of this fact, and to the 
gradual studies of the properties of metallic so/éd solutions. Sir 
John Hawkshaw, in his presidential address to the Institution, 
delivered in 1862, had said that if the strength of iron could be 
doubled, the advantages might be equal to the discovery of anew 
metal more valuable than iron had ever been. The lecturer 
contended that this was exactly what metallurgists had done 
with regard to steel. By suitable thermal treatment, and by 
suitable additions of comparatively rare metals, they had doubled 
the strength of steel as it was known in its early days. The 
nature of solid solutions was then explained, and the importance 
of allotropic modifications of iron was dwelt upon, this portion of 
the subject being illustrated by some difficult experiments. The 
question was then asked, could the past molecular history of 
a mass of steel be traced by microscopic examination of the 
solid metal? Some very beautiful experiments by M. Osmond, 
Mr. Stead, and others, were appealed to in evidence of the 
possibility of this. It was then demonstrated that solid metals 
might even reveal, by their structure, the vibrations to which 
they had been subjected, and Sir Benjamin Baker had constantly 
insisted on the importance of such vibrations. In making this 
clear, Vincent’s experiments on the beautiful wave-structure that 
might be imparted to the surface of mercury by the aid of a 
vibrating tuning fork were then exhibited, and it was demon- 
strated that the surface of so/éd lead which had been subjected to 
similar vibrations possessed a similar structure to the vibrating 
surface of mercury. 
Finally, with regard to the efforts metallurgists were making 
to study the influence of rare metals on iron and other metals, 
the reducing power of aluminium on metallic oxides was shown. 
Very high temperatures of 3000° C. and above were attained, and 
brilliant light was produced during the reduction of chromium, 
cobalt, nickel and other metals from their oxides. 
In conclusion, the lecturer appealed to the new Alexander III. 
Bridge at Paris as showing the need for the careful measurement 
of high temperatures in connection with the treatment of large 
masses of steel. In the construction of the bridge, 2200 tons of 
cast steel had been employed, and a peculiar molecular structure 
was imparted to the steel by rapidly cooling it in air from a 
temperature of 1000° C. to 600° C. ; this gave the metal certain 
mechanical properties which it would not otherwise have 
possessed. With reference to the aid given by metallurgists to 
engineers in connection with ordnance, reference was made to 
the address delivered by Mr. T. Hawksley, the father of the 
president, in 1872. He said that ‘‘In no way” other than by 
the study of such questions ‘‘ could the Institution’’ of Civil 
Engineers ‘‘ serve its country better, or better promote, in the 
interests of peace, the advancement of practical Science, and its 
application, if events should order, to the purposes of protective 
warfare.” The use of copper, aluminium and other metals in 
electrical engineering was referred to, and the lecture ended 
with an appeal for the more extended study of the physical 
properties of metals. 
THE GLACIERS OF KANGCHEN/UNGA. 
MRE: DOUGLAS W. FRESHFIELD publishes, in the 
3 April number of the Geographical Journal, an account of 
his expedition to Kangchenjunga during the autumn of 1899. 
The Kangchenjunga group is cut off from the mountains of Nepal 
by the Khosi Valley on the west, and from the mountains of 
Bhotan by the Teesta Valley on the east. By crossing the lofty 
spur which unites it to the Thibetan highlands, it is just possible 
to get round the mountain without trenching on territory offi- 
cially recognised as Thibetan. Mr. Freshfield’s object was to 
make this high-level tour round Kangchenjunga, passing as near 
as possible to the great mountain, and, further, to obtain some 
accurate idea of the glacial features of the group. Progress was 
greatly interfered with during the earlier part of the journey by 
the storm which caused so much damage at Darjiling and by 
the lowering of the snow-line which resulted from it; but the 
tour was successfully accomplished, and from the head of the 
valley of the Kangchen, in Nepal, Europeans looked for the 
first time on the north-west face of Kangchenjunga, ‘‘not a 
sheer cliff like the three other aspects of the peak, but a superb 
pile of rock buttresses, terraces of snow and staircases of ice, 
through whose labyrinthine complexities the future conquerors 
of the mountain will have to find the least hazardous way to the 
