them. If the bronze penny was to be made of a diameter say 1.200 inches, the halfpenny 100, and the farthing 800, there would be given, as we imagine, quite enough of superficies in each to afford ample room for the design of the engraver; and, supposing the 1 lb. weight of metal to be coined, as we think it will be, respectively into 48, 96, and 192 pence, halfpence, and farthings, there will be enough thickness to "get up" a bold impression upon them.

These pieces would be valuable, too, as measures, for 10 pence would, if placed flatly in line and in contact equal one foot; 12 halfpence would also equal one foot; and so would 14 farthings. This would be at once a simple and useful arrangement, and we offer the suggestion of it humbly to the Government. The profit of such a coinage as this would certainly be great, for whilst the market prices of the metals composing the bronze mixture would make it little more expensive than copper alone, it would be nominally of double the value of copper when coined. Thus, though a ton of the existing copper coin represents a value of £224, a ton of the new bronze coin would represent £448-a tolerably wide margin of gain for Her Majesty's

minters.

THE MAIN DRAINAGE SCHEME. Most of our readers will remember that, shortly after the "great bell" at St. Stephen's began first to vibrate through the heavy atmosphere of London, an honourable member considered that the proper time had arrived to make certain uncomplimentary remarks upon its lugubrious tones, and to propose that since it could not be made to sound more like an ordinary bell, it should be put a stop to altogether, and allowed to remain as a monument of mis-spent money, labour, and engineering skill. It is with some degree of apprehension that we look forward to a similar objection in the case of another great public undertaking, when it shall have been duly completed. Then, of course, we, in common with Members of Parliament and others, shall be better able to judge of its value and of the wisdom that prompted it; although, it is true, our judgment may be of little avail, and of that description which bears no relationship either to foresight or inductive obser

vation.

A detailed account of the scheme of metropolitan main-drainage was lately given to the public in the columns of the Builder. It is not our intention at the present moment to enter into a résumé of the same; nor even to pay tribute to the vastness of the enterprise or the ingenuity of the elaborate contrivances at the pumping station, overflow chambers, storm outfalls and penstocks. Our admiration for each detail and for the magnitude of the general undertaking is lost in our bewilderment that such gigantic and perfect appliances should be employed to such an end as that proposed by the Main Drainage Committee and the Metropolitan Board, and tacitly sanctioned by the representatives of the nation at large, who delegated to these bodies their responsibility in the matter. With regard to this responsibility we are aware that Mr. Thwaites and his coadjutors are in the category of those great men who are answerable only to themselves and to posterity; and we accordingly look upon them with the same degree of awe and respect that would be inspired by any other impersonation of the power of good and of evil. Whether any incense save that arising from their own works will reward their herculean labours, they will at least possess the fame which men award equally to those who have done much for the advantage of their

species or for the contrary. If they fail, it will
be in effecting great things. Their immortality
will not be to live for ever in the vicinity of
Greenwich, nor to feel the dearth which their
splendid contempt of the speculations of theorists,
respecting the annual loss of so many tons of
phosphates, may produce throughout the land.
Let civilization supply these phosphates from
distant rocks, if they must exist wherever the
waving wheat and barley is to spring from the
soil; or let our cereals come from other lands
from France, for instance; their work is in
the present, après eux le déluge !

