Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Introductory Lecture to the Course of Metallurgy at the Royal School of Mines 1

  • Article
  • Published:

From Nature

View current issue Submit your manuscript

Abstract

THE distinguished metallurgist who has held this lecturership since the foundation of the Royal School of Mines, concluded the introductory lecture he delivered more than a quarter of a century ago2 by pointing out to the students who were then beginning their course that “in proportion to the success with which the metallurgic art is practised in this country will the interests of the whole population, directly or indirectly, in no inconsiderable degree be promoted.” This is a fact that none of his students are likely to forget.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. By Prof. W. Chandler Roberts, F.R.S., Chemist of the Mint. Condensed by the Author.

  2. Records of the School of Mines, vol. i. pt. 1 (1852) p. 127.

  3. Rossignol, "Les Métaux dans l'Antiquité" (1863).

    Google Scholar 

  4. "Lectures by Joseph Black, M.D.," vol. i. p. 8 (Edin., 1803).

  5. "The Works of Geber," translated by R. Russell (1686), pp. 74, 78, 220, 234.

  6. "Pirotechnia" (Vinegia, 1540), translated into French by T. Vincent (Rouen, 1627), p. 41.

  7. "Essays de Jean Rey" (reprinted in Paris, 1777), p. 64.

  8. 2 MS. Register Book of the Royal Society.

  9. "Tractatus quinque Medico-Physici," p. 25 et seq. (Oxonii, 1674).

  10. Collected works, vol. iii., (1744), p. 347.

  11. "Cours de Chymie" (1675). and English edition (1686), p. 107.

  12. I am indebted to my friend Prof. Ferguson, M.A., of the University of Glasgow, whose eminence as a historian of chemistry is well known, for several interesting additional facts in connection with the calcination of metals. After referring to Eck (1480), Glauber (1651), and others, he writes: "One of the most curious passages I know is in the Hippocrates Chemicus of Otto Tachen, or Tachenius, a German who lived at Venice and published his book there in 1666. He describes how lead, when burnt to minium, increases in weight. This increase he ascribes to a substance of acid character in the wood used for burning, and then, by a very curious course of argument, based on the saponifying powers of litharge, makes out that lead is of the nature of or contains an alkali, which combines with the occult acid of the fat. This is a curious anticipation of n very modern classification which brings lead into relationship with the alkalies and alkaline earths, as well as of Chevreul's investigations."

  13. "Leçons sur la Dissociation," 1864.

  14. Records of the School of Mines, vol. i. pt. 1 (1852), p. 128.

  15. "Pyrotechnical Metallurgy," by J. C. Fritschius of Schwartzburg (translated in 1704), p. 203.

    Google Scholar 

  16. "Chemical Essays," 2nd edition (1782), vol. i. p. 47.

  17. Records of the School of Mines, vol. i. pt. 1 (1852), p. 20.

  18. British Association Report, Brighton (1872). p. 238.

  19. "A Plea for Pure Scence" (Inaugural Lecture, University College, London. 1870).

  20. Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute (1873), No. 1, p. 12.

  21. Ibid. (1877). No. 1, p. 7.

  22. Ibid. (1879), No. 1, p. 24.

  23. NATURE, vol. xxii. p. 548.

  24. Times, December 31, 1879.

  25. "Metallurgy—Iron and Steel" (1864), p. 819.

  26. M. Gruner, Annales des Mines (1869), t. xvi. p. 199.

  27. M. Gruner, Annales des Minus, part 1 (1879), p. 146; H. von Tunner, Zeitschrift der berg- und hüttemnännischen Vereins für Steyermark u. Kärnten, xii. Jahrg., Mai-Juni 1880; Herr J. Massenez, Engineering, vol. xxx. (1880), p. 198.

    Google Scholar 

  28. British Association Report, Plymouth (1877), p. 44.

  29. Report, vol. ii. Minutes of Evidence, p. 86 (1874).

  30. Ann. Chim. et Phys. [3], t. xlvi. p. 182; Comptes rendus, t. xc. (1880).

  31. "Sur les Lois des Proportions chimiques" (1865), p. 37.

  32. Proc. Roy. Soc. vol. xxiii. (1875), p. 344.

  33. Åkerman, Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute, No. 2 (1878), p. 360.

  34. Engineering, vol. xxix. (1880), p. 478.

  35. Figures convey but little impression as to such high temperatures; but it may be mentioned that Dewar has given 7000° C. as approximately the temperature of the electric arc (Brit. Assoc. Rep. 1873, p. 466), and, according to Rossetti, the true temperature of the sun can hardly be less than 10,000° C. or more than 20,000° C.—Phil- Mag. [5], vol. viii. p. 550 (1879).

  36. Phil. Trans. 1866, p. 438.

  37. First Report of the Committee on the Hardening, Tempering, and Annealing of Steel, 1879.

  38. "On the Structure of Cast Steel Ingots" Translated for the Institution of Mechanical Engineers by W. Anderson, C.E. (1879).

    Google Scholar 

  39. Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft, 1879, No. xii. 93; Glaser's Annalen für Gewerbe und Bauwesen, August, 1880, p. 138.

  40. Trève and Durassier, Comp. rend., t. lxxx. (1875); p. 799; Watten hofen, Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute, 1879, No. 1, p. 305.

  41. Barus, Phil. Mag. [5], vol. viii. p. 341.

  42. W. H. Johnson, Chemical News, vol. xlii. (1880), p. 70.

    Google Scholar 

  43. V. Deshayes, "Classement et Emploi des Aciers" (Paris, 1880); also Bull. Chem. Soc. tom. xxxi. (1879), p. 166.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Introductory Lecture to the Course of Metallurgy at the Royal School of Mines 1 . Nature 23, 65–69 (1880). https://doi.org/10.1038/023065b0

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/023065b0

  • Springer Nature Limited

Search

Navigation