not found in any iron produced by puddling. Between these extremes of temper the metal most suitable for ordnance must be found; and all qualities are equally cheap and easy of production.

From the practice now acquired in forging cast steel ordnance at the author's works in Sheffield it has been found that the most satisfactory results are obtained with metal of the same soft description as that employed for making piston rods. With this degree of toughness the bursting of the gun becomes almost impossible, its power of resisting a tensile strain being at least 15 tons per square inch greater than that of the best English bar iron. Every gun before leaving the works has a piece cut off the end, which is roughly forged into a bar of 2 inches by 3 inches section, and bent cold under the hammer in order to show the state of the metal after forging. Several test bars cut from the ends of guns recently forged are exhibited.

The power of this metal to resist a sudden and powerful strain is well illustrated by the piece of gun muzzle now shown, which is one of several tubular pieces that were subjected to a sudden crushing force at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, under the direction of Colonel Wilmot; the pieces were laid on the anvil block in a perfectly cold state, and were crushed flat by the falling of the steam hammer, but none of them exhibited any signs of fracture when so tested. Probably the best proof of the power of the metal to resist a sudden violent strain was afforded by some experiments made at Liége by order of the Belgian government, who had one of these guns bored for a 12 lbs. spherical shot of 4 3/4 inches diameter, and made so thin as to weigh only 9 1/4 cwts. This gun was fired with increasing charges of powder and an additional shot after each three discharges, until it reached a maximum of 6 3/4 lbs. of powder and eight shots of 12 lbs. each or 96 lbs. of shot, the shots being thus equal to about one tenth of the weight of the gun. It stood this heavy charge twice and then gave way at about 40 inches from the muzzle, probably owing to the jamming of the shots. The employment of guns so excessively light and charges so extremely heavy would, of course, never be attempted in practice.

Some idea of the facility of this mode of making cast steel ordnance is afforded by the time occupied in the fabrication of the 18 pounder gun now exhibited, which was made in the author's presence for his experiments on gunnery. The melted pig iron was tapped from the reverberatory furnace at 11.20 a.m., and converted into cast steel in 30 minutes; the ingot was cast in an iron mould 16 inches square by 4 feet long, and was forged while still hot from the casting operation. By this mode of treating the ingots their central parts are sufficiently soft to receive the full effect of the hammer. At 7 p.m. the forging was completed and the gun ready for the boring mill.

The erection of the necessary apparatus for the production of steel by this process, on a scale capable of converting from crude iron enough steel to make forty of such gun blocks per day, will not exceed a cost of £5000, including the blast engine; hence the author cannot but feel that his labours in this direction have been crowned with entire success: the great rapidity of production, the cheapness of the material, and its strength and durability, all adapt it for the construction of every species of ordnance.

Sir William Armstrong had thus another opportunity of seeing and trying, if he chose to do so, a quality of steel which he himself told the meeting that he had never tried; a kind of steel that for constructive purposes had attracted the serious attention of the most eminent engineers in every country of Europe; a kind of steel invented and perfected expressly for the manufacture of ordnance; a kind of steel that was much sought after abroad for military purposes, and from which I had, up to that period, made twenty- eight guns for foreign governments; a kind of steel that could be made in masses of 5 to 10 tons in less than half an hour, at a cost of £10 per ton, if made from pure Swedish charcoal pig-iron. These important facts were not new facts -- they were known to thousands of people. But this was the one opportunity that was left, after many others had failed, when by force of circumstances, I had Sir William Armstrong before me face to face, and also in the presence of a public audience; and I there made him look at these things, and hear my statements, which were backed with substantial proofs on the table before him, such as could not be denied or set down as exaggerations. But my efforts were again entirely fruitless.