14

CORRESPONDENCE.

British Iron Works, Abersychan near Pont-y-pool,My dear Sir, August 18th, 1845.

You expressed a wish that I should let you know when I left thisplace, and mentioned that you might wish me to go to London from here,instead of returning direct to Manchester.

I expect I shall be at liberty to leave here for the present this weekend, and will place myself entirely at your disposal, either to go to oneplace or the other. * * * *

I am, my dear Sir, most truly yours,

William Fairbaim, Esq., C.E. Eaton Hodgkinson.

During Mr. Ilodgkinson’s first visit to Millwall (Sept. 19th,1845), the whole of the experiments which had then been con-cluded were explained to him, and he carefully examined theapparatus which I had used. On the first day of his visit, thetubes which had been constructed with sinyle hollow or cellulartops were experimented on. The forms of these tubes, and theresults of the experiments upon them, are communicated toMr. Stephenson in my letter of the 20th of September, whichfollows. One of them had a piece of fir timber fitted in the cellor fin, with a view to keep that part in form, and prevent it losingshape from the crushing forces, but in consequence of the dif-ficulty which was experienced in making the timber accurately fillthe whole space, it proved of little value. Superior results werehowever obtained from the increased surfaces which were offeredto compression on the top sides by the fins, and my attentionwas naturally directed to the question, how far it was possible,by some other arrangement, better to accomplish the object ofthe cellular structure. Immediately upon the completion of theexperiments on the “fin” tubes, I ordered the preparation ofanother form with a corrugated top, resembling in section theeyes of a pair of spectacles, rightly anticipating from this formof tube a considerable increase of strength. The cellular formof top offered, however, according to the experiments already