68 



NA TURE 



[May 17, 1906 



of the Madras province left blank as if it had never been 

 surveyed (whereas the old Madras revenue surveys furnish 

 excellent material for any i-inch reproduction), and a 

 fairly wide area of Baluchistan territory near Quetta, 

 which has been most carefully surveyed on the scale of 

 2 inches to the mile and has stood the test of a whole 

 series of military manoeuvres most successfully, classed 

 as " geographical reconnaissance " — which it certainly is 

 not, nor is the mass of J-inch work which has been com- 

 pleted in that country. 



The fact is that, for the completion of the i-inch topo- 

 graphical map of all India, only a small portion of the 

 Rajputana desert really requires first survey. There must, 

 however, be an enormous amount of revision necessary. 



During the year under review, 34,000 square miles of 

 detail survey were completed, and (according to the general 

 summary) about 24,000 square miles of geographical recon- 

 naissance. Elsewhere we find records of 15,000 square 

 miles of Seistan geography, no less than 58,000 square 

 miles in Tibet, and the invaluable work of Colonel Wahab 

 in South Arabia (of which we have heard so little and 

 would like to know so much), amounting to 6000 square 

 miles. Presumably the 24,000 square miles with which 

 the summary deals is independent of these special out- 

 turns. The chief interest of the report lies in the 

 appendix dealing with these special performances, and 

 we cordially welcome a return to even this partial 

 recognition of the absorbing interest which is to be found 

 in the story of Indian surveying. The kernel of the 

 report was extracted when the " narratives " went out 

 of it. Even here we do not find the story of the death of 

 that gallant native geographer and explorer Sheikh 

 Mohiudin, whose determined (reckless, for a surveyor) 

 search after information in Seistan led to his being found 

 at last, dead, with his horse dead beside him — dead of 

 thirst in that thirsty country ; whilst his plane-table sheets 

 had been stripped from the board and wound round the 

 body of one of his native assistants, who was finally 

 rescued by a friendly Afghan out of a far-away pool of 

 water in which he was lying insensible. Such little in- 

 cidents as this, or the death of Colonel Wahab's native 

 surveyor, who was shot at his work in .\rabia, excite little 

 public comment in India. 



In the scientific branches of the department there is 

 much good work to record. The great arc of principal 

 triangulation which terminates with the Dehra Dun base 

 has been extended into the Himalayas, and connected with 

 the peaks of the Snowy Range. Valuable results have been 

 obtained from the comparison of geodetic with astronomic 

 determinations for latitude, the tendency of them being to 

 prove that large northerly deflections of the plumb-line 

 continue to prevail in the heart of the Himalayas. Pen- 

 dulum observations to determine the force of gravity have 

 been resumed, and magnetic work has also been a feature 

 of the scientific branch of the department supervised bv 

 Lieut.-Colonel Burrard, R.E., F.R.S. That officer has 

 also added a useful chapter to the report on the value of 

 principal triangulation and scientific surveying. All this is 

 most valuable work, and should go a long way to satisfy 

 financial critics that the Government of India gets its 

 money's worth out of the scientific investigations of the 

 Survey Department. 



The official report of the observations made by Captain 

 Wood, R.E., in Nepal to determine the position of the 

 Everest peak relatively to the Gaurisankar group is in- 

 cluded in this volume. It is hardly necessary to refer 

 again to the conclusions which have been formed on a 

 subject which has already been discussed in the pages of 

 N.\TURE. A most useful map of part of Nepal, and the 

 panoramic views which accompany Captain Wood's report 

 should be convincing evidence of the isolated position 

 of the highest peak in the world, if any further evi- 

 dence were needed. .\ re-perusal of the exact conditions 

 under which these observations were made is most interest- 

 ing, and fully confirms the opinion expressed bv Colonel 

 Gore (the late Surveyor-General) that " those who trust 

 to their appreciation of characteristic forms and their 

 mountaineering instincts, as a means for identifying peaks 

 from widely different points of view, are apt to "be fre- 

 quently misled." 



VO. 1907, VOL. 74] 



THE IRON AND STEEL INSTITUTE. 

