We may remark, however, that he insists strongly upon the facts that in the trials of 1852, the Admiralty anchor tested was taken at random from a large number, while all the other competing anchors were made specially for the purpose; that the Admiralty anchor was the only one (with one exception) the shank of which did not break; and that the approximate numbers selected by the Committee to represent the relative values of strength, holding power, facility of canting, sweeping, stowing, &c., were most injudiciously selected. Thus, while fifteen marks only were given for the "strength of the anchor, no less than eighty were given for "holding long and short scope." We do not think with Mr. Cotsell, that the highest value is due to strength; but we certainly believe that this quality is greatly undervalued by the Committee. Having said thus much, by way of moderating the extravagance of the conclusions to which Mr. Trotman invites the world, we have now to add that he is by no means without reason for urging the gradual adoption of his anchor by the Admiralty. That anchor, although not so far superior to the Admiralty anchor as he would fain have us credit, is unquestionably an excellent instrument, and may be produced at much lower prices than are at present paid for anchors for the royal navy. We do not accept Mr. Lindsay's figures on this point without many reservations; but we do believe the adoption of the Trotman anchor would be a pecuniary advantage to the nation. Certainly Mr. Trotman can do nothing fairer (to all except himself) than he has already done in making the public challenge, which appears in his letter to the Times. He says: That no "doubt may exist in the mind of any one as to "the motives which lead me to decline their "lordships' offer of the 17th of March, I am "willing to submit a Trotman's anchor of 50 "cwt., costing £90, to be tested at my own "risk and cost, against any anchor now in Her "Majesty's dockyard of 100 cwt. or more, the "contract value of which exceeds £365. It “shall sustain a higher proof, possess greater holding power, and perform in a more effi"cient manner every duty required in the larger "anchor, such as bringing a ship to, holding on at long or short scope of cable-in fact, that "it may be subjected to the most severe test pro"fessional ingenuity can devise, in order to as"certain the relative qualities and values of the "Admiralty anchor and Trotman's, the latter "being half the weight and one-fourth the cost "of the former." The Admiralty will be wicked and slothful stewards indeed, if they allow this challenge to pass unheeded. The public interest forbids them to do so. We cannot conclude this article without ob | answer. He was told that Trotman's anchor, when once it could be got to hold, was a good one, but that officers could not rely on its holding." Now, Sir, I solemnly declare there is not and never has been, a single anchor of my construction used in the navy, save the one on which the Royal yacht still depends for her safety. What ground, then, has Sir John for making so grave and so injurious a mis-statement? When will our affairs be so managed that an excellent but unfortunate Chairman of Quarter Sessions shall not be compelled to speak officially to an assembly of gentlemen upon subjects of which he is totally ignorant? Only conceive, reader, of Sir John Pakington, the representative of Droitwich, rising in the House of Commons to speak-even from hearsay-of the holding properties of Trotman's anchor! We need not wonder that his observations on such a subject fail to bear scrutiny in the columns of the Times. Would that some power might save us from such constitutional absurdities-not to say shams! THE COST OF SHIPBUILDING IN THE ROYAL DOCKYARDS. CURIOUS facts-not unfamiliar to ourselves, however have lately been brought forward in illustration of the cost to which the nation is put for shipbuilding in the Royal Dockyards. In that speech of Mr. Lindsay's to which we have already more than once referred, we find these facts put in a connected and striking form. They will bear recapitulation here. It appears that a Return has been made of the cost of a the same size-1,462 tons burden. The first number of ships built in our dockyards, all of of these vessels-the Satellite was built at Devonport, and the expenditure for shipwrights' labour was in her case said to be £6,450, or at the rate of £4 8s. 3d. per ton. The second, the Pelorus, was also built at Devonport, and the shipwrights' wages were £6,712. The Scylla was built at Sheerness, and the expenditure for of the Racoon, built at Chatham, it was £6,321. the same purpose was £8,621; while in the case The cost of labour in one dockyard was another. Thus, the Pearl, built at Woolwich, apparently, therefore, much greater than in cost us £6 18s. 5d. per ton; while the Satellite built at Devonport, and the Racoon at Chatham, cost £4 6s. 6d. per ton. There must be something radically wrong, said Mr. Lindsay, to cause such a discrepancy as this. Two frigates Russian Government-viz., the Tartar and the built in a private yard on the Tyne for the Cossack-cost £2 88. per ton. That included not only the cost for shipwrights, but the cost of fitting them out for sea: whereas the entire cost of fitting out the Pearl for sea was £8 13s. 11d. It was evident, to Mr. Lindsay's mind, that there was something wrong in the not possible to get from those accounts what the Return professes to give, viz., the actual amounts of money expended for labour upon particular ships. The Surveyor of the Navy, or his staff, has acted most unwisely, in our judgment, in putting forth such a Return. We entirely deny that its accuracy can be guaranteed. Let us glance for a moment at the circumstances operating in two neighbouring yards which are contrasted most unfavourably in this return-Sheerness and Chatham. Now, in the latter yard, where there are numerous building slips, by far the larger portion of the shipwrights are constantly engaged upon what is called "new work "-in other words, upon the building of new ships. The interferences occasioned by the pressure of fitting and repairing of ships occur but comparatively seldom. In Sheerness yard, however, the case is wholly different. There is but one small building slip in it; and the regularity of the work expended upon the single ship there building is, of necessity, seriously impaired by the frequent putting on and calling off of hands