188 
PROCEEDINGS 1841 — 1848. 
that they were of trifling importance. The experiments recording 
the investigation of the (^nalities of iron and steel by magnetism 
which he had laid before the Society some months since had been 
continued, and the course of experiments was now completed. The 
expectation which he had formed of the utility of this test had been 
fully realised. In wronght-iron he was able to discriminate the 
quality very accurately, and he had been equally successful with 
steel, but a greater difficulty attended his observations on cast-iron, 
though a considerable degree of accuracy had been attained. A 
manufacturer of tools at Sheffield had had a quantity of foreign iron 
put into his hands which appeared to him well fitted for steel, though 
much lower in price than that which he habitually used. He converted 
it and manufactured the steel into tools, which were apparently of 
the best quality, but he was fearful of injuring the character of his 
articles, and being still doubtful whether it was safe to send them 
out to his customers, he requested him (Dr. Scoresby), to examine 
them, and on submitting them to the test, he found that although 
the steel of which they were made was lower by £10 per ton than 
what the manufacturer had usually given it was in every respect of 
equal quality. 
In July, 1842, Mr. Richard Solly, of Sheffield, read a short paper 
on, and exhibited specimens of iron pins, which, originally fibrous, 
had become granular and brittle by being subjected to great vibration 
at a temperature of about 100^ Fahrenheit. The pins had been used 
to hold down the brasses over the neck at the end of a shaft turning 
a mule, and revolving nearly 300 times per minute. The vibration 
was very great and continuous, and after two months it was found 
that the pins had lost their fibrous texture and become brittle and 
granular, with the result that they broke. Mr. Solly stated that this 
was a not infrequent occurrence in the axle-trees of railway carriages, 
and he had examined broken axle-trees at Derby, all of which pre- 
sented a similar crystalline appearance. He had been told by Mr. 
Newlay, a wire-rope manufacturer, tliat granular iron, by being 
constantly bent backwards and forwards, became fibrous. The 
question had attracted some attention, and he thought was a subject 
peculiarly fitted to a Polytechnic Society, and he hoped the Society 
would give it attention. 
