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THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. --------

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THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. ESPECIALLY ELECTRICITY. PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS OF MR W. H. PREECE, C.B. On Tuesday, Mr W. H. Preece, C.B., F.R. S., of Carnarvon, delivered his inau- gural address on taking the chair for the first time after his election to the presidency of the Institution of Civil Engineers. We subjoin some extracts of general interest, PERSON AlJ. The election to the position of president is the highest possible reward which the Institution can give to those who have en- deavoured to serve it well and truly. I have often feared that my position as a -specialist might have proved a bar to the attainment of my greatest ambition. It 'has come at last. I am very grateful, and I promise that I will continue to do my -very best to merit your confidence and ap- probation. I am also proud, not alone for the sake of that branch of the profession to which I specially belong, but also because I am a member of the great Civil Service of this country. Twenty-eight of my forty- six years of professional work have been spent in the service of the Crown. I can e speak with some authority an;d! experience when I assert that this service deserves a recognition for zeal, industry, and the con- scientious determination to do its duty far greater than that usually accorded to it by Parliament, the public, and the press. The "jealousy and contempt so freely 'jp for Government worlc are -not justified by results. It is the fashion to decry e pu lie service. It is probably a survival of that old feeling of oppression mid dissatisfaction which the ruled always felt towards their rulers. The position is iot reversed the public is the master and the official is the servant The public servant is not to be coerced by oaths or driven by whips or de- terred bv scorns. His labours should be sweetened by praise, and his successes ac- knowledge by a grateful recognition. Two of your vice-presidents belong, and some of your council have belonged to this Service. You, at any rate, are free from criticism, for you have testified to my zeal bv giving me the greatest reward you can confer. My successors will be able to drive home the nail I desire to insert in the coffin of the traditional general and false belief in the inefficiency of a great and growing public service 'TECHNICAL EDUCATION. There is a fashion in Great Britain for technical education just now. Enormous sums of money are being annually spent on secondary, intermediate, and more advanced education. It is well that it is so. It is well that the country has awakened from its conservatism and apathy, land that jt jTis putting its schools in order. But is it doing so on a true issue, and are we distributing our money through the alight channels 1 Our trade is suffering even in our own colonies from the competition of our Con- tinental neighbours, who are said' to be beat- ing us by their technically superior hand labour. It is true we are suffering, but is this the true cause? It is rather from the superior commercial skill of the principals at homo and thet lalccomplished polyglot and well-trained traveller abroad, as well as from a financial system that is more moral and lucre sound, than that rampant in England through the gross abuses of the Limited Liability Act of 1862. Our law courts are almost daily the scenes of the "exposure of the modern spoiling of the Egyptians. A new Musfay is designedly some simple, well-devised, and economical process. Capital is required to develop it. In Germany, financial support is readily sub- scribed by the generous and enlightened policy of its banks. In England, we re- quire a syndicate, a pioneer company, and finally an appeal to the public for an en- larged liiriited company. The financiers, the lawyer, the brokers, as well as the original inventor, have to be satisfied, and this satisfaction grows very much with the state of the money market and the excite- ment for investment with the public. The industry is established, but a terribly over- leaded capital—overloaded! by the harpies who have sprung from the operations of the Limited Liability Act. The same industry could be established in Germany with pro- bably half the capital. Its manufacture -^onlfl be supervised there with greater skill, and it would be developed; as a business by better trained agents. We are thus fairly beaten on our own commercial preserves. Our educational methods have begun at the wrong end. We ought to teach the masters first and then the men. Moreover, we have to teach the teachers and those who have control of the purse-strings. We are suffer- ing from ti lack of competent teachers. A teacher who has had no training in the practical world is worse than useless for he: immrU idea, derived from hiis-inner or from the false teaching of nis own abstract professor, which lead to mischief. In my own experience I have met with very serious inconveniences from Ithi cMi.se. 