for repairing and fitting purposes. How this would tell upon the nominal expense of the ship in progress of building will be readily conceived. Like effects are In the building of a ship upon the stocks, in produced in another and somewhat similar way. order that she may be built economically, it is of hands employed upon her to the varying state indispensably necessary to adjust the number of her progress. There are times when less times when five times that number may be adthan 100 men, say, are all that can be kept economically at work upon her; there are other there are several ships in various stages of advantageously employed. Now, in a yard where adjustment of hands can be properly attended vancement simultaneously in progress, this to. But in a yard like Sheerness, with its one building slip, and an exceedingly fluctuating amount of fitting and repairing to be executed, in this way. The same remarks apply, to a it is quite impossible to economise the labour certain extent, to Woolwich Dockyard. These by no means attempting to treat the subject are the causes which, with others-for we are fully-tend to produce those discrepancies which, by their grossness, have struck the these are causes, it will be observed, which senses of the member for Sunderland. And cannot be removed. It may occur to some that it would be better to build no ships at yards circumstanced like Sheerness. But this is a mistake; it would be With a ship in progress on the stocks, worse. there is a means of absorbing your spare work in times of slackness, when there is but little fitting or repairing to be done; and although its absorption in this way is undoubtedly at serving how sadly poor Sir John Pakington has management of the Royal Dockyards. "Why tended by a loss, the loss would be greater did involved himself in this business. Mr. Trotman says: Sir J. Pakington took credit to himself when he stated to the House "that one of his last acts before leaving office was to offer another trial to Mr. Trot Jnan. If, however, their Lordships were indeed serious, and desired only additional proof of superiority, there was the result of the Hon. Captain Denman's experience of more than four years with my anchor on board the Royal yacht; also the testimonies of commanding officers of the Cunard line, the Peninsular and Oriental Company, and the worldwide experience of the mercantile marine, throughout which Trotman's anchor is almost universally used. Last year Sir J. Pakington stated to the House that "he believed the fact was, Trotman's anchors had not been brought into general use on account of the great number of anchors of the old construction which were still in Her Majesty's dockyards." This year his refusal is couched in a new form, and he told the House "he knew nothing of the quality of these anchors from his own personal knowledge, but on consulting practical naval officers the reply he received was that they did not in their experience find them to "could the men not be employed as they were "in private dockyards? If they were employed on piecework, instead of the labour account of "the shipwrights being £8 13s. 11d. per ton, "it would not be more than £2 12s. per ton. "The rate for labour in the present estimates 66 was £1,527,000. Of this £1,000,000 at least was for shipwrights; and on this item alone "there might be a saving of £400,000, while the "work would not be one whit less efficiently "done." Now, we are not about to blame Mr. Lindsay, by any means, for the part which he has taken in this matter. He is wrong, and in error; but innocently so in this case. If the facts really were as the Return itself makes them appear, his criticism would in the main be sound and pertinent. But the facts are not as they there appear. We know somewhat of the manner in which accounts are kept in the Royal Dockyards, and we unhesitatingly state that it is this provision not exist. But when all due allowances are made for facts of this kind, it is useless to look for accuracy to the accounts as they are at present keptAn immense amount of Dockyard labour gets charged," in the course of months, to wrong vessels. Nor is it, indeed, practicable to avoid this. It is sometimes as impossible to estimate the labour expended upon the building of a particular ship as it would be to measure the work done by the French battalions in the capture of each of the several positions of Solferino, Cavriana, &c., at the last great battle. mistake lies, as we have said, in the present instance in the putting forth of the Return in question. Far better admit the difficulty than ignore it, and expose yourself to such hard and inexorable critics as Mr. Lindsay. The Mr. Lindsay's remarks upon "piecework" and the cost of shipbuilding in private dock yards, are open to many corrections; but having dealt with the main question, we must defer the consideration of minor points for the present. CAPTAIN BLAKELY'S IMPROVEMENTS IN CANNON. now to act in the matter. They are not slow the outside was stretched on an average seven to reward men of their own class. Let us hope times less than the inside. Thus the first three they will no longer delay to do simple justice to propositions of Captain Blakely were approthese aged persons, who, if the creation of enor-priately verified. Again, in October, 1844, mous wealth gives any claim to competence, are Major Wade burst two 18-pounder cast-iron THE FAMILY OF HENRY CORT. the most conspicuous living symbols of our injus- guns by hydrostatic pressure to find their THE scandalous neglect of the Cort family, to tice and ingratitude. We commend the me- strength. He afterwards carefully tested the which we have so often drawn attention, is be-morial now in the hands of the First Lord of the strength of the metal to resist a direct tensile ginning to cast a shadow even upon the Queen's Treasury to his strong sense and liberal spirit. strain. One of these guns burst with a pressure Government. A second time the Times news- [Since the above was written, Mr. W. Fair- of 9,000 lbs. per inch of resisting metal, yet a paper, in a leading article, states the facts to bairn has nobly offered to subscribe £100 sample bar of the gun showed a strength of the public, and reproaches the nation and its through the editor of the Times towards a na- 27,350 lbs. per inch. The other burst with a representatives with ingratitude. As the pen tional subscription in favour of the Cort family. strain of 6,082 lbs. per