16 KEPORT 1888, 



nitude. At the beginning of this centary, stone, brick, and timber were 

 practically the only materials employed for that which I may call stand- 

 ing engineerin-g work — i.e., buildings, bridges, aqueducts, and so on — 

 while timber, cast iron, and wrought iron were for many years the only 

 available materials for the framing and principal parts of moving machines 

 and engines, with the occasional use of lead for the pipes and of copper 

 for pipes and for boilers. 



As regards the cast iron, little was known of the science involved (or 

 that ought to be involved) in its manufacture. It was judged of by 

 results. It was judged of largely by the eye. It was ' white,' it was 

 ' mottled,' it was ' grey.' It was known to be ' fit for refining,' fit for 

 'strong castings,' or fit for castings in which great fluidity in the 

 molten metal was judged to be of more importance than strength in the 

 finished casting. With respect to wrought iron, it was judged of by its 

 results also. It was judged of by the place of its manufacture — but 

 when the works of the district were unknown, the iron, on being tested, 

 was classed as ' good fibrous,' although some of the very best was ' steel- 

 like,' or ' bad,' ' hot -short,' or ' cold-short.' A particular district would 

 produce one kind of iron, another district another kind of iron. The ore, 

 the flux, and the fuel were all known to have influence, but to what extent 

 was but little realised ; and if there came in a new ore, or a new flux, 

 it misrht well be that for months the turn-out of the works into which 

 these novelties had been introduced would be prejudiced. Steel again — 

 that luxury of the days of my youth — was judged by the eye. The 

 wrought bars, made into 'blister' steel by 'cementation,' were broken, 

 examined, and grouped accordingly. Steel was known, no doubt, to be a 

 compound of iron and carbon, but the importance of exactness in the per- 

 centage was but little understood, nor was it at all understood how the 

 presence of comparatively small quantities of foreign matter might necessi- 

 tate the variation of the proportions of carbon. The consequence was that 

 anomalous results every now and then arose to confound the person who had 

 used the steel, and falsifying the proverb ' true as steel,' steel became an 

 object of distrust. Is it too much to say that Bessemer's great invention 

 of steel made by the ' converter,' and that Siemens's invention of the 

 open-hearth process, reacted on pure science, and set scientific men to in- 

 vestigate the laws which regulate the union of metals and of metalloids ? 

 — and that the labours of these scientific men have improved the manufac- 

 ture, so that steel is now thoroughly and entirely trusted ? By its aid 

 engineering works are accomplished which, without that aid, would have 

 been simply impossible. The Forth Bridge, the big gun, the compound 

 armour of the ironclad with its steel face, the projectile to pierce that 

 steel face- -all equally depend upon the ' truth ' of steel as much as does 

 the barely visible hair spring of the chronometer, which enables the 

 longitude of the ship in which it is carried to be ascertained. Now, 

 what makes the difference between trustworthy and untrustworthy steel 



