368 



NATURE 



\Aug. 29, 1872 



But the successful discoveries, because they are successful, are 

 taken out of the category of schemes when years of untiring 

 apphcation on the part of the inventors have, so to speak, thrust 

 them down the throat of the unwilling practical man. Take the 

 instance of Mr. Bessemer, who was beset for years by dilTiculties 

 of detail in his great scheme of improvement in the manufacture 

 of steel. As long as he was so beset, the practical men chorused, 

 " lie is a schemer ; he is one of the schemers ; it is a scheme." 

 Supposing that these practical difficulties had beaten Mr. 

 Bessemer, and that they had not been overcome to this day, the 

 practical man would have derided him still as a schemer, although 

 the theory and groundwork of his invention would have been as 

 true under these circumstances as it now is. Fortunately fc the 

 world, and happily for him, he was able to overcome these most 

 vexatious hindrances and make his invention that which it is. 

 No one now dares to apply the term "schemer" to Mr. 

 Bessemer or "scheme" to his invention; but it is as true now 

 that he is a "schemer," and his invention a "scheme," as it 

 wculd have been had he failed up to the present to conquer the 

 minor difficulties. It is a species of profanation to suggest, but 

 I must suggest it, for it is true, that Watt, Stephenson, Faraday, 

 and almost every other name among the honoured dead, to whose 

 inventive genius we owe the development that has taken place 

 within the last century in all the luxuries, the comforts, and even 

 the bare necessities of our daily existence, would, in their day, 

 and while struggling for success, have been spoken of as schemers 

 even in respect of tliose very inventions of which we are now 

 enjoying the fruits. But I feel I need not labour this point 

 further at a meeting of the Mechanical Section of the British 

 Association— an Association established for the advancement of 

 science. I know I shall be accused of decrying the practical 

 man, and of upholding the schemers. I say most emphatically 

 that I do not decry the practical man. I plead guilty to the 

 charge of decrying the miscalled practical man, and I glory in 

 my guilt ; while 1 readily accept that which I consider the praise 

 of upholding "schemers," and I do so for this simple reason 

 that if there were no schemers there would be no improvement. 

 I think it becomes a scientilic body like tlie British Association 

 to laud the generous effort of the unsuccessful inventor rather than 

 to encourage the cold selfishness of the man who stands by and 

 sees others endeavour to raise the structure of improvement 

 without lending a hand to help, and even sneers at the builders, 

 but when the structure is fully raised and solidly established, 

 claims to come in to inhabit, and being in probably essays, 

 cuckoo like, to oust the builders, and to take possession for his 

 own benefit. One word in conclusion. Can we not devise some 

 means by which consumers of coal may be instructed in, shamed 

 into, or tempted to the economical use of that most valuable 

 material ? The Royal Agricultural Society of England, by its 

 judicious efforts for many years past by the institution of trials and 

 the giving of prizes for the best engines, has brought the con- 

 sumption of coal down from lolbs. per horse-power to a little 

 over a quarter of that <iuantity. Could we not institute a Society 

 which should devote itself to the recording and the rewarding of 

 the performances of steamboats and of fixed engines for land 

 purposes ? I am aware it is supposed that there is a difficulty in 

 these cases which does not obtain in the case of portable engines 

 that can be brought for trial upon a dynamometer, and that is, 

 that the po\\er exerted by marine engines varies during the 

 voyage, and is not tliat which is developed at the measured mile, 

 while in a manufactory it varies according to the conditions of 

 Ihe trade, and to the extent to wliich the British workman con- 

 descends to attend to his work. But there are implements which 

 record the horse-power exerted from moment to moment, and 

 aregister it on indices as readable as those of an ordinary counter 

 of an engine, or as those of a gas meter. I believe that one of 

 the very greatest incentives to economical working which the 

 owners of steamboats could offer to their engine builders and 

 ■engineers would be the application of such implements as these. 

 Were they employed, the shipowner would know at the end of 

 'tlie voy.age so much horse-power had been e;;erfed as a whole, 

 iuid that so much coal had been burnt, and that the result, there- 

 fore, was a consumption of so many pounds per horse-power per 

 hour. All excuses of head-winds, and all the aid of canvas to 

 the engine-power, would be eliminated from the calculation. 

 The continual indicator would register truly the work the engine 

 had to do, whether that work was made excessive by contending 

 with head winds, or was rendered light by favourable breezes 

 and the assistance of canvas. In the same way the proprietor of 

 the engine for manufacturing purposes, the cotton mill, the 

 woollen mill, the com mill, and even the highly irregularly 



working rolling mills and saw mills, would be able at the end of 

 the quarter to say: "Notwithstanding all the variations of my 

 trade and rate of manufacture, I know that my engines have 

 exerted so much power, I know that I have burnt so much coal, 

 and that therefore such and such have been the economic results." 