inch, whereas the sample of one of the most accomplished barristers of We hope his liberality will be duly imitated.] showed a tensile force of 22,204 lbs. Here we the metropolis-a gentleman eminently qualihave proof that some part of the metal did not fied by years of special study of the laws reguguns at least the useless part amounted to the exert its strength, and that in each of these lating property in inventions for discussing this subject is tracing in our own columns the great proportion of more than two-thirds of the history of Henry Cort's improvements, we need THE beautiful theory of great-gun construction whole. In his report to the Colonel of Ordnot enter upon any minute consideration of which Captain Blakely, R.A., propounded to nance at Washington Major Wade wrote on them. The Times, however, in its last article the world four years ago, and which has been the subject as follows:-"The relation between states the leading facts of the case with so much independently conceived and embodied by the "the force applied in producing a fracture in simplicity that we may well repeat here what inventors of the great Mallet mortar and the "cast-iron by a tensile strain in the axis of the it says. Briefly, then, the facts are these:- Armstrong gun, has lately received strong and "specimen, and by that of hydrostatic pressure The family of Henry Cort claims compensa- unexpected confirmation. Captain Blakely, in "within the bore, appears to be somewhat tion from the British nation for the unjust forour own columns and elsewhere, has argued, in "greater than as three to one." Another expefeiture of their father's rights. Henry Cort laying down the basis of his system, 1st, that riment made by Major Wade a few weeks was the inventor of the process for the conver- any metal tube pressed on from within must later showed that it is the outside parts of sion of pig-iron into malleable iron by the stretch; 2nd, that in stretching it must become cylinders which do not exert their strength. flame of pit-coal in the puddling furnace. Be- thinner; 3rd, that, the sides of the tube becom- He turned down the outside of a 6-pounder fore his time our ironmasters were compelled to ing thinner, the outer parts, particularly of a cast-iron gun in a lathe to such an extent as to employ charcoal for fuel. Having thus got pig- thick tube like a gun, must be less stretched, form, from the breech near to the trunnions, a iron into a malleable condition, Henry Cort in- therefore less strained, than the inner; because, cylinder of the uniform thickness of one calibre, vented a further process for drawing it into to permit of their being as much stretched, the that is to say, with a thickness of metal on bars by means of grooved rollers. In other sides would have to become absolutely thicker every side equal to the diameter of the bore. words, he reduced the labour and cost of pro-and the mass of material greater than at first; He cut off the trunnions, and turned a second dncing iron to one-twentieth of what they were 4th, that a tube in which the outer parts are cylindrical portion in the middle of the gun before his day, and the iron was of a better less strained than the inner must be weaker with the thickness of half a calibre. In front quality. How, it may be asked, can the than if all could be equally strained. These he formed a third cylinder with metal only one children of such a man be in want?' How is it principles are so plain, and so manifestly true, quarter of a calibre thick. With a hydrostatic they are not among the wealthiest of the land? that they can scarcely need extraneous recom- pressure of 12,400 lbs. per square inch, the thin The answer is this:-Mr. Cort had entered into mendation to any mind. Major Wade, of the part burst in four fissures. The piston was then partnership with a certain Mr. Adam Jellicoe, U.S. Ordnance, has lately, however, made nu-inserted in the middle part where the metal at the time Deputy-Paymaster of the Navy. merous experiments for his Government (who was half a calibre thick, and a pressure of Jellicoe advanced money, and was to receive in have been so liberal as to publish them, to- 20,000 lbs. burst it in three fissures, one of return half the profits of the trade. Cort as-gether with many other researches, in a book which extended 16 inches into the thick cylinsigned to him, besides, his patent rights as colder. In his report Major Wade wrote as follateral security. In the year 1789 Jellicoe died, lows:-"It appears from these results, that the and was found to be a public defaulter. The power of resisting in cylinders of the same Navy Board issued "extents" against the trade "quality of iron, and of the same diameters of effects of Cort and Jellicoe, and confiscated bore, but of different thickness, varies as the Cort's patent rights, which they treated as "thickness, but in a less ratio. Hence the invalueless. The hardship of the case was this,crease or the diminution of the thickness of a property which should have been estimated at "iron in a gun does not increase or diminish the value of £250,000 was forfeited to insure "the strength in like proportion." From a payment of a debt which the estate would have table which he gives we see that a 6-pounder, satisfied seven or eight times over had it been when only one-fourth of a calibre thick, refairly handled. Nobody but the ironmasters quired a pressure of 12,400 lbs. per inch of bore profited by this mismanagement, and the Corts to burst it; but that with double the thickness were mined. "It should be emphatically reof metal, an addition of only 7,600 lbs. pressure, "marked," says the Times, "that it is not even or about five-eighths of the former, sufficed to "suggested Cort had anything to do with Jeldestroy it. The second equal thickness of me"licoe's defalcations. He was purely the victim tal, then, only exerted five-eighths as much “of a swindler; but, although it might be right power as the inner, the total strength being "to cause the firm to refund the sums in which less than if they had been equally strained. "one of the partners stood indebted to the pub"lie, it was utterly wrong to destroy the noble "fortune which this ingenious man had won by "the force of his intelligence and industry. England is indebted for a very large share of "her present prosperity to Henry Cort's inventions, but now his four surviving children"all of them being persons about seventy years "of age-are