FAIRBAIRN ON STEAM BOILERS. Hitherto we have confined our attention to boilers constructed of plate iron under the assumed impres sion that rolled plate iron is the only material calcu lated to make a good boiler. At the present mo ment this is apparently the case but the time is not far distant when we may save one-third of the weight without incurring any diminution of strength. If we look around us there are evidences in every di rection of changes and improvements tending to a revolution in the chemical as well as the mechanical properties of iron. We know to a fraction the exact quantity
FAIRBAIRN ON STEAM BOILERS. Hitherto we have confined our attention to boilers constructed of plate iron under the assumed impres sion that rolled plate iron is the only material calcu lated to make a good boiler. At the present mo ment this is apparently the case but the time is not far distant when we may save one-third of the weight without incurring any diminution of strength. If we look around us there are evidences in every di rection of changes and improvements tending to a revolution in the chemical as well as the mechanical properties of iron. We know to a fraction the exact quantity of carbon or any other element of chemical compound that must be left in or taken out in the manipulating process of making iron or steel; and we can measure to a nicety the per centage of car bon that is necessary to produce what is called hom ogeneous iron or that description of metal that par takes in a greater or less degree of the characteristics of both iron and steel. These combinations are highly valuable as they can be modified to any ex tent and give to the operator in the manufacture of iron all the requirements and gradations of a ductile fibrous or crystalline structure. Now although all these combinations and varied powers of production are in operation at the present time they have not yet arrived at that degree of certainty as to produce either iron or steel of the exact quality that is re quired. There still exists a want of uniformity of structure and until this is accomplished we must be content to take for the purposes of calculation the minimum instead of the maximum of its poweiof resistance to strain. I do not however despair as the number of distinguished men who are now em ployed in that direction is a sufficient guarantee for ultimate success. United zto chemical combinations and analysis in the manufacture of iron is a due observance of the varied forms and conditions of the processes in the mechanical manipulation to which the blooms or in gots are s
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