.130 REPORT— 1000. 



State Monopolies in other Countries. — Interim Beport of the Committee, 

 consistimj of the late Professor Hejs'ry Sidgwick (Chairman), 

 Mr. H. HiGGS (Secretary), Mr. W. M. Ackworth, the Right Hon. 

 L. H. CouRTNf:Y, nvd Professor H. S. Foxwell. 



The Committee have collected the materials for a report the lines 

 of which were under discussion at the time of the Chairman's last illness. 

 It was hoped that he would be able to agree to a report by the end 

 of June ; but as he was unable to sign a draft, the Committee have 

 not proceeded further in the matter. They recommend that the Com- 

 mittee be reconstituted under a new Chaii-man for the purpose of 

 reporting at an early date, and be allowed to retain the unexpended 

 balance of the grant. 



Small Screw Gauge. — Report of tlte Committee, consisting of Sir 

 W. H. Preece (Chairman), Lord Kelvin, Sir F. J. Bramwell, 

 Sir H. Trueman Wood, Major-Gen. Webber, Col. Watkin, Messrs. 

 R. E. Crompton, a. Stroh, A. Le Neve Foster, C. J. 

 Hewitt, G. K. B. Elphinstone, E. Eigg, C. V. Boys, J. 

 Marshall Gorham, and W. A. 1'rice (Secretary), appointed 

 for the purpose of considering ivhether the British Association form 

 of Thread for Small Screivs should he modified, and, if so, in what 

 direction. (Drawn up by the Secretary.) 



Appendix. — Repno-t of E.tperiments on Screw Threads made ly J. JIaeshall 



Gorham and W. A. Price ^a 444 



This Committee was appointed at the Ipswich Meeting of the British 

 Association in 1895, to consider repeated complaints that screws of the 

 British Association thread, proposed by the Committee of 1882, obtained 

 commercially, were not satisfactorily interchangeable. It was evident 

 that the difficulty arose from the want of proper gauges, or other ready 

 means of testing screw threads, and the Committee at once took steps to 

 find out how these could be obtained. In a report presented at the Dover 

 Meeting of the Association last year (1899) were described the eflbrts we 

 had made to secure the production of these gauges, and to make them 

 generally available in a commercial way. We reported that a high degree 

 of accuracy in dimensions, though not in form, had been attained in a 

 small number of specimens submitted to us by the Pratt and Whitney 

 Company ; that these were the product of exceptional skill and care ; and 

 that they were only obtained after long delay. These gauges were suffi- 

 ciently good for all practical requirements, and had gauges of the same 

 character been generally available some years before, it is probable that 

 the complaints which led to the appointment of this Committee would 

 never have been made. Taking into consideration the difficulty that had 

 been met in obtaining these gauges ; the representations made by the 

 manufacturers of the difficulty in producing them, and of the comparative 

 ease with which a flat-topped thread can be accurately formed ; and the 

 fact that such screws are used in foreign countries for the best class of 

 engineering work, we reported that the form of the British Association 

 thread was unsatisfactory, and recommended that the Committee should 

 be reappointed to consider its modification. 



A proposal to alter the form of an established and generally satisfac- 



