140 
MINUTES OE PROCEEDINGS OE 
CONCLUSIONS FROM THE RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS 
ON 
WK0UGHT-IR0N AND STEEL. 
By Mr David Kirkaldy. 
[COMMUNICATED BY MAJOR C. H. OWEN, R.A., PROFESSOR OE ARTILLERY, 
R. M. ACADEMY]. 
At the present time when every effort is being made to obtain wrought- 
iron and steel for both ordnance and armour plates, it is very desirable to 
have some reliable information respecting these materials; this may be 
found in a work* written by Mr David Kirkaldy, who carried out an 
elaborate series of experiments to ascertain the comparative tenacity and 
other properties of iron and steel. 
As Mr Kirkaldy observes, “It seems remarkable that whilst we have 
the results of many important and reliable experiments on cast-iron, 
extremely few have been made, or at least published, on wrought-iron, and 
almost none on steel/'’ The conclusions therefore, drawn from the results 
of his own carefully conducted experiments, which in some instances do not 
altogether agree with several generally received opinions, will no doubt be 
acceptable to many officers who may not have had an opportunity of reading 
the work. Mr Kirkaldy’s book contains a number of well arranged tables 
with suitable remarks upon them, and the opinions of many eminent engineers 
on the points under investigation. Dr Percy mentions the work in the 
following terms: “ An excellent digest of information published on this 
subject is contained in Mr David Kirkaldy’s recent valuable work on the 
tenacity, or, as it is now termed, tensile strength of iron and steel ;t and 
the author appears to have arrived at nearly the same conclusions as 
myself,” and further on in a note,J “This excellent work, which ought to 
be in the possession of every civil engineer.” 
* Results of an Experimental Enquiry into the comparative Tensile Strength and other 
properties of various kinds of Wrought-iron and Steel. London, 1862. 
f Metallurgy of Iron and Steel. London, 1864. 
% Ibid, note 11, p. 862. 
