The Structure of Metals

THE subject of the lecture was the structure of metals, mainly as revealed by the microscope. The first serious application of the microscope to the study of metallic structure was made in 1864 by Dr. H. Sorby, of Sheffield, but the lead then given was not followed for nearly a quarter of a century. In the last fifteen years or so, however, it had been taken up with the greatest zeal and success, nowhere more than in Dr. Sorby's own town. There and elsewhere, in France, Germany, and America, as well as at home, a band of enthusiastic workers had been engaged in creating what might be described as a novel branch of physical science, as interesting on the physical side as it was important in its practical aspect. In this work Cambridge had done its share. The lecturer referred especially to work done in the engineering laboratory by Rosenhain, Humfrey, and other of his own former research students, and to the admirable investigation of alloys carried out by Neville and Heycock in the laboratory of Sidney Sussex College.