Note 101 — VOLUME V. (continued 8)

At a meeting of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers held in Manchester, on November 5, 1875, Mr. Charles Cochrane, of Stourbridge, read a paper entitled “On the Ultimate Capacity of Blast Furnaces” (for making pig iron.) As was appropriate to such a burning question, the discussion was somewhat heated, although, as need hardly be said, the parodist has availed himself largely of poetical lie-sense in his account of the proceedings. Mr. C. Cochrane asserted that he had effected a great saving in fuel by the construction of his large furnace, in conjunction with Cowper’s patent stoves for heating the blast. The most eminent engineers of the day spoke in the discussion, Messrs. I. L. Bell (now Sir I. L. Bell, M. P.), E. A. Cowper, Sir. Charles W. Siemens, E. H. Carbutt, Sir Frederick Bramwell, and others.