xcviii KEPOiix — 1875. 



tional part of the useful effects of fuel, it is cot that I expect we shall all at 

 once mend our ways in this respect. 



Many cases of waste arise from the existence of old and obsolete machines, 

 of had forms of furnaces, of wasteful grates, existing in most dwelling- 

 houses ; and these are not to be remedied at once; for not eveiy one can 

 afford, however desirable it might be, to cast away the old and adopt tho 



new. 



In looking uneasily to the future supply and cost of fuel, it is, however, 

 something to know what may be done even with the application of our 

 present knowledge ; and could we apply it universally to-day, all that is 

 necessary for trade and comfort could probably be as well provided for by 

 one half the present consumption of fuel ; and it behoves those who ary 

 beginning to build new mills, new furnaces, new steamboats, or new houses 

 to act as though the price of coal which obtained two years ago had beea 

 the normal and not the abnormal price. 



There was in early years a battle of the gauges, and there is now a contest 

 about guns ; but your time wUl not permit me to say much on their manu- 

 facture. 



Here, again, the progress made in a few years has been enormous ; and in 

 contributing to it, two men, Sir William Ai-mstrong and Sir Joseph Whit-, 

 •worth, both civil engineers, in this country at all events, deservedly stand 

 foremost, The iron coil construction of Sir William Annstrong has already 

 produced remarkable and satisfactory results ; in discussing further possible 

 improvements, the question is embarrassed by attempting to draw sharp lines 

 between what is called steel and iron. 



There is nothing that I can see to limit the size of guns, except the 

 tenacity and endurance of the metal, whatever we may choose to caU it, of 

 which they are to be made. 



Sir Joseph Whitworth, who has already done more than any other man in 

 his department to secure good workmanship, and whose ideal of perfection is 

 ever expanding, has long been seeking, and not without success, by enormous 

 compression, to increase those qualities in what ho calls homogeneous metal. 

 Make the metal good enough, and caU it iron if you wiU, and the size of a 

 gun may be any thing : the mere construction and handling of a gun of 100 

 tons, or of greater weight, with suitable mechanical appliances, presents no 

 difficulty. 



Relying on the qualities of his compressed metal. Sir Joseph is now 

 seeking by a singular experiment to limit the travel of the recoil, as far as 

 practicable, to the elasticity of the metal. By attaching the muzzle of the 

 gun to an outer casing, through which the force of the recoil is carried back 

 to the trunnions, he proposes to avail himself of this elasticity to the extent 

 of once and a half the length of the gun; whether its elasticity alone 

 in so short a space will suffice without other aid is, perhaps, doubtful ; but 