'Thie ideal professor of pure abstract science is a. very charming person- age, but he is a very arrogant and dogmatic and. being a sort of little mon- prch in his own labora-tory and lecture-room, surrounded by devoted subject*, his word is law. and he regards the world at large, es- pecially the practical world, as outside his domain and beneath iijis notice. He is generally behind the age. These are not the men for technical institutes. Such teachers should possess the diploma of this Institution. ELECTRICITY. A* happy accident in early life placed1 me at the feii of our electrical Gamaliel. Michael Faraday. My boat was launched on the waters of knowledge that flowed from the rocks of Nature, opened by the strokes pf the magic rod of that great master. The tide was taken at the flood, and, having rolled on for nearly fifty years, it has led me to this chair. I learned from Faraday to regard electricity as the result of the plax f the atoms and molecules of matter, that it was a mere form ,of motion, and that its influence through space was due to the ex- a nnfl operations of a medium—-since ShS +he IRfcher. Maxwell crystalfeed ii i.i .nto mat,hematical language, araday s magnificent generalisation and Reduced fe ™tr^al wave| are of the that h?ht ^^Xovmh the Ether with m kind, mo -differing from each the same velocity-, Herte proped the o er o y ui de_> an(j measured their fX1^fVi«Cea°!i -\TSe • "ha* now applied them lengths, and Marconi has m» ik t to the practical purposes of •, have carefully watched every new electrical ftrt WTttUg from NVtl niechat;ical out ever failing to find a simple mechamcal explanation of their cause.. ,h The first practical apph<^lon =• science of electricity was for the prote__ of life mm* property. Franklin, in/ showed how to secure ourselves ana building from the disastrous effects oi b'chtninrr trnke, Very little has been d'one ftince to improve upon his plan. Franklin. work had been beneficient. He showed successfully how to bring the lightning down from heaven and how to dissipate its causts harmlessly awav in the earth. TELEGRAPHY. In 1837. Cooke and Wheatstone showed how electricity could be practically used to facilitate intercommunication of ideas be- tween town and town and between country and country. The first line was constructed in July of that year upon the incline con- necting Camden Town and Euston Grove Station, the resident engineer being Sir Cl aries Fox, father of the senior vice-presi- dent. Five copper wires were embedded in wcod of a truncated pyramidal section and buried in the ground. The instrument used possessed five needles or indicators to form the alphabet. A portion of this original line was recently recovered in situ. I call it the "fossil1 telegraph," and used it to com- plete a special circuit between Buckingham Palace and the General Post-office to en- able the Queen on her Diamond Jubilee Day, as she started on her procession through London, to telegraph her simple message, ''From my heart I thank my be- loved t'J people. May God bless them: to all our princes, governors. captains, and rulers scattered over the whole globe. To north, south, -eagt, and west, over every quarter and every continent, under every oeean and every sea, these words flew with the speed of thought. When Her Majesty returned to Buckingham Palace acknow- I ledgments and replies had arrived from every colony, the first to come being from Ottawa, Canada, 16 jnjimites after the message was despatched. The pioneer line of 1837,, 1^ mil 3 long, has, during this period of sixty years years, grown into a gigantic world-embracing system. The number of electrical impulses which can be bent through any cable per minute is de. pendent upon its form, and1 is subject to simple and exact laws, but it varies with the quality and purity of the materials used. Paper has the merit, when kept dry, not only of being an admirable insulator, but cf being very durable. There is paper in existence in our libraries over 1000 years old,. The difficulty is to keep it, dry. This is one of the problems the engineer dlelights to consider. He has been most successful in obtaining a solution. The lead-covered paper cables, which are being laid in the streets of all our great cities, are admirable. I am laying one of seventy-six wires for the Post-office telegraphs between London and Birmingham, and the Cable Companies are contemplating leading their long cables from Cornwall up to London, so as to be free from the weather troubles of this wet and stormy island. It is impossible to forecast the (future of 'telegraphy. New instru- ments