 'T'HE annual meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute was 

 held in London on May 10 and 11, Mr. R. A. Had- 

 field, the president, in the chair. The president referred 

 to the loss the institute had suffered by the deaths of Sir 

 David Dale and Mr. J. T. Smith, past-presidents, and 

 votes of sympathy were accorded. The report of the 

 council, read by the secretary, Mr. Bennett H. Brough, 

 showed that the membership amounted to 2033, and that 

 in 1905 the income was 6271/. and the expenditure 5257/. 

 The Bessemer medal was awarded to Mr. F. Osmond, the 

 eminent French metallurgist. Carnegie research scholar- 

 ships of 100/. were awarded to Dr. C. A. F. Benedicks 

 (Sweden), Mr. O. Stutzer (Germany), Mr. E. Hess (United 

 States), and Mr. E. F. Law (London). Grants were also 

 made to Mr. H. C. Boynton (United States), Dr. L. 

 Guillet (France), Mr. W. H. Hatfield (Sheffield), Mr. 

 E. G. L. Roberts (London), Mr. W. Rosenhain (Birming- 

 ham), Mr. E. A. Wraight (London), and Mr. A. Campion 

 (Glasgow). The Carnegie gold medal for research was 

 awarded to Dr. L. Guillet, and the silver medal to Mr. 

 W. Rosenhain. 



In the first paper read Mr. A. J. Capron (Sheffield) de- 

 scribed a new method of compressing steel ingots in the 

 mould which has been successfully adopted in Sheffield. 

 The ingot moulds are placed inside the press, the steel 

 being run into the moulds in this position, so that they 

 have not to be transported with the liquid steel in them, 

 and the press practically forms the casting pit. 



Prof. T. Turner (Birmingham) gave the results of observ- 

 ations on the volume and temperature changes during the 

 cooling of cast-iron. .Apparatus was designed in order to 

 measure the changes of length of a test-bar, whilst cool- 

 ing curves were taken of the specimens at the same time 

 with a Le Chatelier pyrometer. The curves obtained mav 

 be divided into four classes, depending upon the number of 

 arrests observed in the normal rate of contraction of a 

 cooling solid. 



Mr. E. Adamson (Seaton Carew) read a paper on the 

 influence of silicon, phosphorus, manganese, and aluminium 

 on chill in cast-iron. The depth of chill is primarily de- 

 pendent upon the percentage of combined carbon and the 

 temperature of casting. Combined carbon 0-67 per cent, 

 gives i/i6-iQch chill, and combined carbon 088 per cent, 

 gives f-inoh and i-inch, but the latter was cast at a 

 much higher temperature. These figures are taken from- 

 the silicon and phosphorus tests. The manganese tests also 

 show an increase in true chill with increasing manganese 

 up to combined carbon i-6o per cent. The tests described' 

 were made from coke irons, and suggest that under proper 

 treatment coke irons are as good as charcoal irons for 

 high mechanical tests and depth of chill. 



On May 11 Prof, J. O. Arnold and Mr. F. K. Knowles 

 (ShefTield) read a preliminary note upon the influence of 

 nearly pure metallic manganese alloyed with varying pro- 

 portions of nearly pure metallic iron. A series of alloys 

 ranging in manganese from 0-3 per cent, to 36 per cent., 

 and in carbon and silicon from 005 per cent, to 0-2 per 

 cent, each, was prepared in special crucibles. In the 

 finished bars, each 12 feet long, liquation of a remarkable 

 character took place which rendered the completion of the 

 research diflicult. It is possible, but hardly probable, that 

 some of these costly alloys may prove of practical import- 

 ance. 



Mr. C. de Schwarz (Li^ge) read an interesting paper orr 

 the use of o.xygen in removing blast-furnace obstructions. 

 The difficulties caused by the tap-hole of a blast furnace 

 becoming closed up by solid iron have been overcome by 

 the application of compressed oxygen. The process has 

 been adopted at several works in England and on the 

 Continent with satisfactory results. At the conclusion of 

 the paper a practical demonstration of the process took 

 place at the works of the Brin O.xygen Co. in '^Vestminster. 



Mr. E. F. Law (London) described an extended investi- 

 gation into the causes which underlie the production of 

 brittle and blistered tin plates. He showed that oxidised 

 steel will give rise to blistered sheets, and that this defect 

 is more liable to occur with Bessemer than with open-hearth 

 steel. Steel high in sulphur and phosphorus will cause 

 brittleness in sheets, especially if the sheets are rolled from 



