May 25, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NE\VS. 



497 



of ^aper$, tlecture^, etc* 



THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 

 The Friday evening discourse, on the nth inst., was 

 given by Professor W. Chandler Roberts-Austen, on 

 " Some Curious Properties of Metals and Alloys." He 

 first alluded to the work of chemists, at the end of the last 

 century and the beginning of this, in observing changes 

 in the behaviour of metals when two or three were che- 

 mically combined. Berthollet's great paper of 1803 was 

 especially referred to as a starting point for future work. 

 Hatchett, also, was not forgotten in the historic retro- 

 spect. It gradually came to be seen that a body, whether 

 called simple or compound, might have the same che- 

 mical composition, and yet might have very different 

 physical properties. We have learnt that in organic 

 compounds this is notably the case. Chemists have 

 adopted the word " isomerism," or the phrase " allo- 

 tropic condition " for the recognition of this fact, a fact 

 that as yet is without explanation. The idea is that it is 

 the molecular grouping of the chemical atoms that is 

 different. As an illustration mention was made of nicotine 

 and piperine, both chemically alike, yet one has the physio- 

 logical effect of lulling into sleep and the other of arous- 

 ing from sleep. At present, different grouping is the only 

 hypothetical explanation. In metals combined together 

 there appears to be what under old views would be 

 called unexplained anomalies. A mixture of tin and 

 arsenic cannot be distinguished from ordinary zinc. The 

 studjr is not one solely of theoretic interest, it has its 

 practical aspects. A very slight change in a metal makes 

 all the difference between its being useful or not, or 

 even injurious. Chemists have too much neglected 

 " isomerism," or, if the word be preferred, " allo- 

 tropism." From 1849 to the work of Schutzen- 

 berger, in 1878, but little was done. Tin as manu- 

 factured will behave very differently at different 

 temperatures. Some military buttons sent to St. Peters- 

 burg crumbled to dust in the cold there. Some interest- 

 ing experiments with globules of gold were shown in 

 illustration of the effect of temperature. Joule had shown 

 that iron liberated from an alloy was very different from 

 ordinary iron. Aluminium, again, does not much suffer 

 from oxidation, nor does mercury, yet an alloy of the two 

 does, a fact illustrated by experiment. Bismuth, tin, and 

 lead may be mixed, as was shown, without much change 

 of temperature. The addition of mercury brought the 

 mixture to freezing point. Alluding to the practical use of 

 such studies, the lecturer mentioned that copper used for 

 telegraphy was now manufactured in a different way from 

 what it used to be. The result was that electricity could 

 be passed at twice the rate that it could with the old 

 impure copper, which practically meant that double the 

 number of messages could be sent in an hour. The 

 presence of" impurities " — i.e., foreign bodies in metals — 

 also affected their tenacity. This was illustrated by bars 

 of pure gold, and bars with 2-10 per cent, of lead. The 

 pure gold stood from 16 to 17 tons per square inch, 

 while the alloy gave way at an almost nominal pressure. 

 The mixture of chromium and iron was mentioned as a 

 most important consideration in connection with our 

 national defences. Many experiments in gunnery were 

 alluded to, in which the mixture of different small quan- 

 tities of chromium with lead had been tested. 



IRON AND STEEL INSTITUTE. 

 The annual meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute took 

 place on May 9th and loth, the President, Mr. Daniel 

 Adamson, in the chair. 



Mr. J. S. Jeans, the Secretary of the Institute, sub- 

 mitted the annual report. The number of members at 

 present was 1,313, and 72 candidates were awaiting 

 election. Among the 27 members who had died during 

 the past year was Sir Joseph Whitworth. The Council 

 had determined to accept the invitation which had been 

 received to visit the United States in the autumn of next 

 year. The next autumnal meeting would be held at 

 Edinburgh. The Prince of Wales had consented to 

 become an honorary member of the Institute. 



The Council having unanimously resolved to present 

 the Bessemer gold medal for the present year to Mr. 

 Daniel Adamson, the President of the Institute, as an 

 acknowledgment of his valuable services in the early 

 application of Bessemer steel to engineering purposes, 

 and of his no less valuable researches into the physical 

 and mechanical properties of metals, the presentation 

 was made by the donor, Sir Henry Bessemer. 



The President, in acknowledging the honour done 

 him, gave some interesting personal particulars of his 

 connection with the application of Bessemer metal, and 

 stated that at his own works at Manchester nothing else 

 was used. The production of pig-iron in the United 

 Kingdom, in the United States of America, in Germany, 

 and the leading States of Europe, which may be con- 

 sidered the world's output, amounted in 1887 to 

 21,832,663 tons as compared with 19,818,100 tons in the 

 previous year. The total production of manufactured 

 iron in the United Kingdom was 2,237,535 tons in 1884, 

 while in 1887 it was only 1,701,312 tons. The produc- 

 tion of Bessemer steel ingots in 1884 was 1,229,000 tons, 

 while in 1887 it had risen to 2,064,000 tons. The pro- 

 duction of Bessemer steel in the eight chief iron and 

 steel producing countries of the world amounted last 

 year to 7,269,767 tons as compared with 6,034,115 tons 

 in 1886. The general public was much interested. in the 

 application of Bessemer steel as a means of security in 

 railway travelling, for it was reported on good authority 

 that a locomotive engine designed and constructed by 

 Mr. Stirling for the Great Northern Railway had accom- 

 plished, with a moderate train-load of passenger coaches, 

 a mile in 50 seconds, or at the rate of 72 miles an hour, 

 and made a continuous run at a speed of one mile a 

 minute. The most important use of steel outside of 

 railway bars and tires was its application to steamships 

 of the mercantile marine. In 1878 there was 90 times 

 as much iron as steel used in steamers, but in 1887 

 there was a httle more than eight times the quantity 

 of steel used as compared with iron. The next largest 

 example of the growing use of steel was that of the con- 

 struction of bridges. Steel had not yet met all the re- 

 quirements of manufacturing engineers, and probably 

 it would require a steel with a much larger proportion 

 of silicon than it was the present habit to use for such 

 purposes. He drew attention to some singular pro- 

 perties of manganiferous steel as discovered by Mr. 

 R. A. Hatfield, of Sheffield, in the direction of strength 

 and ductility. In conclusion, the President urged the 

 importance of increasing our knowledge of alloys and 

 their application for practical purposes — a subject which 

 could not be overvalued when the large production of 

 pig iron in this country and its many and various appli- 

 cations were considered. 