and new processes are constantly being patieit,ed,. but (few of them secure adoption, for they rarely meet a pressing need or improve our existing practice. The writing telegraph originating with our late I member of council, E. 11 A. Cowper, which reproduced actual handwriting, much improved by Elisha Grey, and called the "Telautograph," is steadily working its way into practical form, and the electrical type- writing machines of simple and economical form are gradually replacing the ABC visual indicator. The introduction of the telephone is revolutionising the mode of transacting business. There seems to be a distinct want of some instrument to re- cord the fleeting words and figures of bar- gains and orders transmitted by telephone. Hence a supplement to that marvellous machine is needed. The telautograph and electrical type-winter will fill this want. Visions of dispensing with wire altogether have been fostered by the popularity of Marconi's "wireless telegraphy" but wire- less telegraphy is as old as telegraphy it- self, and a practical system of my own is now in actual use by the Post-office and the War Department. TELEPHONY. I was sept, in 1877, together with Sir Henry Fischer, to investigate the telegraph system of the American Continent, and es- pecially to inquire into the accuracy of the incredible report that a young Scotchman named Bell had succeeded) in transmitting the human voic3 along wires to great dis- tances by electricity. I returned from the States with the first pair of practical instru- ments (that reached (this country. Ty differed but little from the instrument that is used to-day to receive sounds. The re- ceiver, the part of the telephone that con- verts the energy of electric currents into sounds that reproduce speech, sprang nearly perfect in all its beauty ani startling effect, from th? hands of Qraham Bell. But the transmitting portion, that part which trans- forms the energy of the human voice into electric currents has constantly been im- proved since Ediisora and Hughes showed us how to use the varying resistance of carbon in a loose condition, subject to change of pressure and of motion under the influence of sonorous vibrations. The third portion, the circuit, is that to the improvement of which I have devoted my special attention. Speech is now practically possible between any two post-offices in the United King- dom. We can also speak between I many important towns in England and in France. It is theoretically possible to talk with every capital in Europe, and we are now considering the submersion of special telephone cables to Belgium, Holland, and Germany. The progress of the use of the telephone in Great Britain has been checked by financial complications. It fell into the hands of the company promoter. It has remained the shuttlecock of the Stock Ex- L change. It is the function of the Postmaster- General to work for the public every system of inter-communication of thought which affects the interest-s of the whole nation. Telephony is an Imperial business, like the post and the telegraph. It ought to be in the hands of the State. Two causes exist to impede :this desiiralflie absorption, !the fear of being "done" by watered and in- flated capital, and the assumed had bargain made in absorbing the telegraphs of 1869. The former is a mere bugbear. The public dlooes not want to purchase stock. It wants to acquire a plant and business, which can be easily and fairly valued. The latter is a THE BARGAIN OF 1869 DEFENDED. The business of the telegraph companies— practically an unlimited monopoly was purchased on absolutely fair terms, viz., 0 years' purchase of the net profits. The sum paid was £ 4,989,048. The number of mes- sages then sent in one year was about 5.000,\())I( and the gross income about £ 500.000." The income has now grown to £ 3,071,723, the number of messages. has reached 83,029,999, and the capital account which was closed in 1891, viz., £ 10,131,129. including the cost of the Post-office exten- sions, remained! the same. If a syndicate desired now to re-purchase the business and acquire the plant, they would have to find a capital of over £ 30,000,000. In what re- spect, then, was the transfer of the tele- graphs to the State a failure ? Our magni- ficent system has been built virtually out of revenue, our tariff is very cheap, scarcely a village of any consequence is without its telegraph, our press is virtually subsidized by having its news supplied at much less than cost price we can rely upon safe and accurate delivery, and upon speedy despatch of messages. We lead the world. There has been no failure, and there was no bad bargain. < RAILWAYS. The employment of electricity in the working I of railways has. not only been highly bene- ficent in the security of human life, but it has vastly increased the capacity of a road to carry