x Proceedings. [March $th, 1918. 



not as a rule the result of practical work in the shop or laboratory. 

 It has been well said that " ideas come to a man, not when his 

 hands are full of things, but when his mind is full of thoughts," 

 and in the main we get our ideas from books. The suggestion 

 obtained in the library may be worked out in the shop or laboratory. 

 Manchester should lead in that provision of technical libraries 

 which must form a not inconsiderable part of our equipment for 

 shouldering our due share of the commerce of the world after the 

 war. 



Dr. F. E. Bradley, Dr. G. Hickling, Professor Hickson, Professor 

 W. W. Haldane Gee, and Mr. Thomson took part in the discussion 

 of this paper, and the following resolution was passed unanimously : — 



" That the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, 

 being a Society founded in 178 1 for the Advancement 

 of Science, appeals to the Manchester City Council to 

 establish a Technical Library for Manchester and District, 

 which should contain, for easy reference, all the Technical 

 Works and Periodicals published throughout the world. 



" An eminent member of this Society, the late Dr. Angus Smith, 

 said, in 188 1, ' Manchester is rich, but without Science it 

 will not remain so,' and an up-to-date Technical Library 

 in Manchester is urgently necessary for the full develop- 

 ment of Technical Science in this district." 



Ordinary Meeting, March 5th, 19 18. 



The President, Mr. William Thomson, F.R.S.E., F.C.S., F.I.C., 



in the Chair. 



A vote of thanks was accorded the donors of the books on the 

 table. 



Mr. E. L. Rhead, M.Sc.Tech., F.I.C., read a paper entitled : 

 " The Corrodibility of Cast Iron." 



The author pointed out that there was no intention to deal 

 with the electrical conditions, state of passivity, or the formation 

 of protective coatings of insoluble salts on the iron by the liquids 

 in contact with the metal. The paper dealt with the effects of the 

 impurities in producing during the solidification of the metal various 

 solutions in which the impurities were concentrated. This was 

 especially the case with the phosphide. The concentration depended 

 on the lower melting point of the solution thus formed. Attention 

 was also drawn to the production of graphite. 



These last portions of liquid to solidify lead, by contraction 

 and subsidence by gravity, to the formation of cavities, crevices, 

 and cracks of capillary size, which in many cases communicate 



