5H 



NATURE 



[September 24, 1896 



weights and measures is that it is adopted all over the civilised 

 world by physicists and chemists ; and it may be stated with 

 confidence, that the present international character of these 

 sciences is largely due to this. 



It is interesting also to notice, that the metric system is being 

 gradually introduced into other branches of science. Anthropo- 

 metric measurements made by the Committees of the British 

 Association in this country and in Canada are invariably given in 

 metres, and a comparison with measurements made in other 

 countries can be at once made. 



The period of twenty-five years under review has indeed wit- 

 nessed great advances, both in scientific knowledge and practical 

 application. This progress has led to powerful yet peaceful 

 competition between the leading nations. Both from among 

 our cousins of the United States, and from our nearer neighbours 

 of Europe, have we, at this meeting, the plea.sure of welcoming 

 most respected representatives. But their presence, and the 

 knowledge of the great discoveries made, and colossal works 

 carried out, by them and their brother scientific men and 

 engineers, must make us of Great Britain face with in- 

 creased earnestness the problem of maintaining our national 

 position, at any rate, in the forefront of all that tends 

 towards the "utilisation of the great sources of power in 

 nature for the use and convenience of man." Those English 

 engineers who have been brought in contact with engineering 

 thought and action in America and abroad have been impressed 

 with the thoroughness of much of the work, the great power of 

 organisation, and the careful reliance upon scientific principles 

 constantly kept in view, and upon chemical and mechanical 

 e.xperinients, carried out often upon a much more elaborate 

 scale than in this country. This is not the place from which to 

 discuss the questions of bounties and tariff's, which have rendered 

 possible powerful competition for the supply of machinery and 

 railway plant from the continent to our own colonies ; but there 

 is certainly need for advance all along the line of mechanical 

 science and practice, if we are to hold our own — need especially 

 to study the mechanical requirements of the world, ever widen- 

 ing and advancing, and to be ready to meet them, by inventive 

 faculty first, but also by rigid adherence to sound principles of 

 construction, to the use of materials and workmanship of the 

 highest class, to simplicity of design and detail, and to careful 

 adaptation of our productions to the special circumstances of 

 the various markets. 



It is impossible to forecast in what direction the great advances 

 since 1871 will be equalled and exceeded in the coming quarter 

 of a century. Progress there will and must be, ]jrobably in in- 

 creased ratio ; and some, at the end of that period, may be able 

 to look back upon our gathering here in Liverpool in 1896 as 

 dealing with subjects then long since left behind in the race to- 

 wards perfection. 



The mechanical engineer may fairly hope for still greater 

 results in the perfection of machinery, the reduction of friction, 

 the economical use of fuel, the substitution of oil for coal as fuel 

 in many cases, and the mechanical treatment of many processes 

 still dependent upon the human hand. 



The electrical engineer (hampered as he has been in this 

 country by unwise and retrograde legislation) may surely look 

 forward to a wonderful expansion in the use of that mysterious 

 force, which he has already learned so wonderfully to control, 

 especially in the direction of traction. 



The civil engineer has still great channels to bridge or tunnel, 

 vast communities to supply with water and illuminating power, and 

 (most probably with the assistance of the electrician) far higher 

 speeds of locomotion to attain. He has before him vast and 

 ever-increasing problems for the sanitary benefit of the world, 

 and it will be for him to deal from time to time with the amazing 

 internal traffic of great cities. China lies before him, Japan 

 welcomes all advance, and Africa is great with opportunities for 

 the coming engineers. 



Let us .see to it, then, that our rising engineers are carefully 

 educated and prepared for these responsibilities of the future, 

 and that our scientific brethren may be ever ready to open up for 

 them by their researches fresh vistas of possibilities, fresh dis- 

 coveries of those wonderful powers and facts of nature which 

 man to all time will never exhaust. 



The Mechanical Section of the British Association has done 

 good work in this direction in the p.ist, and we may look forward 

 with confidence to our younger brethren to maintain these 

 traditions in the future. 



NO 1404, VOL. 54] 



THE IROX AND STEEL INSTITUTE. 



