Sir William Fletcher Barrett, F.R.S

Abstract

IN Sir Oliver Lodge's notice in NATURE, June 6, p. 880, of the late Sir William Barrett he says that he (Sir William) “claimed” to have discovered some alloys of iron. Reference to published scientific papers would have shown Sir Oliver that Sir William read a paper in 1899, published in the Transactions of the Royal Dublin Society in January 1900, on the magnetic and electric properties of the alloy now known as stalloy, which is indispensable in the construction of transformers, dynamos, etc. Indeed he was told by an authority that this discovery had saved six million pounds in the construction of the Panama Canal alone. Another alloy, permalloy, is likely to be of even greater use in the future.