TRANSACTION'S OF THE SECTIONS. 219 



proper with its atteudaiit economizer; compound the steam-engine by its high 

 pressure and coudensing-cylinders ; compound the motion, and thus render it 

 more equable, by having a pair of engines ; and compound the condenser in order 

 to recover <ind utilize the waste heat from the steam and return it to the boiler in 

 the feed-water additionally heated. These plans and combinations have success- 

 fully stood the test of a lengthened experience, and they are hereby recommended 

 for public use. 



On the Centre-rail Baihuay. By W. Cave Thomas. 



This diflers from other projects bearing a similar title, in which carriages ana 

 engines are swung, pannierwise, on either side of a raised rail, beam, or wire. 

 Mr. Thomas has utilized the scientific principles which maintain the bicycle 

 and its rider balanced when in motion. In Mr. Thomas's central-rail railway the 

 engine and carriages are on a level with, or above, the central rail, and run upon 

 double-flanged wheels ranged in one line down the longitudinal centre of the train. 

 Balance-wheels, which may be applied in several different ways, are only used to 

 prevent undue swaying when the train is in motion, or to preserve its balance 

 when starting or stopping. 



The central rail in combiiiation with two lines of wooden sleepers, parallel with 

 and slightly lower in their level than the central rail, to receive the touch of side 

 balance-wheels, is the form recommended for the colonies. In this case three lines 

 of metals, of the same level, are laid for some little distance in and out of stations. 



On the Prevention of Incrustation in Steam-Boilers. By John Waugh. 



On the Advancement of Science by Industrial Invention. 

 By Thomas Webstee, Q.C, F.S.S. 



On tlie Assimilation of the Patent Systems of Great Britain and of the 

 United States. By Thomas Webster, Q.C, F.B.S. 



On a Form of Channel Steamer. By John AVhite. 



On the History, Progress, and Description of the Bowling IronworJcs* . 

 By Joseph Willcock, Chief Engineer. 



There are several indications in the Bradford district that iron was manufactured 

 here at a remote period of antiquity. It is believed that the liomans both got and 

 worked ironstone in the neighbourhood. Dr. Richardson, the eminent botanist, 

 writing to Hearne nearly 200 years ago, stated that iron was made in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Bierley, two or three miles from Bradford, in the time of the Romans, 

 as upon a heap of cinders being removed to repair the highway there, he had dis- 

 covered a quantity of copper Roman coins. The ironstone cropped out in several 

 places, and in many others it lay very near the surface, so that with making " bell 

 pits " there would be no ditficulty in getting the ironstone. Within a few miles of 

 Bradford there are at work the old established and still flourishing works of 

 Kirkstall Forge, which claim to have been the first establishment to use rolls 

 for slitting iron into nail-rods, this process having been carried on there so far 

 back as the year 1594. Thus Bradford and the district may claim to have made 

 Roman implements of warfare, and most probably Saxon, Norman, and old English 

 'ones likewise. In fact this department was carried on up to a very recent period, 

 when the Bowling and Low-Moor Works manufactured cast-iron guns and mortars. 



* The paper will be published in e.riemo bv the Bowling Ironworks Corapanv. 



15* 



