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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
Aluminium Bronze is a beautiful alloy of copper and aluminium. 
Various articles made of it were shown in the International Exhibition ; 
they attracted much attention, especially some watch-cases made by 
Messrs. Reid, of Newcastle, which so closely resembled gold as not to be 
distinguished from it by experienced persons. Aluminium bronze is made 
of three qualities — the first containing 10, the second ?•§, and the third 
5 per cent, of aluminium, the rest being copper. These varieties are 
scarcely to be distinguished from gold, except by their specific gravity, 
which is scarcely half that of the precious metal. They tarnish much less 
readily than any metal usually employed for astronomical instruments, 
viz., gun-metal, brass, silver, cast-iron, or steel. In making the alloy, 
extremely pure copper must be used. The best is that deposited by 
electricity, but that kind is very expensive ; the next best is native copper 
from Lake Superior. 
Fusion of Steel in large Masses. — M. Sudre has succeded in melting large 
quantities of steel in a reverberatory furnace, the steel being preserved 
from oxidation and from change of properties by a covering of slag, 
such as may be obtained from charcoal melting furnaces, or common 
bottle-glass. 
The Spectroscope in Steel-Casting. — It is said that a practical application 
is likely to be made of spectrum analysis in the fusion of steel, by the 
examination of the gases evolved from the melted metal, which will enable 
the workmen to detect the point at which the required effect is produced, 
and so to arrest the operation at the right moment. 
Properties of Steel. — Mr. David Kirkaldy has found that the same piece 
of wrought iron or steel, on being broken, may present a fibrous or a 
crystalline fracture according to the rapidity with which the fracture 
takes place ; and hence there is no such change as is commonly supposed 
to take place in the metal, from a fibrous to a crystalline condition when 
subjected to vibration. He also found that steel is reduced in strength by 
being hardened in water, while the strength is vastly increased by being 
hardened in oil. 
Mr. Charles Bathoe, states that in India glaziers never use a diamond 
to cut glass, but they do all their work with a hardened steel point. He 
has himself hardened steel so that it was as brittle as glass, by plunging 
it at nearly a white heat into iced water. 
Captain Caron, Director of the French Imperial Laboratory, has experi- 
mented upon the formation of steel and the result of tempering. He 
regards the latter as in effect analogous to the blow of a hammer, but 
more potent, because acting in every direction at once. It causes a more 
intimate union between the carbon and the iron. The more suddenly the 
cooling takes place in the process of tempering, the stronger is the effect 
produced. 
Applications of Steel. — At a late meeting of the South Wales Institute 
of Civil Engineers, Mr. Parry, of Ebbw Vale, stated that steel' rails laid 
down on the Midland Railway nearly six years ago, over which trains 
have since passed 700 times daily, are to this hour uninjured. They were 
made by Mr. Musliet’s process. 
Steel-wire ropes are now extensively used in winding minerals from 