beggars, and only saved from the "poorhouse by pensions amounting in the aggregate to £90 There should be per annum. more gratitude in an iron age to the children " of Henry Cort.” All this is what we have substantially said before, and said not altogether in vain. Still, a settlement of the claims of the family has yet to be made. It is for the Queen's ministers entitled "Reports of Experiments on Metals 66 66 In 1846 Major Wade, when testing some muskets by hydrostatic pressure, found the elasticity of sound barrels such that a column of water in them, 21 inches high, could be diminished half an inch by a pressure of 2,000 lbs. A column of water 39 or 40 inches high he shortened of an inch with a pressure of 2,400 lbs. When the pressure was removed the water recovered its original height nearly. This result could not have been owing to the compression of the water, which would have been imperceptible with such a slight pressure; the musket barrels, therefore, must have in- Although these experiments would by themcreased in diameter during the strain. In "selves," says Captain Blakely, "be insufficient 1851 Major Wade measured the change into establish a theory, and although I was unsize of some hollow cast-iron cylinders, when "able by reasoning, founded on pure science, to strained from within by hydrostatic pressure. "convince many persons of the soundness of Not only were they all enlarged during the con- "my views, still I trust that the mutual corrotinuance of the pressure, but in every case an "boration of argument and experiment will addition of pressure produced an increase of "have greater effect. Here, in England, an diameter. He also found that each increase of "opinion is expressed, that for certain reasons, strain diminished the thickness of the tube. "cylinders if strained would stretch, and Further, that where the sides were less than one- "stretch more inside than outside; in America third of a calibre in thickness, the outer dia- a number of cylinders are measured during meter was increased on an average 3 times strain, and without exception all do stretch less than the inner; and that in cylinders 2, 3, "with every increase of strain, and all do and 4, where the metal was of a calibre thick, "stretch more inside than outside. This cer"tainly makes it appear probable that the reasoning on which the opinion is founded is tion. Published in the last No. of the Journal of the Institu 66 66 correct, and that all cylinders would follow this law." In the case of iron tubes, an experiment which any one can make is decisive as to the stretching. A leaden ring fitted on such a tube will stretch with it when strained, but will remain enlarged when the iron is permitted to regain its original size. Mr. Greener, of Birmingham, made a series of experiments with the barrel of a fowling-piece, having leaden rings at intervals on it, for the purpose of showing how much each part was enlarged during the discharge of the piece. Where he found this enlargement less than at other parts he concluded that the barrel was stronger than necessary, and modelled the next he made accordingly. The enlargement of tubes when pressed on from within, being thus proved beyond the possibility of doubt, the simultaneous diminution in the thickness of their sides will be readily admitted. "No person could expect a ring which fitted a "little finger to be enlarged to fit a first finger "without becoming thinner," as Capt. Blakely says; and as any thick cylinder or tube may be considered as composed of several concentric smaller ones, it is evident that each of these, by becoming thinner when stretched, loses some of its power of pressing the one above it. Here we have the whole of the very important theory of this able officer. The method of constructing cannon which he advocates in accordance with it is, then, simply to form such parts of them as require great strength of concentric tubes, each slightly too small to go over the one below it without force; the amount of this difference in size being so regulated that with a certain amount of pressure each tube shall be equally strained, or that the outside (which can be replaced if broken) shall be most strained. One of these tubes should extend the entire length of the gun, the others may be formed of more convenient sizes. We really should like to see this system put into general practice. Its value can scarcely be over-estimated. cast solid burst at the twentieth round, the the bars in that manner, which is the only part of his process which has any pretensions to novelty. The kind of iron you describe is one of the modifications of cold short iron, and is known here by the emphatical name of rottentough. I have long known that almost any cold short iron may be brought to that state by rolling it very hot, or by drawing it across the anvil so as to spin the crystals into threads; and, by certain mechanical processes, good iron may be rendered cold short. Nevertheless in neither of these cases is the quality of the iron altered; the good iron continues strong, and the cold short is very weak. I look on Mr. Cort's iron as a cold short, whose crystals are spun out by the rolling, and which is mixed with a large quantity of half metallised earth. It is tender to the file, and soft to the hammer, rusts very readily, and ought never to be used where it is subjected to any strain, as it is very weak, therefore unfit for engine work, ship work, &c., but good for nails, because easily wrought: but then the nailors complain that it wastes more than the common cold short, I suppose because not so well freed from its cinder. I speak only of the iron made from cold short by this proGood iron is hard under the hammer and stubborn to the chisel and file, breaks white, generally granulated, but the very best is fibrous, and white like silver. I find I am getting into a dissertation on iron which I must shorten. Mr. Cort has. as you observe, been most illiberally treated by the trade; they are ignorant brutes: but he exposed himself to it by exposing his process to them before it was perfect; and they saw his ignorance of the commnon operations of making iron, laughed at and despised him; yet they will contrive by some dirty evasion to use his process, or such parts as they like, without acknowledging him in it. I shall be glad to be able to be of any use to him."