act was passed providing for the simplifying of criminal proceedings.

Other acts were:

Providing that one who obtains by false pretense or converts or secretes with the intention of converting the personal property of another, whether in possession or not, is guilty of larceny; but this does not apply to false pretense of ability to pay, when the payment is due after delivery, unless in signed writing.

Establishing the boundary between Massachusetts and New Hampshire and between Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

To prevent counterfeiting of trade-marks. Making it a misdemeanor for a debt collector to wear an unusual or striking costume. Appropriating $50,000 additional for exhibit at the Paris Exposition.

Creating a commission for the Pan-American Exposition.

Establishing a new board of cattle commissioners, and enacting a general law for preventing spread of disease among domestic animals. Directing that renovated butter be plainly stamped on the top, side, and bottom of original packages and on the outside of every retail package.

Requiring cities and towns to establish seals. Providing for allowances to families of persons killed while on duty at fires, whether they are firemen, or members of a protective department, or others on duty at the request of authorities in places having no fire department. Prescribing a fine of $5 to $100 against any one allowing an animal to injure a shade tree on a highway-half to go to the complainant and half to the State.

Requiring charitable corporations exempt from taxation to make annual reports to the State Board of Charities.

Requiring that illegitimate children under three years of age-instead of under one year, as heretofore when received for board be reported to the State Board of Charities.

Making the city building-inspection law applicable to towns.

Providing that a guardian may be licensed to sell his ward's realty to pay existing mortgages. Providing that the State Highway Commission may spend $500,000, of which $12,000 is to be used for machinery and $100,000 to be reserved for use after Jan. 1, 1900; authorizing a thirty years' loan; only citizens may be employed.

Allowing commissioned militia officers in service July 1, 1897, who served in the civil war to retire with the next higher rank.

Making it unlawful to deface the United States flag or the State flag, or to use them for advertising purposes.

Making it a misdemeanor to deface a monument or tablet commemorating an historic event. Creating a commission to publish records of soldiers and sailors in the civil war.

For purchasing for the State 500 copies of any history of State organizations in the Spanish

war.

Establishing a standard for milk analysis. Allowing the informant in cases of infraction of the fish and game laws, unless he is a paid deputy, to receive half the fines, the other half going to the State.

Providing that every Sunday shall be a close season for birds and game.

Providing for continuance of the publication of province laws.

Appropriating $12,000 for buying portraits of State governors.

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Whereas, Roger Williams's doctrine of religious liberty, for advocating which he was banished, has become the fundamental sentiment of Christendom; be it

"Resolved. We, the citizens of Cambridge, Mass., petition the honorable Legislature at your earliest convenience to pass an act revoking said sentence of banishment, and your petitioners will ever pray God save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts."

Political. The first party to hold a State convention this year was the Socialist-Democrat. The 56 delegates, representing 25 branches, met in Boston, May 28. The ticket named follows: For Governor, Winfield P. Porter; Lieutenant Governor, Isaac W. Skinner; Secretary of State, Charles H. Bradley; Treasurer, C. White; Auditor, A. McDonald. The principal demands in the platform were:

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Revision of our antiquated Federal Constitution in order to move the obstacles to full and complete control of the Government by all the people, irrespective of sex; public ownership of all industries controlled by monopolies, trusts, and combines; reduction of the hours of labor to eight hours per day, and further in proportion to the increasing facilities of production; labor legislation to be made national as well as local and international where possible; equal civil and political rights for women and the abolition of all laws discriminating against women; abolition of war as far as the United States are concerned, and the introduction of international arbitration instead; the right of trial by jury in case of contempt of court; a more efficient employers' liability law; self-government for cities and towns in all local affairs; the State to assume life and fire insurance."

The convention of the Prohibition party was held at Worcester, Sept. 13. The ticket was: For Governor, John W. Baer; Lieutenant Governor, James H. Roberts; Secretary of State, John B. Lewis; Treasurer, Herbert B. Griffin; Auditor, Franklin A. Palmer; Attorney-General, Sidney Perley.

