September 30, 1922] 



NA TURE 



467 



Calendar of Industrial Pioneers. 



October i, 1838. Charles Tennant died. — The 

 founder in 1797 of famous chemical works at St. 

 Rollox, Glasgow, Tennant while manager of a bleach- 

 ing field near Paisley discovered a method of con- 

 trolling chlorine gas by the admixture of lime. He 

 introduced the manufacture of chloride of lime in a 

 solid state, to which he gave the name bleaching 

 powder. His production of bleaching powder in 

 1 799-1800 was 52 tons, the price being 140/. per ton. 

 By 1835 the St. Rollox works had become the most 

 important chemical works in the world. 



October 2, 1804. Nicolas Joseph Cugnot died. — A 

 military engineer and the author in 1766 of " Elements 

 de l'art militaire ancien et moderne," Cugnot in 

 1769 made the first steam-propelled road carriage, 

 and two years later built a steam tractor for the 

 French Government for hauling artillery. This 

 vehicle was to carry a load of 4J tons at 2 \ miles per 

 hour. Though never used, this carriage is preserved 

 in the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers. 



October 3, 1867. Elias Howe died. — One of the 

 chief pioneers of the sewing machine, Howe was the 

 son of a farmer of Spencer, Massachusetts, and was 

 born in 1819. He began work on the sewing machine 

 in 1 84 1, took out a patent in 1846, and was one of 

 the first inventors to place the eye of the needle 

 towards the point. 



October 4, 1821. John Rennie died. — Acknow- 

 ledged as the greatest civil engineer of his day, 

 Rennie was the builder of the London Docks, the 

 East India Docks, the Plymouth Breakwater, Water- 

 loo and Southwark Bridges, and he prepared designs 

 for London Bridge. He was born at Phantassie, 

 East Lothian, in 1761, gained practical experience 

 under Andrew Meikle, attended the lectures of 

 Robison and Black, and in 1789 erected the Albion 

 Mills for Boulton & Watt, in London, the site of 

 which was afterwards occupied by Rennie's workshops. 

 He is buried in St. Paul's Cathedral. 



October 5, 1892. Alexander Carnegie Kirk died. — 

 The author of many improvements in marine en- 

 gineering, Kirk, after gaining experience at Maudslay's 

 and at Elder's, became a partner in 1877 in the firm 

 of Napier. He was especially known for his advocacy 

 of high steam pressure and the triple-expansion engine, 

 the advantages of which were demonstrated in the 

 s.s. Aberdeen built by him in 1882, which on a voyage 

 to Australia showed a saving of 500 tons of coal. 



October 6, 1905. Charles Brown died. — Brown has 

 been called the founder of mechanical industry in 

 Switzerland. Brought up in London, in 1851 at the 

 age of 24 he entered the service of Sulzer Brothers, 

 a firm of mechanical engineers at Winterthur. He- 

 established afterwards the Swiss locomotive works 

 at Winterthur and also played a prominent part in 

 the creation of the Swiss electrical industry. 



October 7, 1908. Jean Baptiste Gustave Adolphe 

 Canet died. — A distinguished armament engineer, 

 Canet was trained at the Ecole Centrale des Arts et 

 Manufactures, fought in the Franco-German War, and 

 for a time engaged in railway engineering. From 

 1872 to 1 88 1 he was associated with Vavasseur at 

 the London Ordnance Works, and in 1876 brought 

 forward his theory of hydraulic brakes for checking 

 the recoil of guns. Returning to France he became 

 the head of armament works at Havre and after the 

 amalgamation of these works with those of Schneider 

 at Creusot became manager. 



E. C. S. 



Societies and Academies. 



Swansea. 



Institute of Metals, September 20. — G. D. Bengough 

 and J. M. Stuart : The nature of corrosive action, 

 and the function of colloids in corrosion (Sixth Report 

 to the Corrosion Research Committee of the Institute). 

 — Sir Henry Fowler : The effect of superheated 

 steam on non-ferrous metals used in locomotives. 

 Superheated steam as used on locomotives generally 

 leaves the superheater at a temperature of 340 C. 

 On the Midland Railway, piston tail rod bushes 

 were made of M.R. A.i alloy (copper, 87 ; tin, 

 9 ; zinc, 2 ; lead, 2). A phosphor bronze (copper, 

 88 ; tin, n ; phosphorus, 1) has been found satis- 

 factory. For piston rod packing, McNamee rings 

 (copper, 75-5; tin, 8-5; zinc, 0-33; phosphorus, 

 trace ; nickel, 0-5 ; lead, 15-0) are used satisfactorily. 

 These rings prevent the steam coming into contact 

 with the white metal (lead, 70 ; antimony, 30) packing 

 rings. With the temperature rising to 425 C. the 

 packing rings may fuse. Piston valve fittings and 

 cylinder relief valves are made of alloy M.R. A.i. 

 For by-pass valves which are subjected to shock, a 

 nickel-brass gave good service, but was replaced for 

 economy by malleable iron or steel castings. — A. H. 

 Mundey, C. C. Bissett, and J. Cartland : White metals. 

 The manufacture and use of white metal for industrial 

 purposes is described, and constitution and micro- 

 structure are dealt with only so far as the uses and 

 manufacture are concerned. Antifriction or bearing 

 metal, printing alloys, die-casting alloys, metals for 

 chemical works castings, solders, are discussed. — 

 J. H. Andrew and R. Higgins ; Grain-size and 

 diffusion. Diffusion at high temperatures may take 

 place simultaneously with grain-growth, while at low 

 temperatures it promotes a breakdown in the grain- 

 size. These results have been applied to the anneal- 

 ing treatment of castings. It has been assumed 

 that in the interior of the crystalline grains the 

 system of closest packing holds, while at the boundaries 

 the atoms in the separate grains touch only at one 

 part of the circumference. This explains the decrease 

 in specific gravity with an increase in the number 

 of grains, for in such an arrangement free spaces 

 occur. Plastic deformation, by shifting some of the 

 atoms from their positions of equilibrium, will cause 

 them to rearrange themselves when heated to a 

 sufficientlv high temperature. This rearrangement 

 will be such that the stressed atoms will fall in, row 

 for row, with the unstrained atoms of the adjacent 

 crystal. This effects a gradual migration of the grain 

 boundary which, proceeding from every side of a 

 crystalline unit, may result in one grain being divided 

 up and absorbed by others. The final bounding 

 surface will result when the boundary configuration 

 is reached. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, August 28. — M. L. Maquenne 

 in the chair. — L. Mangin and N. Patouillard : The 

 destruction of the woodwork at the chateau of 

 Versailles by Phellinus cryptarum. A detailed ex- 

 amination of the oak beams showed a varied fauna 

 and flora, but Phellinus cryptarum is mainly respon- 

 sible for the damage. This fungus has not hitherto 

 been regarded as destructive to wood. — Jacques 



Chokhate : The development of the integral / ^-j- . dy 



- <i y 



as a continued fraction. — Ch. N. Moore : The equiva- 

 lence of the methods of summation of Cesaro and 

 of Holder for multiple limits. — Nilos Sakellariou : 

 Polar systems. — Amedee Bejot : Placing in reciprocal 



NO. 



2761, VOL. 1 IO] 



