536 CJironicles of Science. [Oct., 



Meetings of Societies. 



Institution of Mechanical Engineers. — The meeting of this 

 Society was held at Nottingham on the 3rd August last. Amongst 

 the papers read were the following : — " On Self-acting Machinery 

 for Knitting Hosiery by Power," by Mr. Arthur Paget, of Long- 

 borough ; " On the mode of working Coal in the Midland Counties," 

 by Mr. George Fowler, Manager of the Hucknall Colliery ; " Con- 

 clusions derived from the Experience of Eecent Boiler Explosions," 

 by Mr. E. B. Marten, Chief Engineer of the Midland Boiler Assu- 

 rance Company; and "On a Self-acting Safety and Fire-extin- 

 guishing Valve for Steam-Boilers," by Mr. Gr. D. Hughes. Space 

 will not admit of our giving a reasonable abstract of all the above 

 papers ; we shall therefore confine ourselves to a few remarks on 

 the first and last two mentioned subjects. Mr. Fowler's lectures 

 are reviewed elsewhere. 



Self-acting Machinery for Knitting Hosiery by Power. — The 

 date at which appliances for knitting have been brought within the 

 limits of machinery is very recent. It is one of the greatest pecu- 

 liarities of the hosiery manufacture that it shapes wearing apparel 

 without the intervention of the tailor or of the milliner ; thus there 

 exists a necessity that the machines employed should be easily 

 adapted to make articles of very great variety of shape, thickness, 

 and degrees of elasticity. Mr. Paget gave a description of a self- 

 acting power-frame of his own invention, which, on account of its 

 necessarily great complication of parts, it would be impossible to 

 describe without illustrations. A skilful framework knitter with 

 his hand-frame would, it was stated, knit about 5400 stitches per 

 minute ; whereas a girl could, on the same work, attend to three of 

 Mr. Paget's self-acting machines, making in the aggregate 40,500 

 stitches per minute. 



Boiler Explosions. — Mr. Marten remarked that from the result 

 of the experience of the last four years, he was enabled to confirm 

 the opinion he previously held, that all boilers, however good in 

 original construction, are liable, in the course of time, to get into 

 bad order and explode. The causes of explosions appear to be 

 three, viz. — 1. Faults in construction or repair ; 2. Faults in work- 

 ing, which creep on insidiously and unnoticed; and 3. Faults which 

 might be seen and guarded against by careful attendants. Nearly 

 all the faults would be detected by periodical examination, which is 

 indeed the only true safeguard against explosions. Each cubic foot 

 of water has the explosive effect of one pound of gunpowder, and 

 the explosion of a boiler assimilates more nearly to that of gun- 

 powder than of any other explosive agent. Mr. Marten enters into 

 some detail regarding the various explosions that have come under 



