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"I did not notice any perceptible difference in the perfection of elasticity in the two sets of needles. The result, as far as it goes, is in favor of the cold metal.

"3d. The above are doubtless decisive of the question at issue. But as it might be alleged that the violence to which a railway wheel is subjected is more akin to a blow than a steady pull; and as, moreover, the pretended brittleness is attributed more to cast iron than any other description of the metal, I have made yet another kind of experiment. I got a quantity of cast iron garden nails, an inch and a quarter long and ⅛ in. thick in the middle. These I weighed, and selected such as were nearly of the same weight. I then arranged matters so that by removing a prop I could cause the blunt edge of a steel chisel weighted to 4lb. 2oz., to fall from a given height upon the middle of the nail as it was supported from each end, 1¹⁄16 in. asunder. In order to secure the absolute fairness of the trials, the nails were taken at random, and an experiment with a cold nail was always alternated with one at the ordinary temperature. The nails to be cooled were placed in a mixture of salt and snow, from which they were removed and struck with the hammer in less than 5"."

The collective result of the experiments, the details of which need not be given, was that 21 cold nails broke and 20 warm ones.

Dr. Joule adds, "The experiments of Lavoisier and Laplace, of Smeaton, of Dulong and Petit, and of Troughton, conspire in giving a less expansion by heat to steel than iron, especially if the former be in an untempered state; but this, would in certain limits have the effect of strengthening rather than of weakening an iron wheel with a tire of steel.

"The general conclusion is this: Frost does not make either iron (cast or wrought), or steel, brittle.

Mr. Spence, in his experiments, decided on having some lengths of cast iron made of a uniform thickness of ½ in. square, from the same metal and the same mould.

He writes:—"Two of the four castings I got seemed to be good ones, and I got the surface taken off, and made them as regular a thickness as was practicable.

"I then fixed two knife-edged wedges upon the surface of a plank, at exactly nine inches distance from each other, with an opening in the plank in the intervening space, the bar being laid across the wedges, a knife-edged hook was hung in the middle of the suspended piece of the bar, and to the hook was hung a large scale on which to place weights.

"The bar was tried first at a temperature of 60° F.; to find the breaking weight I placed 56lb. weights one after another on the scale, and when the ninth was put on the bar snapped. This was the only unsatisfactory experiment, as 14 or 28lb. might have done it, but I include it among others. I now adopted another precaution, by placing the one end of the plank on a fixed point and the other end on to a screw-jack, by raising which I could, without any vibration, bring the weight to bear upon the bar. By this means, small weights up to 7lb. could be put on while hanging, but when these had to be taken off and a large weight put on, the scale was lowered to the rest, and again raised after the change was made. I may here state that a curious circumstance occurred twice, which seems to indicate that mere raising of the weight, without the slightest apparent vibration, was equal in effect to an additional weight. 3¾ cwts. were on the scale, a 14lb. weight was added, then 7lb., then 4lb., 2lb., 1lb., and 1lb., making 4cwts. and 1lb. This was allowed to act for from one to two minutes, and then lowered to take off the small weights, which were replaced by a 56lb. with the intention of adding small weights when suspended; the whole was then raised so imperceptibly by the screw, that the only way of ascertaining that it was suspended, was by looking under the scale to see that it was clear of the rest. As soon as it was half-an-inch clear it snapped, thus breaking at once with one pound less than it resisted for nearly two minutes.

"Six experiments were carefully conducted at 60° F., the parts of the bars being selected so as to give to each set of experiments similar portions of both bars; the results are marked on the pieces. My assistant now prepared a refrigerating mixture which stood at zero, the bars were immersed for some time in this, and we prepared for the breaking trials to be made as quickly as could be, consistently with accuracy; and to secure the low temperature, each bar, on being placed in the machine, had its surface at top covered with the freezing mixture. The bars at zero broke with more regularity than at 60°, but instead of the results confirming the general impression as to cold rendering iron more brittle, they are calculated to substantiate an exactly opposite idea, namely, that reduction of temperature, cæteris paribus, increases the strength of cast iron. The only doubtful experiment of the whole twelve is the first, and as it stands much the highest, the probability is that it should be lower; yet, even taking it as it stands, the average of the six experiments at 60° F., gives 4cwt. 4lb. as the breaking weight of the bar at that temperature, while the average of the six experiments at zero gives 4cwt 20lb. as the breaking weight of the bar at zero, being an increase of strength, from the reduction of temperature, equal to 3.5 per cent."

Sir W. Fairbairn states: "It has been asserted, in evidence given at the coroner's inquest, in a recent railway accident, that the breaking of the steel tire was occasioned by the intensity of the frost, which is supposed to have rendered the metal, of which this particular tire was composed, brittle. This is the opinion of most persons, but judging from my own experience such is not the fact. Some years since I endeavored to settle this question by a long and careful series of experiments on wrought iron, from which it was proved that the resistance to a tensile chain was as great at the temperature of zero as it was at 60° or upwards, until it attained a scarcely visible red heat."

The immense number of purposes to which both iron and steel are applied, and the changes of temperature to which they are exposed, renders the inquiry not only interesting in a scientific point of view, but absolutely necessary to a knowledge of their security under the various influences of those changes. It was for these reasons that the experiments in question were undertaken, and the summary of results is sufficiently conclusive to show that changes of temperature are not always the cause of failure. Sir W. Fairbairn adds: "The danger arising from broken tires does not, according to my opinion, arise so much from changes of temperature as from the practice of heating them to a dull red heat, and shrinking them on to the rim of the wheels. This, I believe, is the general practice, and the unequal, and in some cases, the severe strains to which they are subject, has a direct tendency to break the tires."

OAK GRAINING IN OIL COLORS.

Condensed from the Building News.

There is a charm and feeling about work executed by the hand, which gives