29 
Ordinary Meeting, November loth, 1870. 
E. W. Binney, F.R.S., F.G.S., President, in the Chair. 
John Durham Bird, M.D. ; Mr. John A. Bennion; Henry 
Deacon, F.C.S.; Mr. Joseph Carter Bell, and Thomas Stead- 
man Aldis, M.A., were elected Ordinary Members of the 
Society. 
Mr. W. B. Johnson, C.E., brought before the notice of the 
meeting the extraordinary advance that had been made 
within the last 20 years in the capabilities of machines for 
cutting and paring heavy articles of machinery, and said 
this was particularly noticeable in the treatment of heavy 
forgings. At no very remote date it was the universal 
practice to pare down heavy forgings to something near the 
finished dimensions in the smithy by hand labour only; 
this mode of procedure was not only expensive, but rude 
and imperfect in its results. The introduction of tools to 
supersede the use of the hand chisel and file in the work- 
shop has been developed to a remarkable degree. Machines 
are now made of such enormous strength, and the cutting 
tools so carefully devised, that the old system of paring 
down in the smithy has been set aside; this competition 
between the tools of the workshop and the hand work of 
the smithy has resulted in establishing the system of tool 
paring in preference to smith-work to an almost universal 
extent. Twenty years ago there might be seen in engineer- 
ing establishments a large smiths’ fire, in which was placed 
a part of some heavy forging, and when the part under 
operation was heated to a blood-red heat the superfluous 
parts were cut off by means of a set, upon which the 
successive blows of four and sometimes six strikers were 
delivered with surprising precision and regularity, and by 
these repeated heatings and dressings the forging would be 
eventually brought down to its finished dimensions, except 
Peooeedings — Lit. & Phie. Soc. — Voe. X. — No. 4. — Session 1870-71. 