THE REAPING MACHINE. WE have this season witnessed several successful operations with the reaping machine, and have to congratulate Messrs. Burgess and Key upon the important results thus obtained. We cannot, however, altogether acquit the farmers in some districts from a yet lurking shadow of prejudice against this mode of rapidly getting in their harvests. In many districts visited by us, the scarcity of labour was such that 258, and even 30s. were being cheerfully paid for labour, and in others labour was not to be obtained at any price beyond that afforded by neighbours, In France they are managing these things the militia, and schools. Yet is this machine better, certainly in regard to the future and its scarcely known in such parts; and where best inevitable necessities-perhaps also with respect known, we regret to add, fairplay is not altoto the present; since no putrefying organic gether accorded to it. A field of wheat, of barcompound, no choleic acid from the human ley, or of oats, standing proudly before it, falls bile will now be allowed to evolve its sulphur with a rapidity perfectly marvellous; and the in deadly miasma from the waters of the Seine. bye-standers are not slow to testify their wonder The intercepting sewers on either side of this and admiration. But let a portion of the crop river are already finished, and their contents, be laid low by wind or storm, with the grain properly deodorised, and retaining all their from the machine, and the machine must neces valuable constituents for their due purposes in sarily, from its very construction, pass over it. the economy of nature, are to contribute to the Here, then, is food for derision and prejudice. fertility of the surrounding land. Public opinion, when founded on the dictum of men the spectators who, when on the best of bone and But is this justice? There is not a man amongst of science-whose researches, based upon close blood, would put a horse to an impossible fence. investigation, accurate experiment, and exact Yet even this, which is apparently impossible deduction, have given to the world those facts with the machine, can be rendered facile if tions-appears to be held in greater respect leave those portions of the crop thus circumupon which will depend the prosperity of nafairplay is accorded to it; for we have but to under the "enlightened despotism" of France stanced until the last, and then meet the diffithan it is by the Boards and Commissions of culty in a rational way, and remove it. Indeed, of general enlightenment that such plans as the cut if tact is exercised, and this tact will assurour own free country. It is not from any want there is not a portion of a crop that may not be Main Sewage Scheme are allowed to pass cur-edly be acceded as the want of labour is more rent in England. A Member of Parliament and more felt. The corn alone that has fallen may inform us, in presence of the testimony to out of ear this season, and which might have the contrary of Dr. Hoffman and Mr. Witt and been saved had the machine been in reach, would of Dr. Letheby, that in his opinion the lime have paid for its use in perpetuity upon many a thrown into the Thames "has already been pro- farm. "ductive of a beneficial effect;" but apart from the evidence of one important organ of sense, everybody who has made any inquiry upon the subject knows that this is not the case, and that about 65 per cent, of organic matter is only removed by this means for a limited number of days or hours from its original sphere of decomposition. Our representatives, engrossed with many other important matters, may for an instant be arrested by the wonderful plan of a foreigner for concreting the bottom of the river; but the generality of the "intelligent classes" can better appreciate the difference, with respect to the practicability of this method, between the Thaines and the lake in St. James's Park, and are more inclined to bestow their attention upon the more feasible arrangements proposed by Mr. F. O. Ward or Mr. George Coode.

cultural Society have awarded the first prize to We hear that the Royal Highland and AgriBurgess and Key's machine. This is remarkable, inasmuch as no less than eleven Scotch, three English, and one American machine were opposed against it.

well accredited, is that effected upon a farm in Amongst other extraordinary performances Surrey, where 141 acres of wheat and twenty acres of oats were cut in eighty-eight hours by one machine at a cost of 4s. per acre. The small cost of the wear and tear of these machines is

something equally worthy of notice. Alderman Mechi has used his reaping machine for eight years, and its annual cost has not exceeded an average of 2s. 6d. per year for repairs.

AND

THE CASE OF HENRY CORT,
HIS INVENTIONS IN THE MANUFACTURE

OF BRITISH IRON.

BY

THOMAS WEBSTER, M.A., F.R.S., &c., Barrister-at-Law.

No. VIII.

Never yet, perhaps, was a public enterprise of a similar character begun and continuedwe will not say ended-amid such universal reprobation as that which has attended the main drainage scheme. Every print within whose scope it falls has in turn raised its voice against the plan. Reprobation is far too mild a term To the "State of Facts" published in 1787, to express the feeling with which men of science relative to the making of bar iron, by Henry as well as the general public regard the gigan- Cort, is added, by way of Appendix, the followtic blunder by which, at the enormous expening authentication of its contents:— diture of money, and a sacrifice of time which in this instance is not money but life, the concentrated sewage of London is to be discharged at Barking Creek and Crossness Point. Execra- "If Mr. Cort's very ingenious and merition would, perhaps, be a more appropriate torious improvements in the art of making and word for that which met the birth and which working iron, and his invention of making bar follows the progress of this scheme in the minds iron from pig iron, either red short or cold of men who can realize the full enormity of the short, and the great improvements on the steam outrage against sanitary science, the well-under-engines by Messrs. Watt and Bolton, of Birstood laws of national agricultural economy, and common sense, which is comprehended in this measure.

