Abstract
THE presidential address of Sir William Henry Ellis, delivered at the Institution of Civil Engineers on November 3, was devoted to a survey of the varied and difficult problems arising in steel works and collieries connected with the great development in mechanical engineering which has taken place during the last forty years. In the early part of this period, steel works engineering was in the hands of good practical men who could only with difficulty move with the times, owing to their lack of knowledge of the technical side of engineering. Low pressure steam was supplied to distant mill and machine shop engines with inevitable waste. Electricity probably did not exist in any of the large steel works. Highspeed tool steel was unknown, except Mushet steel, used more for its power of dealing with unexpectedly hard material than as high-speed steel is now used. There was, therefore, a great opportunity for young engineers who had received a combined technical and practical training to share in the work of introducing improved machinery. Economic production was not then so important, and there was comparatively little foreign competition.
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Engineering in Steel Works and Collieries. Nature 116, 765 (1925). https://doi.org/10.1038/116765a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/116765a0