262 REPORT—1890. 
Fourth Report of the Committee, consisting of Professor W. A. 
TILDEN (Chairman), Professor RoBERTS-AUSTEN, and Mr. Tuomas 
TuRNER (Secretary), appointed to consider the Influence of 
Silicon on the Properties of Iron and Steel. (Drawn wp by 
the Secretary.) 
At the last meeting of the Association, held at Newcastle-on-Tyne, this 
Committee presented a report drawn up by Mr. R. A. Hadfield, who, at 
the invitation of the Committee, was kind enough to make a series of 
tests with steel melted in crucibles to which definite amounts of silicon 
were added. The report, though somewhat lengthy, and containing 
much valuable information, was in reality only a tolerably complete 
abstract of Mr. Hadfield’s work, which has since been published in full 
in the ‘Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute,’ 1889, Part II. The 
results have been discussed by a number of gentlemen who have had 
special experience in the manufacture of iron and steel, and Mr. Hadfield’s 
statements have met with general acceptance.! 
The three reports presented by the Committee have therefore included 
the influence of silicon on ingot iron produced in the Bessemer converter 
both with and without the presence of manganese, and also the effect 
produced by silicon in crucible steel. Though there are naturally a 
number of closely allied subjects which invite investigation, the Com- 
mittee has now accomplished the chief objects it had in view when it 
was appointed, and therefore does not ask for reappointment. 
Second Report of the Committee, consisting of Professor ROBERTS- 
AusTEN (Chairman), Sir F. ABet, Messrs. E. RiteEy and J. 
SPILLER, Professor LANGLEY, Mr. G. J. SNELUS, Professor TILDEN, 
and Mr. THomas Turner (Secretary), appointed to consider the 
best method of establishing an International Standard for 
the Analysis of Iron and Steel. (Drawn up by the Secretary.) 
In the first Report of the Committee, presented at Newcastle-on-Tyne, 
the objects of the Committee were defined, and the methods which it was 
proposed to adopt were indicated. It was arranged that five samples of 
steel, in the form of fine turnings or drillings, should be prepared under 
the superintendence of Professor Langley, and that these samples should 
contain as nearly as possible 1:3, 0°8, 0°4, 0°15, and 0°07 per cent. of 
carbon respectively. It was further arranged that the samples so pre- 
pared should be divided among the respective committees in the United 
Kingdom, America, France, Germany, and Sweden, and in each country 
analyses should be performed by not more than seven chemists of repute, 
and that from the results so obtained the actual composition of the 
samples should be ultimately deduced. 
When the last Report was presented four of these samples had been 
prepared, and had been despatched in air-tight leaden cases to the respec- 
tive committees in the five countries above mentioned ; but at the time 
the Report was presented the cases consigned to the British Association 
Committee had not arrived. These were very shortly afterwards received 
' See Jour. Iron and Steel Inst. 1889, II, 222-255 
