Records of the School of Mines and of Science Applied to the Arts (Volume 1 )

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1852. Excerpt: ... 127 On the Importance of Special Scientific Knowledge to the Practical Metallurgist. Being the Introductory Lecture to the Course of Metallurgy. Session 1851--1852.) By John Pekcy, M.D., F.R.S. The subject which I have been appointed to teach in this Institution is essentially practical in its character and relations. In the introductory discourse, which I am now about to deliver, I shall explain the nature and object of the instruction which I propose to impart, and point out what I conceive to be its advantages. Metallurgy, as at present understood, is the art of extracting metals from their ores, and adapting them to various purposes of manufacture. This definition, however, is not rigidly exact, nor can I frame one in few words that is so. The etymology of the word metallurgy would seem to imply a more extended meaning, and include all the arts in which metals are wrought into objects of utility or ornament; but this is not the meaning now attached to the word. The metallurgist receives the ore from the miner freed as perfectly as possible by mechanical processes from foreign matter. The knowledge of the principles of metallurgy is the science of metallurgy. But as the phenomena observed in metallurgical processes relate to physics and chemistry, and as mechanical appliances of various kinds are employed in these processes, it follows that chemistry, physics, and mechanics must be the foundation of the science of metallurgy. In order, therefore, that the student may with advantage enter upon the study of metallurgy, it is essential that he should possess a considerable amount of preliminary knowledge. The history of metallurgy dates from remote antiquity; and, as Le Play correctly observes, most of the fundamental phenomena of metallurgy were disc...