GOS 
SECOND REPORT -1832. 
losophers, encouraged by Colbert, who, by the application of 
the resources of a refined analysis to some of the problems of 
ship-building, have obtained better models than ourselves, is 
noticed ; and the peculiar advantages enjoyed by the geome¬ 
tricians of Britain for collecting the great “ constants of the 
art,” and thus combining the established data of practice with 
the indications of theory, are pointed out. To collect and 
combine these data—a labour too great for individual exertion 
—is considered by the author an object peculiarly deserving of 
the cordial cooperation of men of science, under the auspices of 
a public Board. 
A communication was received from Mr. Jeremiah Owen, 
containing Remarks on the Neglect of Naval Architecture in 
Great Britain , and recommending that subject to the early at¬ 
tention of the Association, assisted by the Government; for 
which purpose he further proposed that a correspondence 
should be opened with the authorities, and means taken to 
establish regular experiments on a large scale. 
A communication on the same subject was also received from 
Mr. E. W. Gill. 
On the Steel Suspension-Bridge recently built over an Arm of 
the Danube at Vienna ; and, on the Mode by which the ex¬ 
ceeding tough steel employeel was manufactured in Styria, 
at a small advance upon the price of Iron. By James J. 
Hawkins. 
Experiments on the comparative strength of iron and steel 
in resisting tension have been from time to time made and pub¬ 
lished,—establishing, upon unquestionable authority, that it 
requires more than double the force to break a bar of steel by 
tension, than one of iron of equal dimensions ; and that three 
times the force is necessary to stretch a bar of steel beyond the 
power of its elasticity to recover itself, than of an equal-sized 
bar of iron. 
It is also established on the best chemical evidence, that the 
power of steel to resist corrosion from the operation of air and 
moisture, is very far above that of iron. 
But it does not appear that advantage has been taken of these 
very valuable properties of steel in bridge-building, until about 
three or four years since, when the Austrian Engineer, the 
Chevalier Ignace Edlin von Mitis, built a steel suspension- 
bridge, of 230 feet span, at Vienna. 
