TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 2038 
and tedious process, and we may reasonably look forward to the introduction of an 
entirely new article of manufacture of greatly increased powers of resistance to strain. 
Although hitherto Mr. Bessemer has not succeeded in producing malleable iron by his 
new process, he has made excellent refined iron, and has stimulated others to attempts 
at improvement in the same direction. His discoveries, first given to the world through 
this Section, have already proved of great value to the community, and we look for- 
ward with confidence to the introduction of still greater improvements—improve- 
ments by which steel plates and bars will be produced at almost the same price as 
that for which we can now obtain the best manufactured iron. 
The Machinery of Agriculture.—This is a branch of mechanical art which requires 
the careful consideration of the mechanician and the engineer. ‘The time appears to 
have arrived when the introduction of machinery, combined with the wide diffusion 
of education, is absolutely required amongst our agricultural population; andin my 
opinion, increased intelligence, together with new machinery, will double the produc- 
tion of the soil and improve the climate in which we live. Much has already been done, 
yet very much is yet to be accomplished. We must persevere in the new process of 
deep draining and subsoil ploughing, and in the substitution of steam power in 
place of horse and manual labour, before we can realize such large and important 
advantages as are now before us. Great changes and improvements have been 
effected in my own time by the introduction of new implements to relieve the labours 
of the farm. Everything, cannot, however be done by the mechanician and engineer ; 
much has yet to be accomplished by the farmer in the preparation of the land to ren- 
. der it suitable for machine culture, and a willing heart as well as a steady hand is 
required of the agriculturist before he can work for the public good in concert with 
the engineer, ‘The reaping machine has now attained such a degree of perfection as 
to bring it into general use on lands prepared for its reception; and the steam plough 
is making rapid strides towards perfection, and is likely to take the place of horses, 
and effect a change as beneficial to the farmer as it will be advantageous to the publie 
at large. 
Electric Telegraphs.—The consummation of telegraphic communication between 
the old and new world is thecrowning triumph of the age, and I hail in common with 
every lover of science the immense benefits which the successful laying of the Atlantic 
Cable is calculated to secure for mankind; it is another step forwards in the great 
march of civilization, and the time is not far distant when we shall see individuals as 
well as nations united in social intercourse through the medium of the slender wire 
and the electric current. These are blessings which the most sanguine philosophers 
of the past never dreamed of ; they are the realizations of the age in which we live ; and 
I have to congratulate the Section on what has already been done in the wide, and 
to some extent unexplored field of this wonderful discovery. 
On a new Method of constructing the Permanent Way and Wheels of 
Railways. By W. Brivces ADAMS. 
The object of the improvement about to be described is to obtain all the advantages 
of both the bridge-rail and the double T-rail, while avoiding their disadvantages ; 
that is, the horizontal stiffness of the bridge-rail with more than the vertical stiffness 
of the double T-rail, with a lowered elevation, without any chairs or loose contact of 
iron with iron, and with the firmest joint yet produced, making the line of rails a 
continuous yet expansive and contractile bar, on a continuous bearing, 
In this new construction the ordinary double-headed rail is not placed in chairs 
on cross sleepers, but is bolted be¢ween longitudinal sleepers of small scantling, which 
supply the place of cast chairs, by continuous wooden supports. The bolts are either 
ordinary screw-bolts or pieces of flat bar, with keys and washers passing through both 
rails and timbers at 3-{eet spaces. The rail is thus supported by the upper table 
without resting on the lower, and the bearing surface on the timber is in a yard length 
equal to 54 inches, the chair in the same length being only equal to 48 inches; the 
former being continuous, the latter discontinuous. The bearing surface on the bal- 
last is equal to that of the cross-sleeper rail with the sleepers 3 feet apart, The 
height of the rail above the ballast is only 5 inches, while that of the ordinary cross- 
sleeper way is 12 inches, There is, therefore, a saving of half the ballast. The rail 
