SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY, 
97 
by a small amount of cheap concrete placed exactly where it will be most 
effective in steadying the ship. 
TVr ought-iron and Steel Guns. — It is stated that in a recent competitive 
trial between an Armstrong wrought-iron and a Krupp steel gun, the latter 
has proved to have the greater endurance. After 121 rounds the Armstrong 
gun split, and was so severely damaged as to be unfit for further service. 
The steel gun remains in good condition after 210 rounds. 
Indian Railway Gauge. — A controversy is going on as to the gauge to 
be adopted for the extension of the Indian railway system. A joint report 
by Messrs. Strachev, Dickens, and Rendel, and a separate report by Mr. 
Fowler, have been presented to the Indian Government. In the former a 
gauge of 2 feet 9 inches is recommended, in the latter a gauge of 3 feet 
6 inches. 
Indian Civil Engineering College. — The difficulty which has attended the 
system of obtaining young civil engineers for service in the Public Works 
Department, by competitive examination, has led the Indian Government 
to establish a college at Cooper’s Hill, Surrey, for training its civil 
engineer officers. Candidates will be admitted to the college by examina- 
tion. The college course is to extend over three years, with the exception 
that candidates having more than usual proficiency may shorten the period. 
Two terms at least of the third year will be passed by the student under a 
civil or mechanical engineer. It is to be hoped that this attempt at a 
thorough and systematic system of technical education for engineers may 
prove a great success. The old apprenticeship system practised in this 
country, without the supplement of systematic theoretical instruction, does 
not correspond to the needs of the time. 
Technical Education on the Continent. — The Institute of Civil Engineers 
have published a remarkable pamphlet, containing the result of an inquiry 
into the condition of engineering education abroad. 
Arches of Timber and Iron. — A very interesting paper on this subject 
by a foreign engineer, M. Gaudard, has been read before the Institute of 
Civil Engineers. M. Gaudard explains, amongst others, M. Bresse’s method 
of estimating the stress in iron arches, and a method of M. Durand Claye of 
comparing the boldness of different arches, which will be new to most 
English readers. 
Metaline Bearings. — Some new materials for forming the bearings of 
machinery have been introduced by Dr. Gwynn of New York under this 
name, the idea being to obtain sufficient solidity in the material for the 
bearing to retain its form, and sufficient plasticity to reduce the friction. 
For example, very fine powder of iron and of tin are intimately mingled by 
grinding, and then compressed by hydraulic pressure ; or solder is reduced 
to a semi-fluid condition by heat and jmixed with powdered graphite, and 
then consolidated by pressure. 
Wrought- Iron Bridges. — We may direct attention to a remarkably in- 
teresting appendix to the last volume of the Transactions of the Institute 
of Civil Engineers, consisting of a paper by Mr. Calcott Reilly on wrought- 
iron bridges. Mr. Reilly gives in detail all the calculations made during 
the actual process of designing two well-considered iron bridges. It is 
not often that the actual process of designing is so fully laid bare by a very 
YOL. X, — NO. XXXYIII. H 