The essential points of the platform were the declaration in favor of the abolition of the liquor traffic and against the saloon as the deadliest enemy of the laborer. On the issues of commerce, currency, and territorial expansion no stand was taken, the platform considering them "too important to be dealt with merely as party footballs, and kicked by scheming politicians backed by saloon interests." The platform favors woman's suffrage and denounces the army canteen, which, it asserts, is retained by the Government against the judgment of the superior army and

navy officers and in defiance of the laws of Congress.

The Democratic State Convention, in Boston, Sept. 21, nominated the following ticket: For Governor, Robert Treat Paine, Jr.; Lieutenant Governor, John H. Mack; Attorney-General, John H. Morrison; Auditor, W. L. Ramsdell; Secretary of State, Harry Lloyd; Treasurer, Joseph J. Flynn. Later E. Gerry Brown, a Populist, was nominated for Auditor, Mr. Ramsdell having declined.

The platform declares that the Chicago platform of 1896, “like the Declaration of Independence, stands as a part of the fundamental code of the Democratic government."

The financial plank of that instrument is particularly reiterated, and the financial ills of the five years prior to 1897 are ascribed to "a contracted currency, for which Republican financial legislation had provided no form of relief."

The Republican party is accused of planning to surrender to the banks the governmental functions of issuing paper money and controlling its volume.

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To-day our trust magnates are our bankers. They hold the bank stock, they sit on the boards of directors; they select the officials, and they will apply to their command over the supply of the nation's money the same merciless and extortionate methods which they use in turning to their own profit their present monopolies." The war in the Philippines is characterized as criminal aggression, wanton, needless, and wasteful, and incompetently and corruptly prosecuted. It is demanded that to "the Filipinos as to the Cubans shall be said to-day that they are of right and ought to be free and independent."

The platform favors direct legislation, the initiative and referendum, the election of United States Senators by direct vote of the people, and the enforcement of an eight-hour work day, the abolition of the law granting a fe tenure to members of the judiciary, the public ownership and operation of street railways, water works, and other municipal enterprises.

Delegates were chosen to the National Democratic Convention of 1900.

The People's party made no nominations, but in October the Executive Committee approved the Democratic platform. The position of the party in the State was defined as follows: "Having for three years indorsed the Democratic State Convention candidates for State offices, and having voted for them, it is well to continue doing so until the next national convention shall decide whether the national alliance of 1890 is to be continued or a new and independent departure inaugurated."

The Republican convention was held in Boston, Oct. 6. Following is the ticket: For Governor, W. Murray Crane; Lieutenant Governor, John L. Bates; Secretary of State, William M. Olin; Attorney-General, H. M. Knowlton; Auditor, John W. Kimball; Treasurer and Receiver General, Edward S. Bradford.

The platform opens with felicitation upon "the results which have followed the restoration of the Republican party to power in all the branches of the Federal Government." On the subject of national finances and the currency it says: "Bonds and notes payable in coin must be established by law to be payable in gold and provision made for supply of gold when required. The Republican party stands unreservedly pledged to maintain the existing gold standard, and we look with confidence to the Fifty-sixth Congress for the enactment of measures to so perfect our

monetary system that there shall be ample money for the expanding business of the country, and so arm and guard the Treasury that it can at all times protect the national credit."

The platform further urges the opening up of new markets for the manufactured products of the United States, the development of the merchant marine of this country, and such improvement of the principal harbors of the United States as shall make them accessible to the largest vessels afloat. On the subject of trusts the platform says:

The Republican party of Massachusetts is unqualifiedly opposed to trusts and monopoly and the capitalization of fictitious and speculative valuations."