^PIIE Iron and Steel Institute, probably the most cosmopolitan 

 -*■ of all our technical societies, has always been noted for 

 taking its members far afield during the annual autumn excur- 

 sions. The United States — from far north to the extreme south 

 — Austria, Hungary, Germany, France, and Belgium have been 

 among the countries visited, and now Spain may be included in 

 the list. A very novel and somewhat ambitious programme had 

 been arranged by the Executive for the 1S96 meeting. It has 

 long been thought desirable that members of the Institute 

 should i>ay a formal visit to the great source of supply for the 

 steel-workers' raw material situated in Northern Spain. It is 

 from the Bilbao district that the greater jiart of the iron ore used 

 by British steel-makers is obtained. What the modern steel 

 trade of this country would have been had not the wonderful 

 deposits of non-phosphoric ore of the Peninsula existed it is 

 difficult to realise, but we may be sure that the industry would 

 not have flourished in the way it has. We have, it is true, a 

 limited and partial supply of hiematite ore in this country ; but 

 it would not nearly have sufficed to satisfy the demands of the 

 trade. The acid process of steel-making requires ores free from 

 phosphorus, and though the basic process has been introduced 

 with a view to eliminating phosphorus during the course of 

 manufacture, it cannot be said to have rendered us independent 

 of purer ores. 



Nature seems to have designed the hills of Northern S|M.in 

 especially for the use of the steel-maker. Hapjiily for England, 

 the communication between our country and Spain is of a very 

 direct nature, and across the element which is |x;culiarly our 

 own, the open sea. Next to having these pure rich ores 

 within our own borders, they could hardly be jilaced more ad- 

 vantageously than they now are. Spain has not been in the past 

 ambitious to institute a steel-making industry. She has been 

 content to sell the valuable raw material to countries with a more 

 advanced manufacturing organisation. A new spirit, however, 

 has arisen of late, and the somewhat sorely-pressed steel-maker 

 of to-day finds the prospect of another rival springing up at the 

 seat of supply. That, however, is more of the future than the 

 present, for the steel works of Spain now in operation are ot 

 comparatively small extent. 



The iron mines of Northern Spain are not mines at all in the 

 proper acceptation of the term, for they are open workings, in fact 

 vast diggings or quarries. The mountains themselves are just 

 heaps of iron ore, covered naturally with but a thin layer <rf 

 earth. This is removed, and it only remains to break up the 

 ore and load it into fitting receptacles, when it is conveyed down 

 to the water's edge by its own gravity. It is difficult to conceive 

 anything more favourable for the purposes of transport. Self- 

 propulsion to the ship's hold, and then the cheapest of all 

 artificial methods of carriage to the home jiort. Eortunately 

 for us, in the struggle for the word's steel nmrket, om" coast-line 

 is more accessible from Spain than that of our great rival, 

 Germany. The Pyrenees offer a barrier to land carriage even if 

 the Frencli railways would frame rates that would allow com- 

 petition with those wonderfully economical cargo boats, which 

 are one of the greatest triumphs of our engineering industry. 

 There are, however, compensations for our great comiielitor even 

 in this. A patient and ingenious people, such as the Germans, 

 finding they are blocked in one directiim will try other measures. 

 In the mamifacture of acid steel Germany laboured under a dis- 

 advantage, for the reasons stated, but this led her steel-makers 

 to piU forlli great efforts to perfect the basic ]irocess, by which 

 they could utilise their own supply of native ore, too phosphoric 

 for the manufacture of acid steel. Their labours have been 

 crowned with almost unexampled success, for the development 

 of the basic steel industry in Germany is one of the most credit- 

 able achievements in the history of industrial progress. It is 

 true that the best steel is produced from nonjjhosphoric ores, 

 but the German makers can manufacture excellent steel castings 

 at a low price, and though these may not be equal to the best 

 acid steel, they are commercially successful. After all steel- 

 making is a trade, not simply a competition like prize-winning 

 at an exhibition. 



We have been led somewhat astray from our immediate 

 subject by the economic proWem suggested tiy the Bilbao 

 trip of the Iron and Steel Institute, and will now return 

 to our text. The Council, knowing the insufficiency of 

 hotel accommodation for so Large a number of persons 



