TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 255 



of thickness of armour-plate that can be carried by ship^ wUl soon be reached, but 

 that the power of destruction of projectiles may bs without doubt increased far 

 beyond what has hitherto been tried. It may therefore be reasonably anticipated 

 that in this all-important contest the victory will ultimately rest on the side of the 

 projectile. 



On Street-Pipe Arrangements for Extingidshing Fires. 

 By J. F. Bateman, F.B.S., President of the Section. 

 He had hoped that a paper would have been read on this subject by Mr. Rose, of 

 the Manchester Fire Bi'igaile ; but as that gentleman had been called away by the 

 illness of a relative, he thought it right that the proceedings of the Section should 

 not terminate without some observations being made on the subject. Nothing 

 could have been much worse than the arrangements made for the extinction of fires 

 some fifteen years ago, nor than the state of things which existed at the present 

 day in the City of London. In most large towns, as Manchester and Glasgow, for 

 instance, where the supply of water had been taken into the hands of the Corpo- 

 ration, the best preparations had been made for the extinction of fires. But in 

 London the fire-engines and the fire brigade were maintained by contributions 

 from the difierent insurance companies ; and therefore it was evident that their 

 interest only lay in preventing the destruction of property that was insured. It 

 was clear this was a state of things which ought not to exist in this country. 

 Some twelve or fifteen years ago he turned his attention to the subject of the ex- 

 tinction of fires. The old wooden plug was then generally in use, and it still con- 

 tinued in use in some parts of the country. Mr. Bateman described the construc- 

 tion of the fire-cock and stand-pipe, with which he had replaced the old plugs in 

 Manchester and other towns, and stated that, as a general rule, these fire-cocks had 

 been found sufficient without the use of fire-engines. He also explained the prin- 

 ciple upon which the water-pipes were laid down in Manchester ; so that within 

 reach of nearly every block of valuable buildings in Manchester and the neighbour- 

 hood, there were from two to three sources of water-supply from different water- 

 mains, and ten or twelve fire-cocks within a himdred yards. Then came the ques- 

 tion of pressure. About eighty or ninety feet was the gi-eatest height water could 

 be thrown by a fire-engine. The highest mills in Manchester were from forty feet 

 to sixty feet ; and experiments had been made which showed that water could be 

 thrown without the aid of fire-engines from thirty-three to ninety feet in height, 

 according to the pressure in the pipes, dm-ing the day, and when the service of the 

 town was fully going on. 



On the Applicatioiis of the Hydraulic Press. By Edavaeb T. Bellhouse. 



He traced its origin to Joseph Bramah, in 1785, and explained its present con- 

 struction by means of diagrams, and then adverted to the various piu-poses to which 

 it has been and is applied. These included the raising of the Britannia tubes, the 

 launching of the ' Great Eastern,' the raising of ships on slips, the packing into 

 bales of Manchester goods, cotton, wool, and hay, the extraction of oil from linseed, 

 rapeseed, and hempseed, the manufacture of lead pipes, the testing the strength of 

 materials, &c. The application of the steam-engine for working the pumps was 

 alluded to, as now becoming general. He more particularly dwelt upon the various 

 kinds of hydraulic presses used for packing cotton in India. He also described a 

 stop and let-off cock, worked by a hand lever, which was very convenient of appli- 

 cation. In the cotton-press, the pressure put upon the pumps was sometimes as 

 great as six tons per square inch. He hoped some lighter and stronger metal would 

 be found for the cylinders, rams, &c. than the cast iron at present used. 



On Artillery versus Armour. By Captain Biaeelt. 

 _ The author said it was now four years since he first laid before the British Asso- 

 ciation at Dublin his ideas with reference to the strength and extent of range which 

 might be obtained with cannon built up of concentric tubes of metal, so adjusted 

 that all should share in resisting the bursting eflbrt of the charge of gunpowder. 

 The size of cannon before the discovery of this method was limited by the certainty 



