USEFUL INFORMATION FOR ENGINEERS CONTAINING EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCHES ON THE COLLAPSE OF BOILER FLUES AND THE STRENGTH OF BUILDING, THE PROPERTIES OF STEAM, ETC. BY WILLIAM FAIRBAIRN, LL.D. F.R.S. Member of the Royal Academy of Turin, &c. SECOND SERIES LONDON LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS. ΤΟ MAJOR-GENERAL EDWARD SABINE R.A., D.C.L., F.R.S., F.L.S. HON. MEM. CAM. PHIL. SOC., ORD. BORUSS. 'Pour le Mérite' EQ. ET ACAD. REG. BEROL., ACADD. IMP. Sc. PETROP., BRUX., NORV., ETC. This Second Series of Lectures is Inscribed BY THE AUTHOR AS A MARK OF PERSONAL ESTEEM AND AS A TESTIMONY TO HIS EMINENT SCIENTIFIC ATTAINMENTS AND DISTINGUISHED SERVICES IN THE PROMOTION AND EXTENSION OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE PREFACE. THE great success which has attended the issue of the first series of Lectures, under the title of Useful Information for Engineers, has induced me to publish the present volume, in which will be found various original papers not before printed, or not easily accessible to ordinary readers. In the discourse on the education of working men, I have shown what a wide field is still open for talent combined with industry and perseverance in the attainment of distinction in science and art. I have not hesitated to encourage the young aspirant to prepare himself by mental culture and vigorous exertion for the realisation of an honourable name in the voyage of life. To awake an honest ambition, and to render sensible latent talents, were the objects of various addresses delivered from time to time in various Institutes, and I flatter myself that the reader will not blame me for seeking to give a wider circulation and a more permanent value to such an attempt than was possible in an oral lecture. I hope that in stimulating working men to cultivate their powers to the highest point of development, I have not ventured beyond professional duty, and that the reader will sympathise with |