The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-14 00:00:00

SECTION F.-ECONOMIC SCIE CE AND STATISTICS.

Mr. E.. 11. Walsh, LL.B., late Whately Professor of
Political Economy in the University of Dublin, also read a
paper an " Observations on the present export of silver to
the East." Mr. Walsh commenced by stating that so far
back as the time when Pliny termed it the sink of the
precious metals silver was a favourite article of export to
the East. It has continued so since, but the trade of
late has assumed an extraordinary magnitude. In the
five years prior to the present over 22,000,000/. worth of
silver have been exported to the East through England
alone, and from other countries a similar movement,
has been ire operation. The export in 1855 was
6,400,000/., and this year it is proceeding at the rate of
over 9,0,0,000/. per annum, judging from the returns
that have been published for the first four months. Unlike
the old movement, the present cannot be permanent. The
former was seldom more than might be accounted for as
the distribution of silver to some of its chief consumers—

the nations of the Ealt—according as new supplies were
raised elsewhere. It was, in fact, the ordinary movement
from the producer to the consumer. But now silver goes
faster to the East than it is pryduced throughout tho
work). Hence the process cannot be permanent, but must
como•to an end as soon as the distribution of,the old stock

has been effected; for the annual production of silver is
only aloat 8,003,C00/.; and since the export to the East
through England alone is at the rate of over 9,000,0001., it
follows that it cannot be the new supp!ies of silver which
meet that demand and all others for the same metal, but
that there must be some aumiliary fund to be drawn open.
Such a fund is furnished by a cessation in the demand for
silver in several countries which before employed it most
1 trgely, but now use gold instead. In a paper brought be.
fox e this association at Glasgow last September I had occa-
sion to notice that silver, which used to be coined in France
and the United States at an average rate of 4,000,0001. per
annum, is now little employed, while much of the old coin
of that metal is melted down and exported. In France,
it i 3 said that in one year, 1853, so much as 12,000,0001.
were disposed of in this manner, and that the operation
has still been proceeding at a still greater rate. All this
acts in the same way as if a silver California had been dis-
covered. No one thinks it extraordinary that gold is ex-
ported on a large scale from the auriferous regions to the
various nations which use that metal ; but it is quite as
natural to suppose that when large supplies of silver are
thrown upon the market (it matters not whether newly
extracted from the earth, or just taken from the melting
pot), they would find their way to those places where
silver is generally employed. But India, China, and other
Eastern nations come under this description, and hence
the late extraordinary exportation. As this cause is a novel
one; there is an inclination on the part of some who call
themselves practical men to adopt any other rather than
it. Experience gives no instance of any such, and hence
those who look to their personal experience alone are com-
pletely at fault when discussing this question. Some talk of
the balance of trade; others of an increased importation of
tea and silk from China; and a third set of investigators
enunciate details of the machinery of the foreign exchanges
by which the transmission is effected. But such persons
forget that the export of silver is just as likely in the ab-
Faract to be the cause as the effect of the "balance," or
" increased importation," in which they dogmatically
assume it originated ; and that, as for the details of the
foreign exchanges, they merely tell us how and not why the
export takes place. Yet all this while the question pre-

s )I:ts no difficulty a hatsoever, when two facts are noticed in

juxta-position,--:one, the grea-t cessation in the demand for
silver in countries which employed a double standard ; the
other, the circumstance that the Eastern nations habitually
use silver on a large scale, especially in their currency.
After that there is nothing to be said to complete the ex-
planation, except to call to mind that when the supply of
any article is unusually great compared with the number of
c insumers, it must find its way to these latter in quantities
proportionally augmented ; and that such is the case at
present with the article silver, the principal consumers of
which are the nations of the East.
SECTION G.—MECHANICAL SCIENCE.

At the meeting this morning Mr. W. Clay read a paper
" On the manufacture of the large wrought iron gun made
at the Mersey Ironworks, Liverpool, and on other large
must aof wrought iron." Mr. Clay commenced by express-
ing his regret that the circulars ordered to be sent last
yt ar to engineers, ironmasters, and manufacturers, by the
committee appointed to institute an inquiry into the beat
means of ascertaining those properties of metals, and effects
of various modes of treating them, which were of import-
ance to the efficiency and durability of artillery, were not
made more general and public. He was only made aware
that day, on looking over the report of the British Associa-
tion for the past • year, that such a committee had been
formed, and that they had received opinions from some of
the most eminent engineers of the present day, which opi-
nions, with one exception, did not coincide with what he
was about to record. The first consideration necessary, for
the manufacture of wrought iron was todecide the descrip-
tion of iron of which the gun was to be made, and he se-
lected for his experiment a strong clear iron, puddled from
the strongest pigs he could obtain, taking care that the
iron should be worked as little as possible before it came
to be put into the gun. A core was first prepared the full
length of the gun, and a certain diameter. This core was
intended to be bored out. A series of bars were then packed
round the core, and again heated and forged to the proper
shape ; another series of bars were packed then, and heated
and worked perfectly sound ; still another and larger se-
ries of bars were required, placed longitudinally, and even
these were far from the size required. The forging, al-
though larger than any ever previously made, required to
be augmented in its diameter at the breach by 12 inches,
which was accomplished by two layprs of iron placed in
filch 'a manner as to resemble hoops. This being all
welded round, the forging of the gun was accomplished.
The boring was effected in an ordinary powerful lathe, the
first bore being 11 inches in diameter, consisting of a drill
of seven inches and a face cutter of two inches. The second
cut three-quarters of an inch on each side, making the bore
inches ; and the third, or finishing cut, a quarter of an
inch, completed the bore. He might remark that the
boring was not a work of very great expense or labour;
o the contrary, the process went on so rapidly that he was
unable to prepare the fresh boring heads (last enough. The
trunnion hoops were made in separate rings, and were
shi unk upon the body of the metal. Having described the
manufacture of the gun Mr. Clay read the report of its
trials at North Shore, near Liverpool, by Capt. Vaudeleur,
Guunery Inspector of the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich ; and
afterwards proceeded to lay before the section the result
of his experiments with regard to the crystallisation of
large masses of iron by long-continued beating, and
maintained that, however iron may be crystallised by
exposure to heat, or carelessly burnt, which was the same
thing, its fibre might be restored by working either under
the hammer or in the rolls. He was also of opinion that
another reason why large forgings fail was the uneven con-
traction of the heated iron.