Extract from Lord Sheffield's "Observations on the commerce of the American States":—

mingham, and Lord Dundonald's discovery of making coke for the furnace at half the present expense, should all succeed, as there is

reason to think they will, the expense may be reduced so greatly, that British iron may be afforded as cheap as foreign, even if the latter should be allowed to enter duty free, perhaps cheaper, and of as improved a quality, and in quantity equal to the demand. It is not asserting too much to say that event would be more advantageous to Britain than thirteen Colonies. It would give the complete command of the iron trade to this country, with its vast advantages to navigation; and our knowledge in the iron trade seems hitherto to have been in its infancy."

Extract of a letter from Doctor Joseph Black, Professor of Chemistry at Edinburgh, dated

May 15, 1786 :

"I meant also to have explained to you my opinion of Mr. Cort's process of making iron; it is this: I have never analyzed the iron made by that process, as I always considered direct experiments to prove its toughness in its hot and cold state, as also its strength and other good qualities, as the most interesting and decisive trials, and I like the process, and the iron, for these reasons

"First, it does not require the expense of charcoal, but is preformed with raw pit-coal. "Secondly, The iron is heated and wrought with flame only, instead of being mixed with the burning fuel and ashes, which is the case in the common process; and it is difficult to imagine how these extraneous matters can ever be completely disentangled from it again in the

common process.

"Thirdly, Mr Cort's method of forming the bars by means of rollers is better fitted for squeezing and forcing out the melted slag from every pore of the iron, and, therefore, for giving such iron perfect solidity and close contact and cohesion of its parts more than the common method with the hammer.

"Fourthly, By the experiments made here, I saw that Mr. Cort's iron was exceedingly soft and malleable when hot, and very tough when cold; and I have heard of much more decisive experiments made in England, which prove it to be possessed of 'very good strength and toughness for these I refer to Mr. Cort, who, I suppose, can give evidence of them. The only point which remains undecided with me is, whether Mr. Cort's iron can be afforded sufficiently cheap; and this point will be surely decided by any company who may establish works on his plan. I am informed that a great deal of bar iron is now made in England sufficiently cheap, by another process, in which also the expense of charcoal is avoided, but such iron is not of the best kind."

"The process, as I saw it three or four times | impression of the rollers in the softest state of over, is something to this effect: Between two welding heat. It is to be observed, likewise, and three cwt. of common iron ballast is melted that the common blooms, as they are called, in in an air furnace with sea-coal. When melted, ordinary forges of iron, are nearly three times it spits out in blue sparks the sulphur which is as thick and solid as the slabs in Mr. Cort's mixed with it. The workman keeps constantly process, and therefore much less affected by the stirring it about, which helps to disengage the blow of a hammer than his slabs are under sulphureous particles, and, when thus disengaged, the effect of the rollers. His slabs are small, they burn away in blue sparks. In about an soft, and ductile, and therefore easily suffer the hour after melting the spitting of these blue expulsion of the dross by the squeezing of the sparks begins to abate (the workman stirring all rollers. the time), and the melted metal begins to "These appear to me to be the principles of curdle, and to lose its fusibility, just like solder Mr. Cort's discovery. They appear to be conwhen it begins to set; the cause of which I formable to chemical reasoning, and to the take to be this-the stirring not only disen- general principles of metallurgy. The detangles the sulphur, but it gives opportunity for metallized particles of ballast iron, so demetallike to meet with like, by which means me-lized by the sulphur in the ore, form the alloy tallic particles meet and coalesce, never to sepa- of iron; when the sulphur is carried off by the rate again, and then they become unfusible. fire, and by stirring the metal about while in The unmetallic particles, which, being of a fusion, and when the alloy of unmetallic parvitrifiable nature, contribute to flux the whole ticles is expelled by the application of the mass, are partly calcined and partly burnt away. hammer and rollers in the softest state of weldThe whole mass at the end of the first part of ing heat, the metallic parts thus kneaded and the process consists of metallic particles and consolidated together form the refined and dross sticking together, but not incorporated. homogeneous metal iron. Mr. Cort may thereThe clotting of the metallic particles by the fore be said to have discovered for this country stirring about may be compared to churning. an immense iron mine above ground, as all As the stirring of cream, instead of mixing and pig iron and common ballast iron may by his uniting the whole together, separates like par- process be purified into good metal. It is not ticles to like, so it is with the iron; what was improbable that this discovery may produce a at first melted comes out of the furnace in great revolution in iron matters between imclotted lumps, about as soft as welding heat, ported and home-made iron. with metallic parts and dross mixed together, but not incorporated. These lumps when cold resemble great cinders of iron: they are called loops.

