Sir F. Bramwell, at Tuesday's meeting of the Institute of
Civil Engineers, gave an interesting account of a new method of welding metals by electricity. The methods hitherto used have been imperfect, mainly because the heat has been trans- mitted from the outside inwards, a method which does not admit of the perfect regulation of the heat and the perfect exclusion of all impurities. But by the use of electricity,—the metal being a conductor, but an imperfect conductor, of electricity, and heat being evolved wherever the electric current passes through an imperfect medium,—the heat can be transmitted from the inside outwards, and the metals welded can be kept perfectly free from intrusive impurities, so that a far more efficient regulation and control can be obtained over the whole process. The method is in use at the Crewe works, and appears to promise a very great improvement indeed on the results of all previous processes.
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