Confidence is expressed in the national Administration, and belief that the war in the Philippines can be brought to an early termination. Civil service reform laws are commended, and strict naturalization laws and further restriction of immigration are urged. Lynching is condemned. The resolutions close with commendation of Gov. Wolcott's administration.

The result of the election in November was the success of the Republican ticket. The vote for Governor stood: Crane, Republican, 168,902; Paine, Democrat, 100,802; Porter, Socialist-Labor, 10,778; Baer, Prohibitionist, 7,402.

In the cities, especially Haverhill, Brockton, Quincy, and Newburyport, the Socialist-Democrats made large gains on the vote of the previous State election. In the municipal elections in December also they showed strength, electing the mayor in Brockton. As a rule, the Republicans were successful in the city elections.

The Legislature of 1900 stands: Senate, 31 Republicans, 9 Democrats; House, 166 Republicans, 68 Democrats, 4 Independents, 2 Socialist-Democrats.

Following is the Executive Council: David F. Slade, William W. Davis, Oliver H. Durrell, Charles I. Quirk, George F. Harwood, S. Herbert Howe, Martin V. B. Jefferson, Parley A. Russell. Mr. Quirk is a Democrat; all the others are Republicans.

METALLURGY.

At the thirtieth annual meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute Sir W. C. Roberts-Austen, referring to the present condition of practical metallurgy as compared with that at the beginning of the century, said that there were now blast furnaces which would produce 700 tons of iron daily, with a consumption of 15 hundredweight of coal per ton. The gases from blast furnaces are used as sources of heat and directly in gas engines. There are Bessemer furnaces that hold 50 tons of metal and openhearth furnaces that also take 50 tons, while 100ton furnaces are projected. The open-hearth furnaces are fed with one ton of material in a minute by the aid of a large spoon worked by an electro-motor. There are gigantic mixers, capable of holding 200 tons of pig iron, in which, moreover, a certain amount of preliminary purification is effected. Steel plates are rolled of more than 300 feet in area and 2 inches thick. Girders are made which justify the belief of Sir Benjamin Baker that a bridge connecting England and France might be built over the Channel in halfmile spans.

We have ship plates that buckle up during a collision, but remain water tight; steel armor-piercing shot which will penetrate a thickness of steel equivalent to more than 37 inches of wrought iron, the points of the shot remaining intact, although the striking velocities are nearly 2,800 feet a second; wires that will sustain a load of 170 tons per square inch with

out fracture. Hadfield has given us manganese steel that will not soften by annealing, while Guillaume has studied the properties of certain nickel steels that will not expand by heat, and others that contract when heated and expand when cooled. Nickel, chromium, titanium, and tungsten are freely alloyed with iron, and the use of vanadium, uranium, molybdenum, and even glucinum is suggested. Steel rails are made which will remain in use seventeen years and only lose 5 pounds per yard, though 50,500,000 tons of traffic pass over them. Huge ingots are placed in soaking pits and forged direct by 120ton hammers or pressed into shape by 14,000-ton presses. Steel castings for parts of ships are made that weigh more than 35 tons. We electrically rivet and electrically anneal hardened ship plates that could not otherwise be drilled. Photo-micrography enables us to study the pathology of steel and to suggest remedial measures for its treatment. Ewing and Rosenhain have recognized quite recently by its aid that the plasticity of a metal is due to "slip" along the cleavage planes of crystals, and by its aid Osmond has shown that the entire structure of certain alloys can be changed by heating to so low a temperature as 225 C. The range of properties possessed by steel is wide, and by its use the efforts of a multitude of workers have been, as it were, concentrated in a few great efforts which have exerted vast influence on the progress of mankind.

