Vol. VIII. No. 94. 
IMPERIAL INSTITUTE JOURNAL. 
[October, 1902.] 269 
PROCEEDINGS OF INSTITUTIONS. 
THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 
At the last annual meeting of the Institution of Civil Engineers of Great Britain, 
Mr. Charles Ilawksley, the newly-elected President, delivered an interesting retrospect of 
the advance made during the Nineteenth Century in the more prominent branches of civil 
engineering. First dealing with the subject of waterworks he stated that, though water taken 
directly from rivers has of late years been regarded with suspicion, it was not improbable that 
rivers as a source of supply would again grow in favour, especially when the conditions of 
pollution and the safeguarding of the water by careful and efficient filtration came to be better 
understood and recognised. Many matters connected with water supply, which were unheard 
of at the commencement of the last century, are now of every-day occurrence, such as the 
treatment of certain waters with lime to prevent their action on lead communication pipes, 
the softening of hard waters, the construction of large depositing tanks to facilitate the 
deposit of matters in suspension, as well as to enable flood-waters to be passed by during the 
earlier stages of a flood, in cases where the water was taken directly from a river, service 
reservoirs (in many cases covered to protect the water from the action of light and heat, a 
precaution more especially needed with certain waters derived from wells or taken directly 
from rivers), and lastly, but not least, efficient filtration through sand filters, a mode of treat- 
ment first introduced by the late Mr. James Simpson in the year 1S2S. As there still existed 
much misconception in regard to the quantity of water required for domestic purposes with a 
constant service, unrestricted use, except in respect to misuse and waste, Mr. Ilawksley stated 
that, having recently had occasion to collect statistics on the subject from sixteen of the 
principal towns in England, lie found that the quantity of water distributed for domestic and 
other non-metered purposes was, on the average of six towns supplied by companies, having 
a total of 1,185,000 persons, 19 gallons per head per diem, and in the case of ten towns 
supplied by public authorities, and having an aggregate population of 3,961,000 persons, 
1 8:j gallons per head per diem. The foregoing quantities provided a constant service for all 
domestic purposes, including unmetered trade supplies and such waste as cannot be prevented. 
Passing to gas works, the President remarked that some idea of the development which 
had taken place in the size of gasworks might be formed from the fact that, whereas in the 
year 1822 Sir William Congreve, the Government Inspector of Gasworks, reported that at 
one of the London gasworks several of tire gasholders were each “ of the enormous size of 
40,000 cubic feet,” the London gas companies now possessed gasholders having capacities 
of from S, 000, 000 cubic feet to 12,000,000 cubic feet each. Coal gas was now used not only 
as an illuminant, but also extensively for beating and motive power. Although for these 
latter purposes gas, as supplied to towns for illuminations, was mostly employed for the sake 
of convenience, there were many instances in which,' from considerations of economy, a 
specially made gas of low illuminating power was used. The employment of gas of that 
nature was likely to become largely increased by the facilities and greater economy which 
doubtless would, before long, be afforded by the distribution of Mond gas, the manufacture 
and distribution of which had, during tine present year, received the sanction of Parliament 
by the passing of the “South Staffordshire Mond Gas (Power and Heating) Company Act, 
1901,” having for its object the supply of gas (not to be used for illuminating purposes) in 
large quantities, at a price from 3d. to 4d. per i.oqo cubic feet. 
It was at first anticipated by many persons that the competition of electricity would 
greatly reduce the value of, even if it did not utterly ruin, the coal-gas industry, but such had 
not proved to be the case, the effect of the introduction of elecLricity having been to reduce 
the rate expansion of gas undertakings. The competition of electricity had, moreover, proved 
a stimulus to improvements in the mode of consuming gas, such as the incandescent burner, 
and had led to greater facilities beingioffered to the gas consumer, as, for instance, by the 
prepayment meter and the letting on hire of cooking stoves. 
With regard to electricity the utilization of electric energy had opened out an entirely 
new field for the employment of civil engineers, and had established a new branch of the 
profession which has to deal with a subject of so varied, novel, and interesting a character 
as to have led to the formation, in the year 1871, of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, 
which already numbered over 4,000 members of all grades, and which devoted its dis- 
cussions entirely to electrical matters. Tire great advantages conferred on mankind by the 
development of electricity were accompanied by certain drawbacks. In the first place there 
was the undoubted disfigurement of British towns by overhead wires, a disfigurement which 
it sought to justify on the score of economy, a plea which was not, in his opinion, a sufficient 
justification, and one which was not allowed to prevail in some other countries less wealthy 
than Great Britain. The placing of the wires underground would not only prevent that 
disfigurement, but also remove the danger — not perhaps a great one, having regard to the 
comparative fewness of the accidents that occur — attending the use of overhead wires. There 
is a great opening in connection with electric tramways for a good underground conduit 
system which could he readily applied in this country. Unfortunately the heavy initial 
capital expenditure required for the present conduit system, as compared with that required 
with the overhead system, had prevented its adoption in all but a few isolated cases, but he 
was hopeful that British electrical engineers would turn their attention to this matter and 
evolve a conduit system which would greatly reduce the difference now existing between the 
cost of the conduit system and that of the overhead trolley system. It might he of interest to 
state that, alLhough electricity was the youngest of the sciences, upwards of £130,000,000 
of capital had already been invested in Great Britain alone in electrical undertakings. 
