October 7, 1922] 



NA TURE 



499 



Calendar of Industrial Pioneers. 



October 8, 1862. James Walker died. — An eminent 

 civil engineer. Walker constructed many works of the 

 greatest magnitude, and as engineer to the board of 

 the Trinity House built the Bishop's Rock Lighthouse 

 and the Smalls Lighthouse. In 1834 he succeeded 

 Telford as president of the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers, and held that position for eleven years. 



October 9, 1902. George Wightwick Rendel died. 

 — Born in 1833, Rendel was the second son of James 

 Meadows Rendel. Trained under his father, he gained 

 experience in bridge building in India, and in 1858 

 became a partner with Armstrong at Elswick, where, 

 with Andrew Noble, he directed the ordnance works 

 for twenty-four years. He was intimately associated 

 with the development of the hydraulic system of gun 

 mountings — the first mounting being fitted in H.M.S. 

 Thunderer in 1877 — and he was also a pioneer in the 

 application of forced draught to warships. From 

 1882 to 1885 he was a civil lord of the Admiralty. 



October 10, 1854. John Augustus Lloyd died. — 

 At an early age Lloyd left England for South America, 

 where he became an officer in the army of Bolivar. 

 In 1827 he made a survey of the Isthmus of Panama. 

 From 1 83 1 to 1849 he was colonial engineer and 

 surveyer of Mauritius, where he constructed many 

 roads and bridges, a patent slip for ships, a break- 

 water, and the colonial observatory. Among his 

 writings was a paper read to the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers on " Facilities for a Ship Canal between 

 the Atlantic and Pacific." He died in the Crimea 

 while on a Government Commission. 



October 11, 1705. Guillaume Amontons died. — 

 Employed for many years on public works in France, 

 Amontons was a member of the Paris Academy of 

 Sciences, and was known for his improvements in 

 barometers and other instruments. In 1684 he 

 suggested a means of signalling long distances by 

 a type of semaphore telegraph. 



October 12, 1859. Robert Stephenson died. — The 

 only son of George Stephenson, whom he assisted in 

 the construction of the Liverpool and Manchester 

 Railway, which was opened in 1830, Robert Stephen- 

 son became engineer to many of the early railways. 

 Among his most famous works were the High Level 

 Bridge at Newcastle, the Tubular Bridge over the 

 Menai Straits, and the Victoria Bridge at Montreal. 

 He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1849, 

 and during 1856-57 served as president of the 

 Institution of Civil Engineers. He was buried beside 

 Telford in the nave of Westminster Abbey. 



October 13, 1902. Peter Brotherhood died. — After 

 studying at King's College, London, Brotherhood 

 worked as a mechanical engineer at Swindon and 

 at Maudslay's, Lambeth ; in 1867 he set up in 

 business for himself in London. In 1872 he intro- 

 duced the three-cylinder engine adopted extensively 

 for torpedoes, and in 1875 built the first steam 

 engine coupled direct to a dynamo — this being fitted 

 in the French battleship Richelieu. He also made 

 many improvements in air-compressing machinery. 



October 14, 1906. Sir Richard Tangye died. — One 

 of the five brothers who built up one of the most 

 important engineering works in Birmingham, Tangye 

 and his brothers migrated to that city from Redruth. 

 Setting up as tool and machine makers, they made a 

 reputation by the construction of the hydraulic jacks 

 by means of which Brunei launched the Great Eastern, 

 and they afterwards became known all over the world 

 as the makers of steam engines and pumping 

 machinery. E. C. S. 



NO. 2762, VOL. I IO] 



Societies and Academies. 



Swansea. 

 Institute of Metals, September 21. — J. E. Clennell : 

 Experiments on the oxide method of determining 

 aluminium (Report to the Aluminium Corrosion Re- 

 search Sub-Committee of the Corrosion Research Com- 

 mittee of the Institute) . It was desired to find a direct 

 method of determining aluminium in presence of iron 

 and other impurities. Precipitating aluminium as 

 hydroxide by alkali thiosulphates was fairly satisfac- 

 tory, but the weight of precipitate generally exceeded 

 the theoretical amount calculated from the aluminium 

 known to be present. This excess was traced to small 

 quantities of absorbed substances, notably salts of 

 iron and sulphates, probably of aluminium. A better 

 method is as follows : Pass sulphur dioxide through the 

 slightly ammoniacal solution, precipitating in dilute, 

 faintly acid, boiling solution with sodium thiosulphate 

 with addition of dilute acetic acid, washing by 

 decantation with hot 1 per cent, ammonium chloride, 

 filtering and washing with hot water. Iron, zinc, 

 manganese, and magnesium in ordinary amounts do 

 not interfere, but when the first two are present in 

 large quantity a double precipitation is necessary. — 

 Marie L. V. Gayler : The constitution and age- 

 hardening of alloys of aluminium with copper, 

 magnesium, and silicon in the solid state. Constitu- 

 tion. — These alloys have been regarded as a ternary 

 system since magnesium and silicon are added in 

 the proportions of the compound magnesium silicide, 

 which is very stable at all temperatures. Micro- 

 scopic examination shows that the solubility of 

 copper is reduced from 4-5 per cent, to 2 per cent, 

 at 500 C. by the presence of 0-7 per cent, magnesium 

 silicide ; while 2 per cent, of copper reduces the 

 solubility of magnesium silicide from 1-2 per cent, 

 to 0-7 per cent, at 500° C. At 250 C. both con- 

 stituents are turned out of solution when only 0-5 

 per cent, of each are present. Age- Hardening. — 

 Brinell hardness measurements were made on alloys 

 in which the percentage content of one constituent 

 only was varied ; they were quenched from 500° C. 

 and allowed to age-harden at room temperature. 

 Age-hardening is due to the difference in solubility 

 at high and low temperatures of both copper and 

 magnesium silicide, and the solubility in aluminium 

 of both in the presence of each other. Heat treat- 

 ment of age-hardened alloys caused a preliminary 

 softening before an increase in hardness ; this is 

 probably due to the process by which both compounds 

 tend to come out of solution. Derived differential 

 curves of alloys which had been quenched, but not 

 aged, show three critical points ; the lowest is at a 

 constant temperature ; the temperature of the two 

 upper critical points is lowered with increasing 

 copper content ; the intensity of the uppermost 

 varies with the copper content." Probably this point 

 is due to the precipitation of the copper compound 

 and the second to the precipitation of magnesium 

 silicide.— D. Stockdale : The copper-rich aluminium- 

 copper alloys. Alloys of copper with aluminium up 

 to 20 per cent, of aluminium have been investigated. 

 Thermal data from the cooling-curves and from 

 quenching experiments in conjunction with micro- 

 scopic examination were used to obtain equilibrium 

 diagrams. The minimum in the liquidus curve at 

 1031° C. with 8-3 per cent, of aluminium is a true 

 eutectic point; a small arrest point at 1017° with 

 alloys containing between 16-5 and 18 per cent of 

 aluminium has been discovered. Copper at iooo C. 

 can hold only 7-4 per cent, of aluminium in solid 

 solution ; at 500° C. and at lower temperatures, 

 9-8 per cent., although to obtain such an alloy a 