"The next part of the process is to heat these loops to the hottest welding heat in an air furnace, and to put them under a great forge hammer, which by a few strokes at the very highest point of the welding heat, consolidates the metallic parts into a slab of malleable iron, about three feet and a-half long and three inches square. The hammer at the same time expels and scatters the unmetallic dross. These slabs are brought to a wedge point at one end. They are malleable iron, but still with a considerable mixture of dross.

"The proof of facts forms the basis of the

case.

The illustration which flows from the

discussion of principles confirms the interpretation of the facts into proof of the merit of the invention; because those facts proceed through every stage of the process coherently with the principles which constitute the invention, and consistently with the general and acknowledged principles of metallurgy, and because the perfection of the metal results from the strict adherence in the operation to the principles of the process."

Extracts from Dr. Black's "Remarks on the Experiments made to Prove the Strength of Mr. Cort's Iron, dated Nov. 2nd, 1786":

"The bar iron made by Mr. Cort was distri"The last part of the process is to heat these buted to the different dockyards, and manufacslabs to the hottest welding heat in an air fur- tured by the King's smiths into anchors, bolts, nace, and then to pass them through the rollers rings, hooks, and other articles belonging to of a rolling mill; the slabs being extremely soft shipping which occasionally resist very violent at the highest point of welding heat, the force pulls, or support great weights; and similar of the rollers consolidates the metallic parts into articles were at the same time made of the best bar iron, and the dross is squeezed out and falls Swedish iron, as exactly alike to the former in under the rollers. This is the whole process; weight, size, and form as possible. The experiand thus in about six hours I have seen a piece ments to compare the strength of the two kinds of common iron ballast rolled into a ship's bolt; of iron were afterwards made by opposing an I have seen this bolt laid hollow across the eye article made of the one to the similar article of a large forge hammer and receive two hun-made of the other; and from the description of dren and fifty strokes of the heaviest sledge hammer, and thus bent double, but without breaking, or suffering the least apparent injury.

the experiments it is plain that they have been made in the most fair and decisive manner. The two kinds of iron were tried in each experiment with the same force or strain gradually increased until one of them gave way, which, however, did not happen in general until after the strain was increased to a far greater degree than any to which the same articles are exposed in actual service.

Extract of a letter from David Hartley, Esq.,
dated Golden Square, June 19, 1786 :-
"Having heard that Mr. Cort had discovered
a method of making the very best of iron out
of common iron ballast, by a short and simple
process, I went to his works, and, as far as I
bad judge, his invention appeared to me to
be founded on simple principles, for reducing
on to its natural and heat state, by the expul-
sion of all heterogeneous and unmetallic par-
ticles; the fundamental principle being, that
iron is in itself a simple homogeneous metal,
and that all iron is equally good when purified
from heterogeneous and unmetallic particles.
"The ordinary mode of converting cast ironing, which requires a considerable length of
into malleable iron is by the use of a very great time, during which time the metal loses the
quantity of charcoal, which contains what the softness of a welding heat, and becomes too
chemists call philogiston, and which has the hard to suffer the expulsion of the unmetallic
quality of remetallizing demetallized particles, parts. The common mode, therefore, operates
which are mixed up with iron while in fusion. with much less effect than Mr. Cort's mode,
The method used by Mr. Cort is not by char- because it operates upon a less degree of heat
el. He uses sea-coal entirely, because it is and softness. It consolidates heterogeneous
Lot his principle to remetallize any of the de- particles into the body of the iron, instead of
metallized particles, but to expel them, expelling them by the expeditious and forcible

