TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 173 



than £6,240,000 per annum may be effected in Great Britain alone even in this 

 infant state of the Bessemer steel manufacture. 



WelcUess Tyres, Circular Boiling, and Railway Wheels. 

 By F. I. Brajiwell. 



The paper was not intended for engineers only, but was also addressed to those 

 who are not intimately acquainted with the details of the manufacture of tyres and 

 wheels as hitherto pursued. 



The paper gave an account of some of the principal modes employed in the 

 manufacture of tyre hoops prior to the use of weldless tyres, and pointed out the 

 defects of those modes, and alluded to plans that have been adopted to prevent 

 accidents arising from their use. 



The paper then gave a description of the means by which weldless tyre hoops 

 are now made by some manufacturers, referred to Bodmer's circular rolling, and 

 entered into the details pursued in working tyre-making machinery principally 

 designed by the writer. 



The paper then referred shortly to the manufacture of steel tyres by circular 

 rolling, and showed that that mode of rolling is applicable to the making of boilers 

 and other articles. 



The paper then considered the question of making straight or level or flat bars, 

 rails, or plates, by the use of circular rolling in the first instance to form a hoop, 

 which hoop is to be cut open and laid out flat to make the bar, rail, or plate. 



The paper then referred to the principal kinds of railway wheel-centres in use, 

 and stated the nature of Arbel's improvement in the maiiufacture of entire wrought 

 wheel-centres, and Lahousse's mode of making an economical wrought wheel-centre, 

 which is arrived at by dispensing with the necessity of requiring the spokes to be 

 got to a welding heat, and described how these modes of Arbel's and Lahousse's 

 are practically used. 



The paper was illustrated by several diagrams. 



On Railways in War. 

 By General Sir J. P. Btjegotoe, Bart, G.C.B., D.O.L., F.R.S. 



The paper opened by stating that railways would have an important effect on 

 war, and that it was a matter of interest to ascertain the means of obtaining the 

 greatest advantage from them, and what would be their precise capabilities. 

 A vague idea existed that armies could be transported from place to place and to a 

 seat of war with the same facility and speed as ordinary travellers, whereas there 

 were many circumstances connected with the conveyance of the former which 

 would show any such comparison to be quite fallacious. With regard to a small 

 body of infantry, there was no reason why this should not be the case ; but with 

 large forces, and with cavalry and artillery, and all the accessories of an army, its 

 baggage, camp equipage, spare ammunition, its waggons, &c, enormous means would 

 be required, and difficulties would arise which called for study and consideration to 

 reduce them to a minimum. How to adapt the ordinary railway passenger and 

 horse carriages and trucks in the best manner to the transport of troops of all kinds, 

 and how to get the troops most rapidly in and out of them, would be easily ascer- 

 tained, if it had not been so already ; the great desideratum was to define how 

 large forces could be moved in greatest strength, with the most rapidity, on single 

 railways or by a limited number of lines ; for it was on these calculations, having 

 under consideration the several lines which could be brought to bear on the opera- 

 tions, that the generals in command must arrange their plans. The basis for 

 consideration would be : What could be done by any one line of railway with its 

 ordinary means, or aided by additional means from other lines of the same gauge 

 with which it was connected, on the same level, and which might not have the 

 same pressure on them ? To afford an idea of what might be required, it might be 

 assumed that the officers and soldiers would occupy the space of ordinary travellers, 

 and consequently it would become a question how many passenger carriages, in how 

 many trains, each drawn by one locomotive, would be required to convey 1000 men, 