Much information has been obtained regarding the structure of metals by microscopic examination. When a highly polished surface of metal is lightly etched and examined under the microscope it reveals a structure which shows that the metal is made up in general of irregularly shaped grains with well-defined bounding surfaces. The exposed face of each grain has been found to consist of a multitude of crystal facets, having a definite orientation. Seen under oblique illumination, these facets exhibit themselves reflecting the light in a uniform manner over each single grain, but in very various manners over different grains, and, by changing the angle of incidence of the light, one or another grain is made to flash out comparatively brightly over its whole exposed surface, while others become dark. The grains appear to be produced by crystallization, proceeding, more or less simultaneously, from as many centers or nuclei as there are grains, and the irregular, more or less polygonal boundaries which are seen on a polished and etched surface result from the meeting of these crystal growths. In experiments by Prof. Ewing and Walter Rosenhain to witness the behavior of the crystalline grains when the metal is subjected to strain a polished surface was watched under the microscope while the metal was gradually extended till it broke. When a piece of iron or other metal exhibiting the usual granular structure was stretched beyond its elastic limit sharp, black lines gradually appeared on the faces of the crystalline grains; of a few grains only at first, but of more as the straining was continued. On each grain they were more or less straight and parallel, but their directions were different on different grains. The appearance of each grain is so like that of a crevassed glacier that these dark lines might readily be taken for cracks. They are, however, not cracks, but slips along planes of cleavage or gliding planes. When the metal is much strained a second system of bands appears on some of the grains, crossing the first system at an angle, and in some cases showing little steps where the lines cross. These bands are considered due to VOL. XXXIX.-31 A

slips occurring in a second set of cleavage or gliding surfaces. Occasionally a third system of bands may be seen. When the experiment is made with a polished but unetched specimen the slip bands appear equally well. The boundaries of the grains are invisible before straining, but they can be distinguished as the strain proceeds, for the slip bands form a cross hatching that serves to mark out the surface of each grain. The slip bands are developed by compression as well as by extension. They appear, when an iron bar is twisted well beyond the elastic limit, for the most part in directions parallel and perpendicular to the axis of twist. A strip of sheet metal in the soft state when bent and unbent in the fingers shows them well developed by the extension and compression of the surface. They have been developed by the authors in iron, steel, copper, silver, gold, nickel, bismuth, tin, gun metal, and brass. They are more difficult to observe in carbon steels than in wrought iron. The experiments are believed to throw a new light on the character of plastic strain in metals and other irregular crystalline aggregates, showing that plasticity is due to slip on the part of the crystals along cleavage or gliding surfaces. It is inferred that "flow" or nonelastic deformation in metals occurs through slips within each crystalline grain of portions of the crystal on one another along surfaces of cleavage or gliding surfaces.

In a paper on the diffusion of elements in iron Prof. J. Oliver Arnold and A. M. William remarked that Sir J. Lowthian Bell and Sir Frederick Abel had shown many years ago that if steel and wrought iron were placed in close contact and heated the iron gained and the steel lost carbon. They then referred to a series of experiments made by Prof. Campbell, of Michigan, on the diffusion of sulphur through hot iron. This author's results were not concordant, but some of his data and the conclusion he deduced from them were so startling and improbable that his work was hardly deemed worthy of serious discussion by theoretical metallurgists. He had stated that pure sulphide of iron would not diffuse through hot iron, but that oxysulphide of iron diffused through it unchanged without contaminating the metal. He had therefore pointed out that the fact of a triple compound thus rapidly diffusing deprived of all its cogency the doctrine that because carbon diffused it must necessarily do so in a state of elementary solution. By experiments upon samples furnished by Prof. Campbell, illustrating each stage of his work, the authors had found that, although he seemed in error with reference to the nondiffusive power of pure sulphide of iron, the accuracy of his general conclusions was confirmed, and that he had made an important discovery in metallurgical physics. Sir W. C. Roberts-Austen had shown in 1896 that on fusing gold plates to the bases of bars of lead the gold-lead alloy interpenetrated the lead bars when they were maintained for some time at a temperature of 250° C.-a point well below the melting point of lead-and he had proved that at the end of a month the gold-lead alloy had actually traveled up to the top of the lead bars, a distance of not less than 2 inches. These results suggested to the authors the probability of similar molecular migrations taking place in the compounds of the elements fixing in that complex metal called steel. It was necessary to conduct experiments involving the maintenance of steel at a full red heat for many hours in a vacuum, so as to avoid oxidation effectsan object for which a very simple and efficient

