TBANSACTIONS OF SECTION G. 817 



such that the lines of magnetic force circulate entirely in iron, or as nearly ao as 

 possihle, by which arrangement a considerable economy of magnetising force is 

 effected and other advantages are at the same time gained. Two forms of trans- 

 former made on these principles were described, as well as the self-regulation of 

 alternating current machines, which is especially valuable in installations of 

 moderate size. 



This system is at present in use in Gerona in Spain, Lucerne, Cologne, Berlin, 

 Eome, Milan, Turin, and other towns, and has been temporarily erected for the 

 Exhibitions in London, Budapesth, and Antwerp. The arrangements for Rome 

 were explained in detail and illustrated by a diagram, and the author concluded 

 by pointing out that, although tlie last word has not yet been spoken in relation 

 to the distribution of electricity over large areas, the above system is the only 

 one with which he is acquainted that approximates to the fulfilment of an ideal 

 distribution. 



TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7. 



The following Report and Papers were read : — 



1. Report of the Committee on the Endurance of Metals binder repeated 

 and varying Stresses. — See Reports, p. 284. 



2. The Water Supply of Birmingham.^ By C. E. Mathews, F.B.O.S. 



3. The Manufacture of Slack Barrels by Machinery on the English and 



American Systems. By A. Ransome. 



The paper confined itself to such cask-making machines as have been most 

 successfully applied to the production of slack barrels for holding dry goods, and 

 as all the more satisfactory machines for this purpose are of English or American 

 origin, the different systems of manufacturing slack barrels at present in use in this 

 country and America were alone discussed. 



The English cement barrel is made from fir staves sawn to length and parallel 

 widths and thickness. The heads, which are also made of fir wood, are simply 

 rounded, and held in place between two wooden hoops nailed inside the ends of 

 the cask. ^ 



In the Universal Stave-jointing Machine a sufficient nimiber of rough staves 

 to make one cask are cramped side by side in a travelling box, and passed over a 

 horizontal cutter, which rises and falls as the staves pass over it, and the amount of 

 bilge given to the stave is governed by a template. 



The staves, after being fired on a hot plate, pass to the trussing machine. This 

 consists of a cast-iron cone, the inside of which corresponds with one half of the 

 finished barrel ; it has recesses turned in it to take the truss hoops, and is made in 

 halves, hinged on one side, to facilitate insertion and removal. Immediately below 

 the cone is a cast-iron table, caused to rise and fall by hydraulic pressure, applied 

 through an accumulator. The attendant arranges a set of staves in a circle within 

 the bilge truss hoop, which, for this purpose, is laid upon the rising table, the 

 upper ends of the staves resting against a bevilled flange, formed on the lower edge 

 of the trussing cone. The truss hoops being inserted in the recesses in the cone 

 the table is raised, and thus the upper ends of the staves are pressed tightly 

 together in the cone, and the partially trussed barrel is withdrawn with two truss 

 hoops driven firmly on it. Two more truss hoops are then inserted in the cone, and 

 the cask is placed with its trussed end downwards, when a second rising of the table 

 completely trusses it. 



• Published in extenso by the author. 

 1886. 3 Q 