* Captain Blakely does ample justice to Mr. On another page we give a most interesting account of Captain Blakely's development of his invention, in his own language. AND THE CASE OF HENRY CORT, BY THOMAS WEBSTER, M.A., F.R.S., &c., Barrister-at-Law. No. VI. The iron referred to in this letter, both from the terms employed and from the period of the trials seen by Watt, must have been ordinary Captain Blakely honestly informs us that bar iron subjected to the treatment described from the "Reports of Experiments on Metals THE puddling process as described in the speci- in the specification of the first patent. The "for Cannon," he learns he is not the first per-fication of Cort's second patent, with or without omission of all reference to the puddling proson who proposed a remedy for the unequal the working of the iron by the grooved rollers, cess is conclusive on this point. The sympathy straining of the parts of a gun. In 1851 Lieu- was an improvement in the manufacture of bar of Watt, then struggling with the opposition tenant Rodman of the United States Ordnance from cast iron; the piling, faggoting, and and difficulty of introducing the inventions the proposed, for that purpose, to cast guns hollow heating of the iron in a hot-air furnace in-subject of his patent dated 5th January, 1769, and cool them from within. On the 30th July stead of a hollow fire under blast, and the work- and involved in litigation with those who of that year, at his suggestion an eight-inch gun ing and welding of bar iron by the grooved sought to evade the moderate payment of a was cast hollow by means of a core formed on a rollers was an improvement in the application small portion of the saving which the immortal tube of cast-iron. Through this a stream of of bar iron, however made, to the purposes for genius of the inventor had conferred upon them, water was kept circulating until the gun was which that material was required. The uses must furnish an excuse for the severity of the cool. By this means, Mr. Rodman made the from iron made by the ordinary process, when language of a portion of that letter, and of the inside solidify first. The next layer solidified, piled, faggoted, and worked as described, were strictures upon persons who have shown no indisof course, at a greater temperature than that of much better than had ever before been made position as a body to give due credit to Cort, the extreme inside at that moment, as this had of British iron; but such uses made of puddled though the sequel will show how much there is already had a short time to cool and contract. iron, worked, piled, faggoted and rolled ac- to justify the most severe censure on the indifHad the outside of the gun been kept liquid cording to the complete invention, were equal ference with which the nation has treated the until all the rest had gradually become solid, to those theretofore made of foreign iron only family of one of its greatest benefactors. This giving out all heat through the core only, doubt thus the home was placed upon an equality letter is important as showing the attention less the gun would have been in a condition with the foreign manufacture. very nearly approaching that required by theory, so far as the initial tension on the external portions is concerned. As it was, the gun was much stronger than another cast solid at the same time, of the same size, and of the same metal. The latter burst after 73 rounds with 10 pounds of powder and one 64-pound shot; that cast hollow was fired 1,500 times with the same charge and is still sound. On the 21st August, 1851, two ten-inch guns were cast at New York from the same metal, one solid and one hollow. The latter was cooled from within like the eight-inch gun, but the outside was also allowed to cool, though more slowly. These guns were proved by repeated firing with 18 lbs. of gunpowder and one 124 lb. shot. The gun Cort would appear to have freely invited the "Birmingham, June 6th, 1784. which Cort's discoveries had then received from two of the most eminent men of the time. The invention of Cort, as disclosed by the specifications of his two patents, taken out within thirteen months of each other, is puddling, piling, and faggoting, and heating in an air furnace, and working by grooved rollers; the air or reverberatory furnace was furnished with a hollow bottom, suitable for receiving the fluid mass and permitting it to be worked. This furnace was employed instead of the ordinary finery furnace theretofore used. Much has been said in the course of the controversy in this the substitution of iron or cinder for sand case respecting the construction of the furnace, the work entitled "Mechanical Inventions by James Watt by Muirhead," Vol. II., p. 189. See "Extracts from Mr. Watt's Correspondence,” in bottoms in the puddling furnace, these and other subsequent improvements contributing to the certainty, perfection, and cheapness of the result are additions to, and in no respect detractions from the merit of Cort, who was the first to place the British in a position to compete with the foreign manufacturer. The letter of Watt to Dr. Black is the earliest account that has been preserved of a cotemporary on the subject of Cort's inventions. The following letter from Alexander Raby, who had been in the iron trade between forty and fifty years, and well acquainted with its manufacture at least twenty years prior to Cort's inventions, will be read with interest; though not written for many years afterwards. It was addressed to Mr. Coningsby Cort on the occasion of the inquiry by the Parliamentary Committee, in 1812, into the merits of Cort's inventions : "Llanelly, June 20, 1812. "DEAR SIR, I have received your letter of the 15th past. What I said to Mr. Giddy and Mr. Maddox upon your father's mode of making bar iron, I have not the least objection to state in writing. The partner and associate with Cort in the business at Fontley, Adam Jellicoe, was, as appears by an agreement dated the 8th of Jan., 1781, entitled to one-half the premises, &c., on paying half the cost and one-half of all contracts and stock-in-trade, at a price to be settled by arbitration, and in consideration of finding the necessary capital was to participate equally in the profits of the trade. It appears that Cort advanced £20,000, and Jellicoe £27,500 on the Fontley business. In one respect Cort was more fortunate than many of his class; the practical instinct and indomitable perseverance, the characteristics of his inventive genius, were not smothered by