plan was devised. The four elements-nickel, carbon, sulphur, and phosphorus-were found capable of diffusing through solid hot iron. The authors continued describing the details of their experiments at different temperatures, and announced as their conclusion that now that it had been definitely proved that a compound could diffuse through red-hot iron the last objection to the subcarbide theory seemed to have been removed. In the discussion of the paper in the Iron and Steel Institute some doubts were expressed as to whether these investigations should be accepted as conclusive demonstrations. Mr. Hadfield thought the results would be of great value in the manufacture of armor plate.

In a communication to the British Iron and Steel Institute on the present position of the solution theory of carbonized iron Dr. A. Stansfield reached the conclusions that the carbon in molten iron is in a state of solution, and that the molecule of carbon must then contain one or two atoms, and is probably monatomic. The solidified iron is in the y state, and contains free carbon in solution. The molecular weight of this carbon has not been discussed, but it is probably the same as that in the molten iron. The carbon in solid solution combines with iron, on cooling, to form a carbide, which is probably expressed by the formula 2 (Fe, C). When, on further cooling, this carbide falls out of solution as cementite its formula may become more complicated-the solution theory affords no information on this point-but Sir W. Roberts-Austen stated in his presidential address that the nature of the products of its solution in acids led to the conclusion that the molecule may contain six atoms of carbon, and is at least as complex as would be indicated by the formula 6(Fe,C). There appears to be a belief that the solution theory is in a sense opposed and has gone far enough to supplant the older allotropic theory, but the paper shows that the solution theory of the relations of carbon and iron entirely involves the allotropic changes with which the name of Osmond is connected.

In three successive papers Baron Juptner von Jorstorff has sought to apply the laws of solution to iron and steel. He finds that carbon is dissolved as such in pure iron at a sufficiently high temperature. The molecule of the dissolved carbon between 1,600° and 1,300° C. consists of two atoms. It increases with decreasing temperature, and at 1,150° C. nearly equal amounts of two-atom and three-atom molecules are present in the solution. At a still lower temperature there is in the solution, besides a certain amount of free carbon increasing with the content of carbon present, iron carbide. At first the latter remains in solution with the free carbon (austenite). If, however, its quantity increases above a certain amount, the alloy separates into two parts. In the one part the free carbon prevails; in the other the carbide of iron (martensite) prevails. With falling temperature the amount of the iron carbide increases, as does also the martensite, while the quantity of the austenite decreases until at length only martensite is present. Iron and Steel. The use of finely divided iron ore obtained by a concentrating process was described in a paper by Prof. J. Wiborgh, of Stockholm, read at the autumn meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute. By the introduction of the methods of separation mentioned, the power of enriching iron ores has been greatly increased, but the advantage is qualified by the circumstance that the product obtained is usually in the form of fine powder, which limits its utility to the

smelter. The paper showed how the material may be utilized by direct addition to the charges in the blast furnace, by agglomeration previous to charging in the blast furnace, as a refining or softening material in the open-hearth furnace, and for the production of sponge iron for use in the open-hearth furnace.