trains. The underground traffic of the Metropolis is conducted with marvellous re- gularity and security, though the trains are burrowing about in darkness and following each other with such short intervals of time, that the limit of the line for the number of trains has been reached. Electric traction ig (Toing to extend this limit bv increasing Che^ acceleration at starting and improving the speed of running. It will also reduce th.e cost of working per train-mile, so that tie advent of electricity as a moving agency iR ccrain to prove highly economical WhaJ it will do as a remover of bad smeMs and fori air and for personal comfort cannot be estimated. Time alone will enable us to ) assess the intrinsic yalna of public satisfac- tion acquired by the change. DOMESTIC APPLIANCES. The introduction of electricity into our houses has added materially to the comfort and luxury of home. If we were living in the clays of ancient Greece, the presiding domestic deity would have been Electra. The old bellhanger has been rung out by the new goddess. Electra has entered our hall- door, and attracts the attention of our do- mestics, not by a gamut of ill-toned and' ir- regularly excited bells, but by neat indi- cators and one uniform sound. The timid visitors fears no more that he has expressed rage or impatience by his inexperience of 11 the mechanical pull required at the front door. The domestic telephone is coming in I as an adjunct to the bell. Its use saves two journeys. The bell attracts attention, the telephone transmits the order. Hot water is obtained in half the time and with half the labour. Fire and burglar alarms are fixed to our doors and windows; clocks are propelled, regulated and controlled. Even lifts are hoisted for the infirm and aged. Ventilation, and in warmer countries cool- ness, are assisted by fans. Heating appli- ancesl are becoming very general where powerful currents are available. Rad'ators assist the coal fire by maintaining the .tem- perature of room uniform throughout its length and breadth. Ovens are heated, water is toiled, flat-irons become hot-, and are maintained at a useful temperature, break- fast dishes nuc tea-cakes are kept hot. even curling tongs have imparted to them the requisite temperature to perform their pecu- liar function. ELECTRIC LIGHT. But it is in supplying us with light, without defiling the air we breathe in our dwellings with noxious vapour, that electricity has proved to be a true benefactor to the human race. The Legislature has facilitated the acquisition by municipalities of those local industries that affect the welfare 'of the whole community, such as road-making, sewerage, the supply of water, tramways, and, above all, electric light. No one doubts that new industries of a speculative charac- ter are best pioneered by private enterprise. The company promoter has, however, so abused the power placed in his hands by the Limited Liability Act that not only has the development of electric lighting been retard- ed in this country, but the prospects of pri- vate enterprise in furthering other industries I has been checked. Fortunately the success, the comfort, the intrinsic value, the eco- nomy and the sanitary properties of electric '¡ light have! commended it to our municipal magnets, and its introduction has become the fashion. In spite of our financial trou- bles, of the inertia of municipal bodies, of the active competition of vested interests, our progress compares not unfavourably with I other European countries, but the progress of the industry in the United States has, been phenomenal. The return for the Unit- » ed Kingdom is, however, by no means com- plete h omits1 all private installation^. We in the post-office alone have 50,000 lamps which are not enumerated; and if we con- sider all our great railway companies, banks, warehouses, manufactories, and shops which have their own installations, the statistics will be very considerably extended. Lamps are being improved and cheapened, wiring is being reduced in cost, and the economic distribution of energy is being furthered. But the most promising field for economy is the combination of all classes of electrical industry in one centre, especially that of light and tramway working where fuel is cheap, water abundant for condensing, and ruisances of no account. A TIP FOR LLANDUDNO. The cost of the production of electrical en- ergy depends principally upon the continuity of its otuput. If it can be generated con- tinuously during the 24 hours of the day its cost is only a fraction of a penny per unit. If it is used solely for light, a unit may cost threepence. Hence local authorities, who I are undertakers of electric energy, neglect the,ir dutiels to those who have elected them I as the custodians of their interests if they fait to secure the tramways in their district, either as their own property