MEMOIR OF THE LATE PROF. E. HODGKINSON, F.R.S. 171 



The Rev. Canon Moseley farther observes on this pointy 

 '^ It is only in cast-iron beams that it is customary to seek 

 an economy of the material in the strength of the section 

 of the beam ; the same principle of economy is surely, 

 however, applicable to beams of wood.^' 



This victory over the material foe is entirely Mr. Hodg- 

 kinson's own ; and, using the language of the President 

 of the British Association at Manchester, 1861, there is 

 no one to divide the honour of this useful achievement 

 with him. The Hodgkinson beam is really what its name 

 would imply, as he originated the conception and pursued 

 it with judgment and industry until the best form of beam 

 was fully determined. This beam has been the pole-star 

 for engineers and builders during the last twenty years — 

 a period in which construction of all kinds has been in 

 great demand, and in which the ingenuity and skill of the 

 constructor has been confronted with many and formidable 

 difficulties. Railways, ship-building, and public works of 

 various kinds have opened out new channels for the ap- 

 plication of cast and wrought iron ; and when this material 

 is placed in new and untried positions, it is no little point 

 which is gained when its tensile and crushing strength is 

 determined, and the best form investigated by which the 

 safety of large structures is secured. This was the life- 

 work of Prof. Hodgkinson. 



It is a great thing, which no man of science lightly ap- 

 preciates in these days of mental activity, for a man to point 

 to a useful discovery and claim it as his own without a rival, 

 — ^to say to himself (his own precious reward), "I drew it 

 forth, from the dark chaos in which it had been entombed 

 for ages, to the light of day, and now I leave it as a legacy 

 to my countrymen, trusting that the chance of calamities 

 such as that which happened at Hartley Colliery, where 

 200 men lost their lives by the breaking of a cast-iron 

 beam, may be diminished, if not entirely obviated." In 