"I conceive the two principles of this inven-
tion to be, first, burning off and caleining the
sulphur and the demetallized particles of ballast
iron, instead of endeavouring to restore the de-
metallized parts with charcoal at a great ex-
pense, and still leaving the business undone;
and, secondly, expelling the dross and consoli- "When we sum up the results of these experi-
dating the metal by squeezing it through the ments, it is evident that Mr. Cort's iron is
rollers, instead of the common mode of hammer-superior in strength to the very best Swedish
iron; for such alone was employed on this occa-
sion.

"There were six comparative trials of anchors; Mr. Cort's iron was found stronger than the Swedish in five of these trials.

"The comparative trials of hooks and ironbound blocks were twenty-eight in number. Mr. Cort's iron proved stronger than the Swedish in ten of these trials; equal in fifteen; weaker in three only.

THE WESTMINSTER CLOCK.

TO THE EDITORS OF THE "MECHANICS' MAGAZINE.'

Having briefly sketched the failures that have occured and those which are likely to follow, with regard to the clock, and shown who is responsible for them, I purpose giving a similar sketch concerning the bells in my second letter.

30th July, 1858.

Yours, &c.,

E. T. LOSEBY.

clock were included, namely, quarter part, hour part, tendered, and a much easier way is adopted of making and going part. Yet, notwithstanding this, Mr. up for the low tender. Mr. Denison, having fairly Denison gave his certificate, and caused nearly the established himself in the double position of designer GENTLEMEN,—It is now more than two years since whole of the contract money to be paid to Mr. Dent's and referee, acting professedly for the Government, the controversy between Mr. Denison and myself con- successor more than two years before the clock had begins the process by causing the material to be cerning the Westminster clock and bell appeared in been fixed in the building at all, under the plea that altered from expensive gun-metal to cast-iron, and the Journal of the Society of Arts, the MECHANICS' the going part alone had been acting satisfactorily in the contract price instead of being lowered, to be MAGAZINE, Builder, and some of the daily news- Mr. Dent's shop waiting for the bells; but this was raised from £1,600 to £1,900, partly under the plea papers. That controversy, which was commenced in without either the hands and motion work or the of iron being more expensive to work, and then the November, 1856, in the magazines, contained sugges-hour and quarter parts being attached, and under next step is to dispense with the said workmanship tions which would have prevented the principal none of the disadvantages of strong winds, snow, and altogether, but retain the full price in the contract, failures that have since occurred if the Government frost, which will exert considerable influence upon thus evading not only the original workmanship had acted upon them. Some of the subsequent them when at their great elevation. In fact, to have which gun-metal wheels would have necessitated, but failures have become public; but the persons retaken the trial in Mr. Dent's shop as the test of what the additional labour of cast-iron, for which the extra sponsible for them have ungenerously shifted the the clock was capable of doing, was like trying a sum was added. And then, as each failure occurs in blame from their own shoulders on to others. The locomotive for its power without attaching any train the plans of Mr. Denison, the designer and the question of who is responsible for the failures was to it, and taking the speed it was able to attain as the Astronomer Royal's conditions of construction are mooted in the House of Commons on Friday, 15th result which might be expected when encumbered sacrificed after each other; Mr. Denison the referee is July, and as no satisfactory answer was elicited, with its compliment of carriages. ever ready to put a bold face on the matter and propurpose supplying the deficiency to some extent in The last failure publicly announced is the extreme nounce the sacrifice of the conditions as really the this and a subsequent letter. And in doing so, weight of the minute hands, which the first com- best thing that could have happened, and modestly perhaps I should claim some credit for forbearance missioners of works has stated in the House of Com-intimates that the Government is fortunate inhaving when the first bell was broken, in not then calling mons to weigh more than 3 cwt. each. This weight the man" who understands the subject better than attention to the fact of the bell having been destroyed for a minute-hand of only 11 feet radius is incompre- any one else in England." Mr. Dent's original estiby the clapper, which, throughout the last contro-hensible, even when allowance is made for the fatality mate for the entire clock was, as we have seen, versy, I had pointed out as being so enormously heavy which seems inseparable from the Westminster clock. 1,600, but what the sum may have reached under compared with the weight of the bell and the size of Instead of 3 cwt. the hands should not have weighed Mr. Denison's management, now that the principal the clock that was to work the equally dispropor-1 cwt. each; and if the metal had been disposed in advantages of the clock have been sacrificed, there is tionate hammer. A reference to the publications the best form for giving the greatest strength with no available evidence at present to show. already mentioned will show that the tone in which the least weight, they would have been amply strong my statements were contradicted was sufficient to enough with considerably less than 1 cwt. of metal in have justified the earliest opportunity being taken of each. The First Commissioner of Works added that recurring to the subject after events had confirmned lighter hands were about to be made, and that it was my opinions. probable the clock would then work all the four dials in a satisfactory inanner. But this anticipation, like others of the past, will certainly be disappointed, for, after computing the weight which suitable hands, counterpoises, motion work, &c., must necessarily amount to for four dials of this size, and allowing for the additional influence of high wind, frost, and snow, the force required to overcome the whole will be so great compared with the weight of the pendulum, and the small force which will be capable of disturb ing its time, that there does not appear to me any possibility of the clock maintaining a constant rate within several seconds a day, even though a dead escapement should be substituted for the gravity escapement to prevent tripping, and supposing the clock can be made to go continually thereby. And considering further that other sources of error will prevent the pendulum being increased so as to meet the difficulty, I am quite convinced that a clock with four dials this size can only be made to keep a rate within a second a day, by a similar plan to the one patented by myself, which I submitted to the Astronomer Royal for adoption in the Westminster clock several years ago; but Mr. Denison had then so far usurped the control over the clock as to prevent any plans being adopted besides his own. In this plan the power employed to drive the hands is completely cut off from the escapement and pendulum which regulate the time, and a small astronomical clock, with all its accuracy and durability, is employed for the time-keeping part, whilst the power available in the large clock for driving the hands may fluctuate even to the extent of 100 lbs. at the diameter of the centre wheel without affecting the time half a second a day. The plan, moreover, allows the Astronomor Royal's condition to be easily fulfilled for enabling the time to be observed to a second by the exterior minute hands moving quickly over the space of 14 inches once a minute.