The “Kraft" smelting works at Stettin, Germany, are founded on a new principle, and are specially intended to produce pig iron to compete with that imported from England, Sweden, and Spain. The raw materials for producing the pig iron are iron ore, coke, air, and flux. The carbon of the coke serves three purposes in the furnaces— viz., to withdraw the oxygen from the iron ore, to char the iron thus obtained, and to produce the requisite heat. For making coke horizontal furnaces with horizontal channels are used. The finely powdered and washed British coal is put into the furnace by means of a high gangway, and the process of distillation is so conducted that it is able to stand the friction of the ore in the furnace and of the blast. The gas thus formed is used to heat the coke furnaces after the tar has been separated by cooling, and after the ammonia water has been obtained from the ammonia gas by means of suitable washing arrangements. This is manufactured into sulphate of ammonia. Considerable economies are effected by improvements in the arrangement and manipulation of the furnace. Formerly the gases which accumulated, and which consist of 75 per cent. nitrogen, 22 per cent. coal oxide, and 3 per cent. carbonic acid, were allowed to escape; now they are burned under the boiler, and the coal oxide is used to produce the steam for the blasts and the electrical machinery. Attempts have been made for some time to utilize the blast-furnace slag, which consists of calcium, aluminum, and silica. This has now been done, and the slag is used in large pieces or in cast blocks, which are as hard as granite and have a high specific weight, for streets, dikes, and bank protections. The granulated slag, which is produced by running the liquid slag in moving water, and which has a low specific weight, is used to sand the pathways and pavements and as an isolating material, etc. Bricks are made with this slag mixed with lime, which harden in from thirty-six to forty-eight hours.

The fundamental assumption of a hypothesis for the constitution of steel suggested by Prof. E. D. Campbell, of Ann Arbor, Mich., is that iron forms with carbon a series of compounds, which might properly be termed "ferrocarbons,” on account of their similarity in structure to hydrocarbons. This series of ferrocarbons has the empirical formula (CFe,)n, or CnFe,n, and should be considered as derived from the hydrocarbons of the olefine series with the general formula CnH2n by the replacement of the H, by the bivalent groups Fe,. These ferrocarbons, dissolved in hydrochloric acid, yield as their primary products of solution the corresponding olefines and hydrogen.

The Demenge process of hardening steel ingots, which is in use at one of the principal steel works in France, consists in directly carburizing one of the faces of the ingot at the time of casting by lining one of the vertical sides of the mold with carburizing substances. The carburizing action is prevented from penetrating too deeply into the inside of the ingot by casting the vertical side opposite to the carburizing side. The carburization of the one face by this method is said to be quite uniform. The case-hardened surface is rather rough; but all irregularity disappears in

forging, which may be effected without special precaution and at a comparatively low temperature by the press rather than by the steam hammer.

In a paper read before the Iron and Steel Institute on the changes of structure brought about in steel by thermal and mechanical treatment Mr. A. Sauveur showed that as the smaller the grains of the metal the more ductile and tough it will be, and as the finest possible structure results from heating to Brinell's point W, the temperature at which the passage of cement carbon into hardening carbon during the heating of steel takes place namely, from 655° to 730° C. it is evident that every finished piece of unhardened steel should be heated to that temperature. The difficulty of machining so hard a metal has hitherto prevented the use of manganese steel in the construction of burglar-proof safes, for which it is in other respects eminently adapted. This difficulty has been at last overcome. Experiments with gun cotton and dynamite on manganese steel plates are said to have demonstrated that the resistance of this metal to the action of explosives is unequaled by that of any other metal at present known.

In the electric welding of tram-rail joints as practiced at Buffalo, N. Y., the bar used for welding is 1 X3 X 8, and this joining of steel to steel and the increased carrying capacity owing to the bars at the joints results in a joint being a place of least resistance. The plant in operation for the purpose of welding consists of five cars. One of these is a sand-blast car that runs in advance of the welding car and prepares the joint. The other cars are the welding car, the transformer car, the motor and booster car, and a car that runs in the rear to smooth any rough places about the joint. After the welding bars are placed over the joint the jaws of the welder are applied to them, and a pressure of about 1,400 pounds is given by means of a hydraulic jack connected to the upper end. The current is then turned on, and the metal becomes brighter and brighter until the weld is completed, after which the current is turned off and the pressure is increased to about 35 tons. While under this pressure the weld is allowed to cool, after which the car is moved back about 6 inches and the jaws are applied to the other end of the bar, where the process is repeated. The other end is treated in the same manner. In other words, the center weld is made first, and then the end welds. Artificial means of cooling are used, and as the bars cool they exert a powerful influence in bringing the rail ends close, so as to make a tight joint. The current for the operation of the plant is taken from the trolley-wire service. It would be expected, from considerations of the action of heat upon metals, that rails welded in this way would buckle when they experienced a considerable rise of temperature or snap when the temperature was very low, but, as a matter of fact, welded rails neither buckle nor break. By applying immense pressure to the material during welding the length of a continuous rail made by this process is said to have no limit except the length

