332 
Notes . 
Chem. de Paris), M. J. Deshayes says that carbon renders steels 
rigid and elastic, increasing their elastic tension, but their resist- 
ance to rupture diminishes if 0*500 is exceeded. Manganese 
renders steels rigid and elastic, and increases their elastic tension, 
but the elongation and contraction remain considerable, which 
gives a good resistance to a shock. Silicon plays the same part 
as carbon, rendering steels hard, and slightly diminishing elonga- 
tion. Sulphur decreases the breaking strain and the resistance 
to a shock. Phosphorus renders steels deficient in body, and, if 
its proportion exceeds 0*250 per cent, fragile on receiving a shock. 
Chrome adls like manganese, but more energetically. 
According to the “ Revue Industrielle ” a metal has been ex- 
tensively produced in France which is a combination of iron and 
steel. The two metals are run separately into a mould divided 
into two parts by a thin plate of sheet iron, when the whole 
becomes welded together. The new metal is particularly adapted 
for armour-plating, anchors, and safes. 
Physics. 
The Committee appointed to receive subscriptions to present a 
bust of Mr. William Spottiswoode, Pres. R.S., to the Royal 
Institution as a testimonial of his valuable services as its 
Treasurer and Secretary successively, have engaged Mr. Richard 
Belt as the sculptor. 
On behalf of the Committee of Economical Arts, M. le Compte 
du Moncel has presented to the Societe d’Encouragement pour 
l’lndustrie Nationale a report on M. E. Regnier’s eledlric light 
regulator. The Committee decide that M. Regnier has solved 
the problem in question. His arrangement has been successfully 
tried at the station of the Northern Railway, and in M. Breguet’s 
workshop, where it has adted for some hours with regularity 
under the influence of the current of a small Gramme machine. 
A remarkable case of cohesion, or the welding of two metals 
at a temperature far below the melting-point of either of them, 
has lately been noticed by Mr. Charles A. Fawsett, of Glasgow, 
and by him reported to Sir William Thomson. If a piece of 
silver, 1 centimetre square, is heated on the inverted lid of a por- 
celain crucible, to about the temperature of 500° C. (932 0 F.), and 
the end of a thin platinum wire is brought into contadl with it, 
the two metals will be found to have welded to that extent that 
the silver may be raised from the lid, and will remain attached to 
the platinum wire when cooled off, Mr. Fawsett reports that 
other metals — copper and aluminium, for example — will likewise 
adhere to silver, though the experiment is less striking than in 
the case of platinum. 