The easiest way of arriving at the difference be tween what the clock was to have been and what it really is, will perhaps be to go through the excellent conditions originally laid down by the Astronomer Roval for the construction of the clock, and select the chief of those which have not been fulfilled. The first condition not fulfilled is the one which required the wheels to be made of hard gun-metal, with the teeth cut to the epicycloidal form. Instead of this the wheels have been made of cast-iron, which is the cheapest material that could be used, and the teeth have been cast in, instead of being cut, whilst a large surn has been added in the contract for the change, under the plea of the extra labour required in cutting and working cast-iron: whereas it now appears that the wheels are destitute of the promised workmanship, and that they are merely left from the casting. These deviations have been effected at Mr. Denison's instigation, and he is the person responsible for them. A second condition required the escapement to be the dead beat or something equally accurate. Instead of this the escapement employed is a modification of the gravity escapement, which in its most perfect form has occasionally been proved to fail even for small astronomical clocks; and as the power in the Westerminster clock must of necessity be some hundreds of times greater, its employment there is certain to result in failure. For this deviation Mr. Denison is responsible. A third condition required that the minute hands should move over the half minute or minute space at once, so as to enable the time to be observed outside within a second. The plan for carrying out this condition has so completely failed that the condition itself has been abandoned. Mr. Denison designed the plan and is responsible for its failure. The forfeiture of this condition is remarkable, for it is the one concerning which Mr. Denison radiculed Mr. Vulliamy for hesitating to carry it out. A fourth condition required that the first blow of each hour should be accurate to a second of time. To fulfil this condition the going part should be capable of keeping time within a second for 24 hours at least; but the pendulum is only compensated with zine; and the enormous surplus force required to drive the hands in all weathers will occasionally reach the escapement and cause it to trip or run forward, and the hands to be in error, to the extent of either seconds, minutes, or hours, as the case may be; thus introducing a source of inaccuracy to which gravity escapements are especially liable, and one from which the dead escapement is entirely free. Mr. Denison is responsible for the plan adopted. A fifth condition required the clock to go and strike eight days with one winding up. Instead of this the arrangement bad failed to the extent of reducing it to a four day elock some time since, with the probability of its requiring to be wound up still oftener. For this failure Mr. Denison is responsible.

