Abstract
SIXTEEN papers were read before Section G; these covered a wide field, but, with the exception of Prof. Howe's paper on radio-telegraphy, electrical engineering was entirely unrepresented. Several of the papers were of great importance in that they dealt with fundamental properties of materials and of internal-combustion phenomena. Prof. F. C. Lea read a paper on the effect of temperature on some of the properties of materials. Many materials, such as aluminium alloys, have highly desirable properties when cold, but undergo such changes at the temperatures met with in engine cylinders as to make them quite unsuitable. Fireproof buildings must be designed to have the requisite strength at temperatures likely to be experienced during a fire. The tensile strength and hardness of a large number of materials have been determined at various temperatures obtained by means of electric furnaces, details of which were given. In all the alloys tested the tensile strength and the hardness decrease as the temperature is raised, the decrease being very rapid between 200° and 400° C, which is a range likely to cover both the examples mentioned above. Concrete was among the materials tested on account of its importance in view of the behaviour of ferro-concrete buildings in case of fire.
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Engineering at the British Association. Nature 106, 422–423 (1920). https://doi.org/10.1038/106422b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/106422b0