[BARLOW, William Henry and others].

Preliminary Experiments of the Mechanical and other Properties of Steel, made or collected by a Committee of Civil Engineers.

One lithographed plate. 2 p.l., 27 pp. (pp. 1-16 are double-page tables with printing in red). Small folio, orig. cloth, spine lettered in gilt. London: Adams Bros., 1868. [bound with]:—. Experiments on the Mechanical and other Properties of Steel, made at H.M. Dockyard, Woolwich, by a Committee of Civil Engineers. Three folding lithographed plates & five lithographed tables printed on both sides (four folding). 1 p.l., 4, 30 pp. Small folio. London: Adams Bros., 1870. First editions. “Shortly before Kirkaldy opened his testing works in 1865 he was visited by Scott Russell, which led to the setting up of a committee (W. H. Barlow, John Fowler, Scott Russell, Douglas Galton and George Berkley) to initiate experiments into the properties of steel, a material then becoming increasingly available... “The first of their two reports contain the results of the tests carried out by Kirkaldy on his machine on 29 samples, each 2 inches square and 15 feet long, supplied by thirteen leading steel manufacturers including Bessemer, John Brown & Co., Firth & Sons, the Barrow Haematite Steel Co., and C. Cammell & Co. Unfortunately Kirkaldy came into conflict with Barlow and was further upset when the committee published the results under his name without allowing him time to correct inaccuracies... “The second report contains the results of another set of experiments to measure further compression and tension, this time carried out on the cable-testing machine in Woolwich Dockyard. It describes how the experiments were performed and again tabulates the results. However, it met with great criticism when published, owing to the worthlessness of results carried out in the old haphazard manner, and added support to Kirkaldy’s already considerable reputation. Altogether a fascinating and rare document from the early years of structural steelwork.”–Elton, Cat. 6, 152. Fine and fresh copy from the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Ex Bibliotheca Mechanica.

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