the want of pecuniary means to demonstrate the truth of his speculations. The manufacture by his process from the commonest description of cast iron of iron equal and superior to the best qualities of foreign iron became an established and admitted fact. Immediately after the date of his second patent, Cort was able to obtain the ear and command the attention of the public departments to his invention, which in 1785 and 1786 was made the subject of trials in the dockyards of Portsmouth, Deptford, Woolwich, Sheerness, Chatham, and Plymouth. The result of these trials was published in 1787, accompanied by a statement of facts authenticated by the authority of Lord Sheffield, Dr. Joseph Black, and David Hartley. "I was in the habit of intimacy with your father several years before he began his puddling system for making bar iron, and when he began it, and after he had used it some time, I was still of the unbelieving tribe, that thought it would never come to anything. I expressed myself so both publicly and privately at that time, and I may venture to say most other people in the iron trade thought of it as I did, and I am sure no man thought well enough of it for a long time after to claim the merit of the invention, nor was it thought of otherwise till your father, by his perseverance, had so far The following extracts from original docufurthered the plan by producing most expediments which have been preserved, and from the tiously large quantities of bar iron by working printed statement so authenticated, will be read it in grooved rollers after being puddled, instead of under hammers, which invention of rolling bars was also entirely new and his own. Attempts had been made to roll round iron in hollows turned in rollers, but never to roll bar iron in grooved roll, which is very different, as round iron is not rolled in grooves, but in loose semicircles. No man, I think, will attempt to say he was the inventor of rolling bar iron in grooves, or to prove your father was not. "Unbelieving as I was, I soon became a convert to his mode of puddling and rolling bar iron both as to quantity and quality. Some improvements soon also took place by first refining the pigs or cast iron before they puddled it, but it was obliged to be puddled before it was made into bars; nor could their refined metal be worked to profit or with expedition by any other mode than by puddling. I will venture to say that owing to that system and the use of grooved rolls, this kingdom is indebted for its present proud state of the iron trade, when instead of being obliged to bow down to the north of Europe for a scanty supply of that useful article at a very high price, we are enabled to supply all our own wants with an immense annual saving to the country. But was not only all Europe, but all the world to depend npon us for bar iron, Great Britain would be able to supply the whole, both good and cheap. And to whom is all this grand improvement and national benefit owing? and with whom did it originate but with your father? Envious persous may want to pervert the merit that is due to him, but when I recollect the trouble, pains, and expense he was at to make converts, so as to increase the quantity made by his mode when he was himself convinced of its utility, and the premium some great men then in the iron trade were in consequence thereof willing to pay for the use of his patent, surely that alone is sufficient to prove the inventions were with interest : Navy Office, 13th June, 1783. "Messrs. CORT AND JELLICOE,-In return to your letter of yesterday requesting that directions may be given to inspect the nature of your new-invented method of working iron, acquaint you that we have directed some of Portsmouth officers with the master-smith to proceed to the works and report fully their opinion. (Signed) "CHAS. MIDDLETON, "J. WILLIAMS, "GEO. ROGERS." "Portsmouth Dock, 7th July, 1783. "HONOURABLE SIRS,---In obedience to your directions of the 13th post, in consequence of a letter from Messrs. Cort and Jellicoe, requesting directions may be given to inspect the nature of their new-invented method of preparing, welding, and working various sorts of iron, that the master-shipwright and his first assistant, with the storekeeper and master-smith, should proceed to the works and thoroughly examine the process they make use of, and report fully their opinion thereon, returning the enclosed with their answer. iron into a malleable and tough state by the above process, equal to the best Orground iron, which we flatter ourselves will be clearly investigated by the following experiments: "By putting a piece of the best Orground iron, marked (L); of nine pounds weight into the air furnace, and when so hot as above described took out and passed between the rollers, whose pressure is such as to discharge the greatest part of the dross and impurities from the said iron; for on weighing it after it had passed through the above process we found it weighed only 83 lbs., so that it discharged of a pound in nine. "We also tried three other pieces of iron of the different weights and qualities by the above process, whith are as follows, viz., a piece of the 2nd sort of iron of 9 lbs., which on weighing after it had passed the above process weighed only 63 lbs., so that it discharged 2 lbs. ; a piece of the 3rd sort of 5 lbs. weighed after passing the above process, only 34 lbs. ; a piece of very bad iron of 4 lbs. weighed after passing the above process only 23 lbs.; by which it appears that the dross discharged by this process is in proportion to the goodness of the several sorts of iron; and by every trial we made, as far as we could discover by the different discharges of the dross and impurities from the different sorts of iron, it all became equally pure to any iron that can be manufactured. We also had some faggots of old iron hoops, and of the smallest sort of Birstrel iron put into the air-furnace and worked under a forge-hammer of 7 or 8 cwt., which welded it so entirely as to make it perfectly one solid body, and at the same time also discharged the greatest part of the dross, which we proved by passing it afterwards between the rollers and slitting into hoops, and another piece into bars of a half-inch square, and then drawing into bolt staves, which was very good. We also made a tackle-hook from some of the same iron, and put it cold under the forge-hammer, which did not break it. We are therefore humbly of