Another condition appeared in the agreement with Mr. Dent which required that the clock should be completed and going 12 months in its place to the satisfaction of the Astronomer Royal and Mr. Denison before being paid for; and by finished and going it was of course understood that all the parts of the

The difficulty that was likely to occur from Mr. Denison's plan of regulating the going part by a gra vity escapement in direct communication with the hand train, was pointed out to the late Commissioner of Works last February, and in the same letter I of fered to undertake the superintendence of the clock, in order to introduce the improvement just mentioned and carry it to successful completion, but the reply seemed to indicate that the Board had not then power to change the superintendence. In fact, Mr. Denison boasted in his book, nearly two years ago, that the Board had taken no less than five opinions from the Attorney General, the Solicitor-General, and the other law officers of the Crown, to try and "get rid" of his superintendence without being able to do so, and the parliamentary papers show that the law officers were consulted with that object in view.

Concerning the cost of the clock, a great deal of credit has been claimed for the lowness of Mr. Dent's tender as compared with those of Vulliamy and Whitehurst, and the difference between them has formed one of the principal reasons for giving the contract to Mr. Dent; but we now see that the clock once secured, with Mr. Denison as referee, all idea appears to have ceased of its being carried out according to its original conditions, upon which the others

THE NEWCASTLE PUMPING ENGINE. GENTLEMEN, IT is impossible to help admiring the beautiful simplicity of this engine, as described in your last Number, but I cannot imagine why the double-acting pump was not placed behind the steam cylinder, instead of in front of it. An ordinary horizontal high pressure expansive and noncondensing engine might have been used with some advantage, the piston rod being carried through both ends of the cylinder, and connected by some tolerably good non-conductor of heat to the end of the pump rod of the double-acting pump placed behind the cylinder. By this means the present difficulty of the connecting would be ob viated, and the usual tendency of an horizontal cylinder to wear oval would be greatly diminished by the stuffing-box at each end of the cylinder being bushed with brass, and receiving a good part of the weight of the piston.

London, August 10th, 1859.

W. H. C.

ASSOCIATION OF FOREMEN ENGINEERS. On Saturday night last this Association met at their rooms in St. Swithin's-lane, City, Mr. Joseph Newton filling the chair. It had been announced that a member would read a paper on "Superheated Steam," and as this happens to be a subject of peculiar interest to the gentlemen who comprise the Association, a very numerous body assembled on the occasion. A dissapointment, however, was in store for them, for after the ordinary business had been gone through, the Chairman announced that a letter had been received a day or two previously from the promiser of the paper, stating his inability-from illness-to redeem his promise. Mr. Newton, however, further announced, much to the satisfaction of his auditors, that under pressure of the emergency he had summoned to his aid the services of a friend, a fellow-member, who at the eleventh hour had nobly come forward and written a paper on a totally different matter, the "Manufacture of Rifles, with a description of those death-dealing weapons," which he was prepared, if acceptable, to read. Consent was readily given, and the gentleman, whose maiden attempt it was, and whose modestly declined to have his name published, read his very elaborate paper on this subject. It was at once a clear, practical, and tersely written essay, and conveyed much information of a novel character to the bulk of the members. At its conclusion the applause was general, and after a very enlivening discussion, in which Messrs. Keyte, Ives, Stabler, M. Jones, the Chairman, and others joined, a vote of thanks was given by acclamation to the expounder of the rifle. Mr. Newton, in proposing this vote, took occasion to eulogise the writer of the paper, and to incite other members to emulate his zeal. An adjournment to the first Saturday in September followed, and the meeting was at an end.