of the line itself.

In special examinations of steel rails which had broken under traffic Mr. W. G. Kirkaldy found that the breakage resulted from failure beginning at the top, and that the deterioration was confined entirely to the top or running head. It was of the nature of a mechanical hardening of the surface under the action of the rolling load. In some cases it further developed into a species of disintegration by the formation of minute

transverse cracks, which by gradual deepening ultimately resulted in failure unless the rail was removed in time. Sir W. C. Roberts-Austen supplemented the reading of Mr. Kirkaldy's paper in the Institute of Civil Engineers with a statement of the principles that guide microphotography of steel rails. The most generally useful information regarding the structure of a steel rail is obtained by treating a highly polished surface of the section with an effusion of licorice in water, which stains the pearlite a dark tint and leaves the ferrite unacted upon. The most convenient magnification is between 100 and 150 diameters. Normal rails have thus been shown to consist of patches of pearlite set in ferrite, and, although the structure is common to all rails, the ratios of the areas differ widely, the amount of carbon increasing with the area of pearlite. If the ferrite is arranged in large, inclosed polyhedrons, the temperature to which the rail was raised before rolling was too high. The strength and intensibility increase as the size of the grain diminishes, and closely interlocking ferrite and pearlite represent the condition which most favors the prolongation of the life of the rail.

In a paper on the value of the microscope in steel working, read before the British Iron and Steel Institute, Mr. C. H. Ridsdale affirmed that the time has arrived when it should be recognized that composition only indicates such well-defined effects as are generally understood within certain narrow limits of treatment, which are termed "normal." Outside these limits the effect of the treatment far outweighs that of the composition. It is represented that the Austrian and Russian governments print their bank notes from steel-faced electrotypes made by the electrolytic deposition of iron from a bath prepared according to the formula of Klein (ferrous and magnesium sulphates) under special conditions of temperature and current density. Herr Haber claims, in the Zeitschrift für Elektrochemie, that the advantage of plates prepared in this way lies in the hardness and fineness of the metal which is first deposited and in the delicacy of the copy of the original which is thus obtained.

The most remarkable magnetic effect produced by aluminum upon steel was found by Prof. Barrett to be the reduction of the hysteresis loss. The permeability of nickel steel was shown to be very much influenced by annealing. It was found that the addition of a small quantity of tungsten to iron hardly affects the maximum induction, yet increases the retentivity and coercive force. The experiments show that the best steel for making permanent magnets is one containing 7 per cent. of tungsten.

The removal of mill scale from forgings and plates has always been a matter of considerable difficulty, as the scale is in many instances one twelfth of an inch in thickness. The usual practice is to place the iron in a solution containing 1 part of hydrochloric or sulphuric acid to 10 parts of water for from half an hour to twentyfour hours. The British Admiralty specify that all steel steam pipes, boiler and collector tubes, and all plates for boilers shall be pickled in a solution consisting of 19 parts of water and 1 of hydrochloric acid until the black oxide and scale formed during the process of manufacture are completely removed. During the process of pickling large quantities of magnetic oxide and scale become detached from the plates, which, if allowed to remain in the pickle to be further acted on by the acid, form a serious source of loss. In an invention by Mr. Sherard Cowper-Coles for