or as customers for their current. For the tramways, by taking energy during the dhy, reduce the cost of working during the night by re- moving the incubus of running continuously imposed on undertakers bv Act of Parlia- ment. This may enable the ratepayers to be supplied at a price for electric light cer- tainly one penmy per unit less than if there were no tramways. The cheaper the supply of energy per unit the more certain and speedy the advent of the electric light as the poor man's lamp, and the more beneficial its introduction into the confined' ill-venti- lated and1 overcrowded homes of the work- ing classes. By improving the locomotion to the suburbs and, enabling them to live in pure air, and by clearing the air they breathe of the impurities due to the combus- tion of tallow, oil and gas, the more readily should the public fall down and worship the should the public fall down and worship the I golden image which Parliament and science have set up. LIGHTHOUSES. The introduction of electricity into our lighthouses has not been such an unqualified success as into our ships. No new electric light has been installed on the coast. of Great Britain since St. Catherine's (Isle of Wight) was fitte,cll up in 1888. Other electric lamps are to be found at the South Forland, at the Lizard, and at Soutar Point, only four teghithouses in all upon our coasts. This is due chiefly to the great prime cost of its installation and to the annual expense of maintenance. But the sailor himself is not enamoured of it. It does not assist him I in judging distances. It is too brilliant in clear weather, while in bad weather it pene- trates a fo<r no further than an ordinary oil lamp. We, however, want improvement in fogs and storms. Here electricity steps in. I wrote, in 1893, of wireless telegraphy oil lamp. We, however, want improvement in fogs and storms. Here electricity steps in. I wrote, in 1893, of wireless telegraphy —"Thbse waves are transmitted, by the ether; they are independent of day or night, of fog or snow or rain, and. there- fore. if bv any means a lighthouse can flash its indicating signals by electro-magnetic I disturbances through space, ships could find out their position in spite of darkness and of weather. Fog would lose one of its terrors, andl electricity Ïbecome a great life-savjng I agency." We: are nearing that goal. TRACTION. Electrically-worked railways originated in Europe. The first, experimental line was constructed by Dr Werner Siemens in Ber- lin in 1879. When I visited America in 1884 there was only one experimental line at work in Cleveland', Ohio. Now there are more miles of line so worked in Cleveland alone than) in the whole of the United King- dom. The reason for this is not difficult to comprehend. The climatic influences of the States, the habits of the people, the cost of horseflesh, thel necessity for (more rapid transit, soon proved the vast superiority of electric over every other form of traction. Horses and cables will soon disappear. In England the Tramways Act of 1870' has been restrictive. It deferred the real solution of the question for 21 years. Its avowed ten- dency has been to throw the industry into the hands of the municipalities. Private enterprise has therefore not been encour- aged, and municipalities have not taken it up. Local authorities have now been edu- cated. The successful progress iin the States and on the Continent has proved contagious, and everywhere our great cities are rising to the 'occasion. Indeed, to neglect to sup- ply tramways where they would be useful, healthful, and valuable, is to a certain ex- tent an abuse of the trust confided to the municipality bv the Legislature, Rapid and convenient suburban transit is a social factor of great importance to the working classes, who can be readily transported from close onarteTs to pure air and healthy dwellings. Hamburg is one of the best-trammed cities on the Continent. The trams were con- structed by private enterprise under lease from the municipality. The latter supplies the electric energy. Thjs tramway com- pany is hound to take the current at a fair and reasonable price, but they have also to pay a tax on the gross receipts, which is set aside by the local authority as a sinking fund, so that on the expiry of the agree- ment the town will have the capital to pur- chase the tramways. Corporations in this country who have secured a provisional or- der for the installation of electric light have secured also legal powers to supply electric energy for all purposes. It is, therefore, their right, and it may become a very valu- able property. The duplication and multi- plication of central electrical stations is likely to become a serious evil. It is absurd to see two buildings erected where one only is needed, and two causes of nuisance per- petrated where none need exist. I have already