Annual Report of the Council. 301 



These three improvements which Daniel Adamson has 

 been prominent in bringing forward are the characteristics 

 of the modern stationary type of boiler in this country, which 

 is constructed for working pressures up to 20olbs. per square 

 inch, and it would appear that Mr. Adamson has scarcely 

 received a proportionate amount of credit for these impor- 

 tant achievements. Moreover when Adamson commenced 

 boiler-making the manufacture of stationary boilers was 

 carried on upon the rudest rule-of-thumb methods, and 

 Adamson was the first to bring system into the con- 

 struction and manufacture of these boilers by propor- 

 tioning all parts with a careful regard to the forces 

 to be met. In this way he not only greatly reduced 

 the weight of boilers in proportion to their strength, 

 but having recognised the economic advantages of using 

 steam at a high pressure, he set about to construct boilers for 

 pressures greatly in excess of those then in vogue, and, as 

 early as 1855, he had made a boiler and engine which 

 worked successfully with a steam pressure of 150IDS. Ever 

 since the theory of multiple expansion was propounded, he 

 was a firm believer in this principle, and in i86i,he had 

 actually built a triple expansion engine, whilst in 1873, ne 

 made the first quadruple expansion engine ever constructed. 



In the investigation of the metallurgy of iron and steel, 

 Adamson took a leading part, and few men could boast of a 

 more intimate acquaintance with the properties of these 

 metals, based upon long experience. Some idea of the 

 amount of labour Mr. Adamson bestowed upon the investiga- 

 tion of the mechanical properties of iron and steel, may be 

 formed from his own remark that up to 1879 he had tested 

 from 30,000 to 40,000 specimens of steel suitable for boiler 

 plates. Not only were his tests more thorough and complete 

 than any which had preceded them, but he also made a 

 chemical analysis of all samples tested, and was amongst 

 the first to make practical use of chemical analysis for 



