378 



NATURE 



\Sept. lo, 1874 



ago the village of Barrow, near the southern extremity of 

 the peninsula of Furness, in Lancashire, had a popu- 

 lation of barely 200 ; now the municipal borough ex- 

 tends over an area of about 15,000 acres, with a popu- 

 lation of about 35,000. Even fourteen years ago, when 

 the first volume of Chambers' Encyclopccdia was pub- 

 lished, it seems to have been so little known, or of so 

 little importance, as not to find a place in that useful 

 work. It is now a well-laid-out town, with fine docks, 

 and some of the most important iron and engineering 

 works in the kingdom ; while one of the steel works 

 are considered to occupy a leading position in connection 

 with the manufacture of Bessemer steel. This unequalled 

 growth of the town of Barrow is entirely owing to the rapid 

 development of the various industries connected with 

 iron, the mineral deposits of the district being unusually 

 rich. 



Such a town forms an appropriate meeting-place for an 

 Institute which has done so much to develop the manu- 

 facture of iron and steel, by affording a medium for the 

 interchange of ideas between those who are engaged in 

 the practical work of these industries or in the investiga- 

 tion of the scientific principles on which they must be 

 founded if they are to be successful. The Institute is to 

 be congratulated on the scientific tone which has all 

 along pervaded its proceedings and its publications 

 since it was founded in 1S69. Though it has had 

 such a comparatively short existence, it seems to 

 have been in all respects prosperous (it now numbers 

 close on 600 members), and to have most satisfac- 

 torily fulfilled the purpose for which it was instituted, 

 the improvement of the all-important manufacture of 

 iron and steel by the free interchange of ideas gene- 

 rated by experience or scientific study. To quote the 

 words of our contemporary Iron : " Anterior to the 

 establishment of this important society, the manufac- 

 turers of iron in its various forms had scant opportunity 

 of communicating in public the results of their own ex- 

 perience, and of comparing those results with the obser- 

 vations of other persons equally interested in their 

 development. Various methods of working prevailed in 

 different parts of the country, and not long ago many 

 processes connected with iron and steel manufacture were 

 regarded as trade secrets to be carefully treasured up and 

 jealously guarded. To the aboUtion of these narrow and 

 antiquated notions the Iron and Steel Institute addressed 

 itself vigorously from its very inception. It soon becam.e 

 apparent that among the first promoters of the society 

 there prevailed an earnest desire to cast aside all petty 

 jealousy, and to add unreservedly their individual know- 

 ledge to the general stock of information. Adherence to 

 this excellent principle produced a prompt effect on the 

 minds of iron and steel makers in all parts of the British 

 Empire, and secured the sympathy of continental and 

 American manufacturers." This is a very valuable result 

 to have been accomplished in so short a time, and may 

 perhaps partly be accounted for by the high scientific 

 character of those who have from the first been elected 

 to hold office in the society. With such names on its list 

 of oftice-bearers as his Grace the Duke of Devonshire, 

 Mr. Isaac Lowthian Bell, F.R.S., Mr. Bessemer, Mr. 

 John Jones, F.G.S. (general secretary), Mr. David Forbes, 

 F.R,S. (foreign secretary), Dr. C. \V. Siemens, F.R.S., 



and others, the Institute has every chance of doing good 

 work and of imbuing its members with a feeling of the 

 necessity, in order to secure the highest success in their 

 important industry, of importing into it continually the 

 results of the latest and highest scientific research. There 

 is little fear of the practical side of the iron and steel 

 manufacture being neglected ; and if this as well as 

 other similar Institutes, do their work faithfully, and if 

 the members enter upon their work equipped with 

 a thorough scientific as well as professional training, 

 there will be little fear of other nations outstripping us in 

 this, as they threaten to do in other industries. To keep 

 up the tone of the Institute, the importance of electing 

 right men to hold office in it cannot be too much insisted 

 on, and we hope that in this respect it will go on as it has 

 begun. 



The Barrow meeting seems to have been a real success ; 

 the only complaint being, as is almost always the case at 

 such meetings, the difficulty of getting sleeping accommo- 

 dation for the members ; in Barrow this is not to be won- 

 dered at, as the people have scarcely had lime yet to 

 think about building hotels. The Duke of Devonshire, 

 who is intimately connected with Barrow, the Earl of 

 Lonsdale, the Mayor, and other dignitaries, as well as tlie 

 railway companies and proprietors of the numerous works 

 in and around Barrow, entertained the members most hos- 

 pitably, and gave them every opportunity of inspecting 

 the working of the numerous vast establishments con- 

 nected with the industries with which the Institute is 

 concerned. Indeed, the greater part of the four days 

 seems to have been spent in visits and excursions ; and 

 considering the nature and aims of the Institute, its time 

 could not, perhaps, have been more profitably spent. A 

 good many papers were also [read, all of them of con- 

 siderable practical value, but of too purely technical a 

 nature for these columns. Among the more generally 

 scientific we may mention Mr. Wurzburger's very inter- 

 esting and well-informed paper on the Geology of the 

 West Coast Iron Ore Districts, and Mr. Charles Smith's 

 paper on the Iron Ores of Sweden. The last day, Septem- 

 ber 4, was entirely devoted to an inspection of various 

 mining works in the West Cumberland district. 



Altogether wc have no doubt that the members of the 

 Institute will look back upon the Barrow meeting as one 

 of the pleasantest and most instructive they have had. 

 The Right Hon. Earl Granville has been elected president 

 for the years 1874-6. 



SHARPE'S "BIRDS IN THE BRITISH 

 MUSEUM " 

 Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum. Vol. I.— 

 Accipitres. By R. Bowdler Sharpe. (Printed by order 

 of the Trustees.) 



THE great value of Dr. Giinther's "Catalogue of 

 Fishes " in the British Museum is appreciated by 

 all working zoologists ; and when Mr. Sharpe was 

 appointed one of the Senior Assistants in the Natural 

 History Department of that noble institution, ornitho- 

 logists had every reason to hope for an equally important 

 work on the birds in the same collection, all fully realising 

 Mr. Sharpc's perfect competency for the e.\ecution of so 