pointed out the economy of combin- ing electric lighting and tramway working. The relative merits of overhead and under- ground conductors, and the use of storage batteries, are practically the only important engineering questions under discussion. The underground conduit system has been mater- ially helped by the practical object lesson to be seen in New York, where the tram- ways are being very successfully worked on this plan. The trolley system is much more economical. Its erection does not interfere with the traffic of the streets. The prin- cipal objection to it is its anti-resthetic ap- pearance, but it is wonderful how ideas of utility and' the influence of custom make us submit to disfigurement. What is more in- artistic that a lamp-post, or more hideous than the barn-like appearance of many a railway terminus ? ELECTRO-CHEMISTRY. The transference of electricity through li- quids is accompanied by the disintegration of the molecules of the liquids into their I constituent elements. Electro-metallurgy is now a very large business, but it is destined to increase still more, for the generation of electrical energy is bceoming better under- stood and more cheaply effected. THE TRANSMISSION OF POWER. The energy wasted in waterfalls is enough -to maintain in operation the industries of the whole world. Great cities as a rule are not 'located near great falls nor has a bene- ficent. Providence provided great cities with waterfalls las*, according to the: American humourist, He has with broad rivers. There is but one Niagara, and we are seeing how I cl industries are rater going to the falls than the energy of the falls is being transmitted to the industrial centres. The arbitrament of money is limiting the distance to which energy can be profitably transmitted. The cataracts of the Nile can be utilised in irri- gating the waste lands of the upper regions of the river, but their energy cannot com- pete, at, Alexandria, with that of coal trans- ported, in mass from England. At Tivoli, 15 miles across the Campagna, the energy of the falls are economically utilised to light Rome and to drive the tramways of that city. The electric railways at Portrush and Bessbrook, in Ireland, are worked by water power, and Worcester, Keswick and Lynton UR it in this country, but on a very small scale. It is not used more, for the I simple reason that there are no more falls to use. Water-power is used very exten- sively in Switzerland, because it is so abun- dant there, and in our colonies, especially in South Africa; but it is in the United States, especially in Utah and California, where the greatest works have been installed, especial- ly for the transmission of energy to mines. In mines electricity is invaluable. It is used for moving trams and for working hoists. It lights up and ventilates the gal- leries, and by pumping keeps them free of water. It operates the drills, picks,_ stamps. cruisibierS, compressors, iand all kfinds of machinery. The modern type of induction motor, having neither brushes nor sliding contacts, is free from sparks and safe from dust. Electrical energy is clean, safe, con- venient, cheap, and it produces neither re- fuse nor side products. It is transmitted to considerable distances. In mountainous countries the economical distance is limited by the voltage which insulation can resist; 40,000 volts are being practically used be- tween Provo Canyon and Mercur, in Utah, in transmitting 2000 HP. 32 miles. It is effecting a great economy in coal consumption in our workshops and factories. The efficiency of steam-driven shafting is I known to be very poor. Scattered steam- engines and long steam-piping run away with money by their continuous waste of energy. on The motor is used only when and where it is wanted, its efficiency is very high and it costs nothing when. it is idle. It can be used either for the small power required by machines and tools at present worked bv hand, and for a goods locomotive of 2000 HP such a ft is now bein £ used at Uartimor CONCLUSION. I have occupied your time sufficiently, hope, to impress upon you the universality of electricity. Its flood-gates were opened when our good' Queen ascended t.he throne, and during her glorious reign it has over- flown all the fields cultivated by the engin- eer. Though its followers are now regarded as specialists, the period is not distant when it must cease to be a speciality. Its facts and tenets, its science and practice, must Form the framework of the profession of the engineer. Every engineer must ultimately become an electrician; and electrcity wlil be the most general, the most useful, and the most interesting form in which he applies i the fundamental principles of energy to the Ii wants, the comforts, and the happiness of mankind. _———

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>INTEKMEDIATE EDUCATION. 1