opinion, from the many experiments we have made both from old and Birstrel iron, &c., when properly manufactured, as set forth on the other side, by being heated to a proper heat in the air-furnace and worked under the rollers or forge-hammers as therein described, is very proper iron for making mooring-chains, boltstaves, tackle-hooks, &c., &c., &c., or any other uses it may be wanted, for this or any of His Majesty's yards. "We had also two links of large mooringchains drawn from the air furnace, under the forge-hammer, which we found to be quite solid and much tougher than those made from the common forge; and herewith we return Messrs. Cort and Jellicoe's letter, which being sub mitted, "We remain, Honourable Sirs, "Your most obedient Servants, "(Signed) GEO. WHITE, WM. RULE, "J. BADCOCK, J. GREENWAY." Other letters and communications passed about the same time in reference to the trials, which established conclusively to the satisfaction of the authorities the superiority of the iron made according to Cort's processes of manu facture. "In answer, pray leave to acquaint you that we have been to Messrs. Cort and Jellicoe's mills at Fontley, and thoroughly examined the process they make use of in preparing, welding, and working various sorts of iron, which they do by putting the iron designed to be worked into an air furnace, where it remains until it is so hot as to be between a welding and a fluid state, when it is either worked under a forgehammer of 7 or 8 cwt. or passed between two rollers of about 9 cwt. each, which immediately and very visibly destroys the greatest part of the dross and impurities from the said iron, and if required will also weld two bars together at the same time, as well as bring the most brittle Russell's Rifle Clubs and Volunteer Corps, 1s. 6d. LIST OF NEW BOOKS. Cassell's Natural History: the Monkey Tribe, 2s. Newth's Mathematical Examples, 83. 6d. THE GLOBE TELEGRAPH. In a late number a review was given of Mr. Beardmore's pamphlet upon "The Globe Telegraph," under which title was proposed a system of electro-telegraphic communication, which bids fair to solve the difficulties which attend the transmission of signals in long submarine wires. To most of our professional readers these difficulties, and the method by which it is now shown they may, in all probability, be overcome, are already familiar; but we think it necessary, in order that the general reader may be au courant with a subject involving, perhaps, the very possibility of successfully establishing a telegraphic link between the Old World and the New, to give a brief apergu of this plan, and of the advantages said to be derived from it. The galvanic arrangement employed by the patentees of the "Globe Telegraph" consists simply of the "two dissimilar metals" with which Subzar experimented, and the effect of which in contact was (some fifty years afterwards), investigated by Galvani, and made the subject of a science by Volta. The battery arrangement discovered by the latter philosopher in his Couranne de Tasses, consisting of a series of alternations of dissimilar metals contained in separate vessels, and connected one with the other by a metallic wire, is relinquished for a single couple, the amount of surface of which is regulated according to the distance between the metals; and the wire, by means of which a metallic connection is established between, then becomes the medium through which the current is rendered available. By increasing the number of the galvanic couples, and by immersing them in an active chemical agent, Volta was enabled to obtain the energetic action due to what is termed "tension " less extent the available electricity of the plates. | case, which is quite straight, and allows the letters obvious when we take into account the enormous lays the medal in the space alluded to. He now In April of the present year a trial of the new system was made between Guernsey and Southampton, in which, with single plates of zinc and copper, 110 miles apart, and less than three square feet in size, sufficient electro-motive force was obtained to work a Siemens instrument. Little attention appears to have been directed to this experiment, which we would now offer for the consideration of those who were present at the reading of Mr. Varley's paper at the Society of Arts in March last, under the impression that it might throw some new light upon the difficulties of submarine telegraphy. MONEY-MAKING AT THE ROYAL MINT. puts his hand to the wheel, and turns it until the sliding bar advances with its wooden cheek, and the latter catches the edge of the medal. Continuing now, per wheel, the forward pressure, the medal is made to revolve in front of the steel letters, and to take from them the requisite inscription. After passing beyond the case of the type the medal is necessarily released, and if on examination found free from error or imperfection, is placed in a numbered envelope, and for the present set aside. Mr. Compositor now looks to the next name on his list, re-sets the type in accordance therewith, and repeats the operation as described, and to be continued until the list is completed; but it is unavoidably a slow process. The Mint may at this stage be said to wash its hands of medals, for they are despatched after and thence to the court jewellers, Messrs. Hunt lettering to the Horse Guards or the Admiralty, and Roskell, to be further fitted with clips, ribands, and clasps, one of the latter, indeed, being given for each important action in which its recipient may have been engaged. The jewellers return them to the Government office, to which they pertain, and soon they are seen decorating the breasts of those who have nobly earned them. Besides the general medals given for the Kafir, the Russian, the Persian, and the Indian wars, there are occasionally struck and distributed particular decorations for " meritorious service," "distinguished conduct in the field," medals in all cases are of the same intrinsic value, and for "long service and good conduct." The weight, and material, namely, 5s. 6d., one ounce, and of fine silver. The mountings, labour, &c., make them cost the State, however, about eight shillings each. In order to make our explanation of the mode of getting up medals yet more clear and explicit it must be stated that there are two machines employed at the Mint for lettering, after they are struck, the edges of those badges of honourable distinction. These