Lastly, Mr. Ilawksley referred to the want among manufacturers of a system of 
standardization — a very important point. For some time past the Council of the Institution 
of Civil Engineers had realised the serious difficulties and disadvantages under which 
British manufacturers were placed by the lack in the country of some acknowledged standards. 
The Council of the Institution of Civil Engineers therefore approached the Institution of 
Mechanical Engineers, the Institution of Naval Architects, and the Iron and Steel Institute, 
with a view to taking up this subject, and a strong and influential committee, representing 
these four institutions, was formed. The evidence laid before the committee was interesting, 
as showing the various methods in which the different countries carried out their work. For 
instance, in the United States, where the American Society of Civil Engineers has issued 
standard sections for rails and standard specifications, the rolling mill makers would in most 
cases only roll to those sections. It transpired that from time to time various enquiries had 
been sent to America from Great Britain for tenders for large quantities of rails and of other 
materials that were needed by British companies, but in nearly every case the reply was 
that “ unless you take our standards we regret that we do not see our way to quote.” On the 
other hand, some instructive instances of the waste of time and money that occurs in Great 
Britain for the want of standard sections were laid before the committee. One case in point 
was a section incorporated in a bridge for one of the British colonies. The average cost of 
the material was £8. 8s. per ton, but one of the sections specified was of such an odd size and 
tire quantity of this size was so small that the section had to be made by a blacksmith at a 
cost of from £ 28 to £30 per ton. It was, therefore, with a view to lessen the cost of and to 
expedite the carrying out of the work designed by engineers, as well as to enable the British 
manufacturers to meet the keen competition which is now threatening even the home markets, 
I hat the Institution of Civil Engineers had taken in hand this important matter. 
THE IKON AND STEEL INSTITUTE. 
At the meeting of the Institute, held at Dusseldorf, a paper by Mr. A. Hannet of St. 
Etienne, on “ Tire Compression of Steel by Wire-drawing during Solidification in the Ingot 
Mould ” was read on the 4th ult. ; Mr. W. Whitwell, the president, occupied the chair. 
In this paper the object of the author was to point out a new method of compressing steel 
whilst still liquid in the mould in which the ingots are cast. When molten steel is poured 
into the ingot mould, which is of cast-iron, it may be changed in character, owing to various 
causes. During cooling the metal is subject to contraction, crystallization, and liquation, all 
of which may injuriously affect the character of the steel. When the metal begins to cool, it 
shrinks, so as to come away from the walls of the mould. There is a solid steel shell, which 
surrounds a mass of liquid metal. As the latter cools, it shrinks, and little by little during 
cooling the fluid steel becomes plastic and attaches itself progressively to the shell and leaving 
a hollow corresponding to the shrinkage. The still liquid metal flows down from the surface to 
fill these hollows, and, as the centre cools last, there is thus left a hollow space extending along 
the axis of the upper part of the ingot. The lower central part of the ingot also has 
porosities and tiny cracks, and fissures can be detected by the microscope permeating the 
whole mass. When the lower part of the ingot is solidified throughout its whole thickness, 
and as soon as the descent of the upper layers of liquid metal is interrupted, the shrinkage, 
proceeding as the cooling continues, sets up within the metal injurious stresses. Moreover 
the steel in solidifying forms into crystals which have little cohesion between themselves, and, 
when stresses due to contraction within the metal are set up, these meet with but low 
resistance, and cracking occurs easily. 
The metalloids which enter into the composition of the steel have a tendency to separate 
from the iron by liquation. The carbon, being the most mobile, is attracted towards the 
fluid parts, finally concentrating where solidification last takes place — that is, at the head of 
the ingot. The ingot as cast may therefore be useless, and recourse has to be had to 
mechanical treatment, by rolling or forging, to correct defects, the cracks and fissures rewelded, 
the stresses relieved, and the crystals reduced to a fine state. The upper end is cropped to 
waste. In order to overcome these defects in steel which may be, as it comes from the 
furnace, of good composition, the author effects compression on the steel whilst it is in the 
mould by wire-drawing. - 
It should be stated that the late Sir Joseph Whitworth introduced a system of putting 
steel under pressure whilst liquid in the mould, but in that case the pressure was exerted from 
the top. The author claims that his system possesses certain advantages over the older 
methods. He states that, in spite of the great force of the pressure applied, the effect only 
extends to the exterior of the ingot, which, on cooling, rapidly forms a crust with the rigidity 
of a column and thus arrests the force applied and protects the central part. The method 
may answer for hollow pieces, but is ineffective for solid bodies such as armour-plates. In 
the author’s system pressure is applied by means of an hydraulic press to the bottom of the 
ingot whilst it is liquid in the mould. It should be stated that the ordinary ingot mould is 
open at the top and the bottom, and that it tapers towards the top, so that the upper diameter 
is less than that of the lower part. By applying pressure from below, the ingot, which has 
shrunk on cooling, is thrust upwards into the smaller part of the conical mould. The cooled 
shell thus presses on the central part, and the hollows due to shrinkage are not free to form. 