 Assuming that steamboat proprietors and the owners of fixed 

 land engines would go to the expense of applying such continuous 

 recording implements as these to their engines, and would be- 

 come members of an association for the purpose of visiting and 

 inspecting and of reporting upon their machinery, and of giving 

 prizes to the men in charge for careful attention ; prizes to the 

 manufacturers for original good design and workmanship of the 

 engines ; and prizes to the proprietors for their public spirit in 

 having bought that which was good instead of that which was 

 bad and cheap, and for having employed intelligent and careful 

 workmen instead of ignorant and careless ones, — I believe within 

 a few years as great an improvement might be seen among the 

 marine and manufacturing class of engines as has been effected 

 by the laudable exertions of the Royal Agricultural Society of 

 England among the portable ones. I think the initiation of some 

 such society as this would be a practically useful result from 

 the meeting of Section G. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, July 29. — Mr. Cayley presented the 

 continuation of his memoir on the condition enabling a family of 

 given surfaces to form part of an orthogonal system. — M. de 

 Saint- Venant communicated a note by M. J. Boussinesq on a 

 simple mode of determining experimentally the maximum re- 

 sistance to sliding in a ductile, homogeneous, and isotropic solid. 

 — M. Yvon ViUarceau presented a note on a new theorem in 

 general mechanics. — M. W. de Fonvielle read a notice of the 

 results of observations on recent thunderstorms. — A note from 

 M. P. Volpicelli on the theory of Nicholson's duplicates was 

 read. — M. E. Bectiuerel presented a note by M. A. Cazin on the 

 quantity of magnetism of electro-magnets. — M. C. Sainte-Claire 

 Ueville communicated a note by M. de Tastes on the fall of an 

 aerolite in the commune of Lance (Loir-et-Cher) on July 23. 

 This fall took place about half-past 5 p.m., with a clear sky and 

 bright sun ; it was accompanied by a violent explosion heard 

 over a great extent of country. The course of the meteor was 

 from S. W. to N. E. , and it appeared to be double, or to consist 

 of two meteors following a parallel course. A large portion fell 

 and buried itself in the ground to the depth ot i '50 metre. — M. 

 Boussingault read a memoir in continuation of his researches 

 upon the presence of iron in the organism ; it related to the dis- 

 tribution of iron in the materials of the blood. The greatest 

 portion is contained in the globules. — M. Daubree presented an 

 investigation of the meteorites of Ovifak, with regard to the 

 amount of carbon and of soluble salts which they contain. — M. 

 Berthelot presented a note on the constitution of acid salts in 

 solution ; W. J. A. Le Bel a note on the pyrogenated carburets 

 of Pechelbroun ; and MM. Girard and De Laire a note on the 

 colouring matters derived from aniline, in reply to a recent com- 

 munication by M. Eauth.— M C. Sainte-Claire Deville pre- 

 sented a note of an examination by M. Gorceix of the gaseous 

 emanations of Santorin during the close of tire eruption of 1866. 



CONTENTS Pagb 



ScHEiLLEN's Si'ECTRUM ANALYSIS. — By Prof. CoRNU, Ecole Polytech- 



nique, Paris 349 



Our Book Shelf 35Q 



Letters to the Editor: — 



Hindrances to Sludentsof Mathematics.— Prof. A. Hall ... 351 



leremiah Horrocks 351 



The "Mors Eleclri.iue."— Col. J. F. Tennant, R.E , F.R.S. . 351 



Magnetical AND MetfofvOlogical Work AT Bombay .... 352 



Science in Japan 352 



The //(i^j/t'r ExrEDiiioN 352 



The late Prof. Dr. F. Kaiser 354 



Notes 355 



Tub British Association Meeting at Brighton 357 



Section A. — Sectional Proceedings 357 



Section B.— Sectional Proceedings 360 



Section C— Sectional Proceedings 361 



Section D. — Sectional Proceedings 362 



t^ection Y . — Sectional Proceedings , . . . , 365 



Section G. — Opening Address by President 366 



Societies and Academies 368 



Errata. — Vol. vi., p. 266, ist col., line 19 from bottom, for "bulk" read 

 " bulb :" line 9 from bottom, for "plane" read "pane :" 2nd col., line 16 from 

 bottom, for "behind" read "between;" p. 267, ist col., line 20, for 

 :ad "temperatures." 