machines are so constructed rank, name, and ship, or regiment of each person as to indent, by the aid of small steel type, the destined to receive a medal, upon its edges. As may be imagined, this operation is a tedious one, and when many have to be lettered in a comparatively short space of time, a compositor from an ordinary printing office is engaged on the Thus much on medals; now let us revert to a duty. In the case of the Crimean medals-of process intimately connected with money and which we believe, so indiscriminately were they medal making-that of the conversion of square bestowed upon English, French, Sardinian, and bars of cast steel into dies. Without these no Turkish soldiers and others, 400,000 were dis- legitimate coining can go on, whatever the ladle tributed-it was found impossible to letter more and mould, in an illegitimate sense, may accomthan a select few. It would have been ex-plish "down Whitechapel way." All the dies ceedingly difficult to collect the names of the used in the Royal Mint are made in that establishmotley host which comprised the allied forces, ment, and it would be improper to conclude our and more difficult, perhaps, to decipher those series of papers on money-making without allusion names, or find space for them with the other par- to the manner in which they are manufactured. ticulars, and the clips, upon the limited circum- The bars of steel intended for conversion into ference of the medal. Officers and men, however, coining dies, are selected from the very finest of the British Naval and Military Services had the that can be produced. The Messrs. Turton, of privilege allowed them of returning, through Sheffield, have obtained honourable mention for the Admiralty or the War Office, their medals to the rare quality of the article for the especial purthe Mint for the purpose of having their names, pose which they have supplied. A much larger &c., impressed upon them, and many, we believe, per-centage of coins are obtained, we are credibly availed themselves of the opportunity. informed, from dies made of their steel, than and worked by hand. The machines for effecting the object are small, from those got up from any other. Supposing In one the medals may that we were about to carry out the decimal sysbe lettered after the clips have been attached, and tem of coinage as shadowed forth lately in our in the other before. In the first the medal is put own columns, and that the engraver of the Royal into the machine vertically, and the type is made Mint had received instructions to prepare designs to travel underneath it; in the second, which is and get up dies for the one or two new coins that usually employed, and which we shall there- which would thus become necessary, he would fore more fully describe, the medal is placed hori- commence his important duty much after the zontally in the machine, and made to revolve following fashion :against the type. This machine consists of a firm With pencil, paper, and compasses, he would take oaken bed, supported on four legs, and fitted with a the initiatory step, that of sketching the obverse hand-wheel and crank, calculated to give to a and reverse of the coin-say the cent, for exsquare horizontal bar of iron working in a planed ample. Having satisfied himself upon the progroove a travel of some six inches. Parallel with portions, devices, and inscription of the embryo this iron bar, which rises to perhaps of an inch pieces, the engraver would next obtain a piece of above the groove, and to one side of which is at- steel cut from a square bar, of the best quality, tached a boxwood cheek-parallel with this is a forged into the cylindrical forms of the proper stationary recess for holding the type case. Be-dimensions, faced in the lathe, and in a soft state. But the current produced by the simple tween the cheek and the type case there is a space slightly less than the diameter of the medal. galvanic couple possesses an important advantage within this space the medals, flatly laid, receive over any other "quantity" arrangement, insomuch their indentations. The compositor, sitting at a as the electricity has no tendency to escape table beside the machine, with his war office or through the earth from an imperfectly insulated Admiralty "copy" before him, and his alphabetiwire. In the proposed arrangement any deficiency cally-arranged type near at hand, has set up in the little case, about 4 inches in length, say the of insulation can only interfere with the transname of "Serjeant Major John Jackson, 60th mission of the current by causing the wire to act Rifles," or of Admiral Sir Charles Napier, H.M.S. as a voltaic velement, neutralising to a greater or | Undaunted." Well, he next carefully places the electricity. By "tension," in opposition to "quantity," is understood that property by which an electric current produces in a higher degree the effects of muscular disturbance in animal bodies, and of electro-chemical decomposition in inorganic compounds. But it is by no means necessary that this property should exist in any high degree for the production of those phenomena on which depends the transmission of electric signals, and, on the other hand, it is now evident that the employment of high tension electricity is productive of serious disadvantages as regards "induced currents" and the loss of electricity. The usual electric signal consists in the deflection of a magnetic needle; and this deflection may be produced with a current of very low tension by means of a short coil of a thick wire, upon which the ordinary telegraphic current would produce a scarcely perceptible effect. This being the case, the employment of tension electricity, with long coils of five wire, offering a considerable resistance to the circuit, certainly appears anomalous; and the substitution of the contrary conditions would be a step in advance in the art of electro-telegraphy. To the faced ends of this he would transfer with pointed gravers the design determined on. The next operation would be to commence engraving that design on the surface of the steel with small tools prepared for the purpose. After, as may be supposed, a very considerable amount of sedentary and tedious labour, and no ordinary exertion of patience, there appears upon the surface of the steel a very perfect copy in intaglio of the original design. Repeated impressions taken from this in clay of a peculiar nature and colour-hard and |