By hastening the solidification in this way the tendency to coarse crystallization is counter- 
acted, and the tendency of the carbon to accumulate is lessened. The reason the author 
describes this action as wire-drawing is that the pressure applied at the base causes the metal 
to rise in the conical mould as though being forced through a draw-plate, as wire is drawn. 
The paper stated that with this method production is increased 25 per cent. 
A paper by Mr. D. Selby-Bigge on *‘ The Application of Electric Bower in the Iron and 
Steel Industries” was next read by the author. This paper gave some interesting and 
valuable particulars of certain installations of electric machinery for the transmission of power 
which had been erected in various works. These may be briefly stated as follows : — At 
Hamburg a Brown single steam crane cost, per ten-hour run, 10s. ; a steam winch-crane, Ss. : 
a steam crane driven through pipes, 12s. ; and an electric crane, 7s. The cost per ton lifted 
by 182 steam cranes was afd. ; by the electric crane the average was id. In the Westing- 
house Company’s w r orks a reduction in coal consumption of over 32 per cent, was made by 
the adoption of electric transmission, the engines being Parson’s steam turbines. 
An article by Mr. Richardson on Vickers, Sons, and Maxim’s works, which appeared 
in the July number of Traction and Transmission , was quoted, in which it was said that the 
saving due to the use of electric transmission of power was probably nearer 60 per cent, than 
50 per cent. In a colliery a sum of ,£1,500 was saved per annum at one shaft by pumping 
by electric motors. In another colliery, where the pumps were originally driven by endless 
wire rope, the expenditure of a little over £3,000 in electric plant resulted in the annual 
saving of from £1,500 to £i,Soo. A similar case was quoted of a Scottish colliery, and 
other details were set forth as to cost of labour and material for driving by electricity and 
other means of transmitting energy, all more or less in favour of the former. 
In a later part of the paper the author dealt with the importance of utilizing the waste 
gases from blast furnaces. Gas engines have been driven in this way, and these should he 
made to actuate blowing engines or dynamos from which current could be distributed 
throughout the works. At Seraing a Cockerill gas engine of large size used about 100 cubic 
feet of average blast furnace gas per effective horse-power per hour. This was less than one- 
fourth of the gas that would have been burnt in the boilers of good modern condensing steam 
engines. It is estimated that for every 100 tons of coke used in an ordinary Cleveland blast 
furnace there is a surplus of at least 1,500 horse-power. “It would be impossible,” the 
author said, “ to overrate this new development in power production. In Great Britain 
really large sources of water-power are practically unknown, and the sources Irom which 
electricity can be produced most economically will be undoubtedly due to the development 
of large power gas engines making use of the surplus gases from the blast furnaces, whicli 
would otherwise be wasted. Engines have been constructed, and are at work, of 1,200 horse- 
power, and an engine of this type is now building for no less than 2,500 horse-power.” 
In the concluding part of his paper the author dealt with the development of electric 
power companies, and the prospects of electric enterprise in tills country. In regard to 
general supply from central stations by public companies, he considered that often “ the 
matter had been rushed into somewhat precipitately.” In a district of a fairly concentrated 
character or in which a large number of small works and factories exist, it might be profitable 
for the works to take 100 to 200 horse-power at id. per unit. In districts where all the 
works are of an extensive character, and absorb 500 to Si 000 horse-power, it would be more 
profitable for w'orks’ owners to produce their own power. With the best modern plant 
generating stations of 400 horse-power and upwards the cost of production should not exceed 
Jjd. per Board of Trade unit, inclusive of depreciation and interest on the capital outlay. 
With blast furnace waste gases this figure would be less. 
In concluding, the author referred to the slowness with which Great Britain had made 
use of the advantages which electricity supplied, and the obsolete nature of much of the 
engineering plant of the country. He contrasted this with the enterprise of Germany and 
America, and attributed the greater activity of the latter country to the greater latitude and 
power vested in the general manager as contrasted with “the small scope of initiative action 
allotted to the works’ managers (in England), nearly every innovation and improvement 
being referred to the hoard of directors.” 
