THE CREATORS OF THE AGE OF STEEL. 257 



better than the Bessemer for generalship-building. In 1883 one-fourth of the 

 total tonnage of new ship-building was built of Siemens steel. 



Sir Wm. Siemens and his brother, Dr. Warren Siemens, of Berlin, have 

 been called the pioneers of modern electrical research. The dynamo-machine is 

 theirs, and much of the development of the electric light. Plenry Siemens has 

 put on record a series of experiments in electro-horticulture, which show 

 astonishing results. In the hostile EngHsh climate he has produced ripe peas by 

 the middle of February, raspberries on March ist, strawberries February 14th, 

 grapes March loth ; bananas and melons showed similar results. 



The German electric railway is one of the enterprises of the Siemens. They 

 are the builders — the creators — of the Indo-European telegraphs, reaching from 

 London to Teheran, in Persia. The history of this enterprise, with its dangers 

 braved and its difficulties overcome, is one of the most interesting of this inter- 

 esting book. 



The Siemens laid the first submarine cable in 1847 from Deutz to Cologne, 

 covering their wires with gutta percha. The services of Sir Wm. Siemens to 

 science as well as to the useful arts can not be too highly appreciated. Beside 

 his industrial triumphs he reconstructed our theory of heat. Wealth and honors 

 came to him, but in the midst of his career he was cut down. An accidental fall 

 on a London pavement, November 5, 1883, ruptured the nerves of his heart and 

 he died a fortnight later, his death being mourned as a national loss in England 

 and Germany. 



Sir Joseph Whitworth. — Joseph Whit worth's first industrial exploit was' 

 the production of true plane surfaces in metals automatically, an achievement 

 perfected in 1840. The old method was grinding with emery powder and water. 

 He planed the metals with a steel plane. "So exactly can surface plates be 

 made by his apparatus that if one of them be placed upon another, when clean 

 and dry, the upper will seem to float upon the under, without being actually in 

 contact with it, the weight oi the upper plates being insufficient to expel except 

 by slow degrees the thin film of air between their surfaces. But if the air be 

 expelled the plates will adhere together, so that by lifting the upper one the lower 

 will be lifted along with it, as if they formed one plate. " 



Whitworth was essentially a tool-maker. No sooner had he perfected the 

 plane with its immense effect upon English industry than he attacked the screw. 

 His system of screws is now adopted all over the civilized world. Following 

 up his improvements he recognized the necessity for a more exact measuring 

 machine than any then in existence, and supplying this want he devised a ma- 

 chine which would measure distinctly and practically to the 40,000th part of an 

 inch, and theoretically to the i, 000,000th. To show to what exactness this was 

 brought we quote his own words in an address at Manchester in 1857. " Here," 

 said he, "is an internal gauge having a cylindrical aperture .5770 inch diameter, 

 and here also are two solid cylinders, one .5769 inch and the other .5770 inch 

 diameter. The latter is .0001 of an inch larger than the former and fits tightly 



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