NATURE 



[March 20, 191, 



should be noted that the best steel of this kind 

 made in Sheffield in 1740 would be absolutely in- 

 capable of cutting- at all under conditions under which 

 the best modern high-speed steel would remove 700 

 •cubic inches of metal before breaking down. 



The advantages of this enormous inciease in cutting 

 power are manifold, and an obvious example is the 

 relative rapidity with which hugs naval guns may 

 now be turned out. 



In January, 1909, I had the honour of suggesting 

 to a Royal Institution audience the coming of a new 

 British steel which would have a cutting power four 

 times as great as the best steel then on the market. 

 The skilful application of vanadium by Sheffield steel- 

 makers has practically fulfilled that forecast, and the 

 world-wide sensation and publicity created by the 

 announcement has left Great Britain supreme in this 

 very important branch of scientific steel metallurgy. 

 An aspect of iron and steel metallurgy already de- 

 manding attention is the diminishing quantity of the 



•aSlV'S, 



\ 



Fig. 8.— Carbo 





stages of vanadii 

 hardenite. Upper 



. Vanadium, 13*45 per cent. Transformation 

 utile and vanadiferous ferrtte into vanadium 

 mainly vanadiferous ferrite with vanadium 



ntite nodules, together with a little sorbitic vanadiu 

 Middle area, ground mass of unsaturated vanadium pearli 

 with undissolved nodules of vanadium cementile. Lower ai 

 structureless vanadium hardenite cells formed from a series 

 and surrounded by walls of the structure described for n 

 Hardening temperature, near r.100' C. Magnified 450 d 



world's iron ore supply. To a great extent the latter 

 could be strongly reinforced from the huge deposits 

 of iron sands now lying useless if a simple, economical 

 and direct process of reduction could be devised. That 

 metallurgical science and art will do this eventually 

 seems certain, and I hold an opinion, founded on 

 practical data, that the solution of this hitherto 

 baffling problem is nearer than most metallurgists 

 suppose. 



In conclusion, it may be pointed out that the 

 skeleton history of early Sheffield steel metallurgy- 

 sketched in this discourse is in some important points 

 in conflict with the somewhat disparaging historical 

 outline written by Lord Macaulay, but in this par- 

 ticular connection there seems to be a modicum of 

 truth in the answer of the schoolboy who, when asked 

 to mention his favourite work of fiction, unhesitat- 

 ingly replied, " Macaulay's History of England." 

 NO. 2264, VOL. 91] 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 

 Durham — Armstong College. — The foundation- 

 stone of the new building for the department of agri- 

 culture is to be laid on Saturday, April 5. Mr. C. 

 Cochrane has promised the sum of 2,500/. towards 

 the equipment of the department, and a Diesel engine 

 has been offered to the college by Mr. G. E. Hender- 

 son. The appointment has been approved of Mr. 

 G. D. H. Cole as deputy professor of philosophy, in 

 the absence of Prof. Hoernle, who is to deliver a 

 course of lectures at Harvard University between 

 October, 1913, and January, 1914. 



The Senate of the University of Dublin has ap- 

 proved the conferment of the honorary degree of 

 doctor of science upon Prof. A. C. Seward, F.R.S., 

 and Prof, the Hon. R. J. Strutt, F.R.S. 



By the will of Sir Alfred Jones, 227,100/. is left to 

 charitable and educational institutions, and the scheme 

 for carrying out the objects of the will has just been 

 sanctioned by Vice-Chancellor Dudley Stewart-Smith. 

 By the provisions of the will the Liverpool School of 

 Tropical Medicine will receive 40,000/., and a further 

 40,000/. when the annuities payable out of the estate 

 cease. The 40,000/. now given is to form a fund to be 

 called the "Sir Alfred Lewis Jones Bequest," and is 

 to be devoted (a) to defraying the cost of a new wing 

 or ward to the Liverpool Royal Infirmary for the 

 reception of persons suffering from tropical diseases, 

 to be called the " Sir Alfred Lewis Jones Tropical 

 Ward " ; (b) to the erection of new premises in Liver- 

 pool for the study of tropical medicine, to be per- 

 manently associated with the name of the testator ; 

 (c) to the erection and equipment of a laboratory in 

 Sierra Leone, to be called the "Sir Alfred Lewis Jones 

 Tropical Laboratory"; (d) the residue of the gift is 

 to be used as a permanent endowment. 20,000/. is 

 left for the promotion of technical education in British 

 West Africa, and 1000/. to Liverpool LIniversity. 



By the will of Mr. John Fritz, the iron master, says 

 Science, his residuary estate, amounting to about 

 30,000/., is given to Lehigh University primarily as 

 an endowment fund for the maintenance of the Fritz 

 Engineering and Testing Laboratory. It is also 

 announced that Mr. Charles L. Taylor, of Pittsburg, 

 has given Lehigh University a gift for a large gym- 

 nasium and a stadium. From the same source we 

 learn that by the will of the late Mr. C. C. Weld, of 

 Newport, R. I., the residuary estate, valued at nearly 

 800,000/., is, in case his daughter dies without issue, 

 to be divided between the Massachusetts General Hos- 

 pital and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 



At the opening of a new technical college and 

 secondary school at Workington last week, Sir 

 John Randies said he desired to commemorate the 

 occasion by a gift of 1000/., to provide a travel scholar- 

 ship for a student of the college. The gift will yield 

 some 50/. or 60/. each year to a student to assist him to 

 become proficient in the metallurgy of iron and steel, 

 which is associated with the local industry. The money 

 is to be used by the student, within three years of its 

 being awarded, in visiting some Colonial or foreign 

 metallurgical centre, and may be recreative as well as 

 useful. In this way Sir John Randies hopes some of 

 the pleasure he has enjoyed in life by travel will be 

 secured year by year to a Cumberland youth. 



The President of the Board of Education, Mr. J. A. 

 Pease, spoke at a meeting of the National Union of 

 Teachers at Sheffield on March 15, and referred to the 



