This recently founded Sceiety is showing that its youth is, "8 youth should be, full of vigour and one-gy. Its proceedins: already include three interesting paper, the first and moat interesting, which only want of space has prevented our reprinting in fall, being the Inauzural Address of the President, Mr. G. J. Morrison, delivered fon the 5th of March Jast. It took the form of a review of the progress of ensincerinx science in the second half of the nineteenth century. We have said 'a review," hut the following extract shows that it could not be as much s that. Mr. Morrison ing forward, as some of our younger members may do, to the progress that is likely to take place during the first half of the twentieth century, their only guide can be what has occurred during the fast half of the nineteenth, Were J to attempt refer in even the most. sketchy manner to the progress of the last 50 years, should only weary you with a repeti whit must be familar to all present and it wou'd be presumptuous of me to choose one department of our profession and try to describe its latest phases, At home Mr. Manserzh may take waterworks as his subject, Sir William Preece may lecture on the Jatest achievements of electtici Sir William W treat of th struction of the professional man like Sir Lothim Bell, who has eon-tributed so auch to the alvanee in the iron industry for a generation, hus Intely failed in one of his xddzesses to grasp the present condition of affuins, itis deny that no one far removed from the centres of as we are can hope to sueeed in a simi endeavour, Tt has however occurred to mie that instead jer_very briefly to the state of about Veginning of the Jast half-century, illustrating my subject as far T can by reference to incidents which Fave écme within my own experience, and I hope that by" so doing I may press on your minds whit a short time has elapsed since engin ering practice in many branches waa in a state whi nian of you might. hai Deen inclined to! refer to the middle ages, wid T trust that this will prove more interesting 1 al glorification of the maryils of the present day, with which you are all familiar, Mr. Morrison went on to mention his first practical experience, which was under the present Lord Kelvin, and his cmployment ati the firat Atlantic cable. He hind the good fortune to di cover that appearance alone was no yule to the conductivity of copper wires, und that it was necessary to test them for this quality. Mr. Morrison also carried on, under Lord Kelvin, the experiments which resulted in the invention of the mirror galvanometer. In railway development Mr, Morrison mentioned the great advance made when fishplates were introduced in the fifties, the ends of the rails before that berg moly keyed into wide chairs: There ae some very interesting remarks on Makes, Mr. Metrigon being evidently a believer i she Westinighouse brake, and justly deprecating the endeavour " to substitute aometivg that was only partially cfiicient. for something that was wholly efficient There is an amusing reference to the time when the United States was an buyer of old rails which "were admitted duty-free to the States where they wei cut up, piled and re-relled;" but as a matter of fact they were often used without being even re-ivlled. Now the United States supplies the world with rails, Phere are come here no doubt who still remember the atmospheric railway to Croydon, as well as the rope rail-from London to Blackwall; of the former of these Mr. Morrison gives account, Noyes on tunnels, breakwaters, and evpines frllow; and on waterworks, [sanitary engineering, and metallurgy. There is naturally a good deal about gunnery, and there ate some particularly interesting notes on the union of are! ture with engineering. Then Mr. Morrison switchs often a differen line. He says Assuming that there has been a great advance during the last half-century, has not Leen due to the work of the practical man and not of the theorist, and isnot the workshop more likely to be the birthplace of new inven than the lecture or the laboratory? My impress that theory plays a much eater part in the progress of the world Than most people suppose. No one calling himself an engineer is likely to speak in a disparaging manner of experience gained from actual work, still he will not trust to practical work only.
This Latter portion of Mr. Morrison's address deserves careful study, and the illustrations of w lib he es Use are really The case of the un [pote ate turret-ship Capten is very aptly Tre i ment tested against the masts and sai given his ship, but in those days only a few were to be found who deemed it safe to send a steamer to sea without the old means of propulsion to aid her if her engines lake down, Had theory been invoked and trusted the Admiralty would nev have asked for masts and Coles never have azreel to them, The disaster was directly attributable to putting prac: tical experience before theory." A lest courteous writer might was due te the same high mr battleships with muzzle-loiter other Powers had noders, The following is Mr. conclusion Theory and practice must go hand in hand, Without Loth the world may craw] jMleng but can hardly be said to advance, and Sozieties such as this if honestly used [for the advancement of knowledge contribute in a very large degree to the ey for well-be human race at least as much to theory ax to that we owe our advance in the past and {that we look for advance in the fature, ard that the speed at which we are progressing is fairly satisfactory is well jiustrated by seme of the facts to j which T bs ferred stich as that less {tha submarine cables were having the copper ity; railways weve [Jsid without fishplates and hand brakes alone were used on tains; 15 Ibs.
d pressure for a marine boiler, simple onzines condensers' universal in vee: steamers; mild steel was unk aluminium existed only in the form of cabinet specimens in slas cases; and Ameri a was a dumping the 2nd instant Mr. J.R. Harding, n-Chief to the I. M. Customs, riy paper on "The Erection of the lighthouse on the South Cape of Formosa."
Mr. R. H. Foy read the third paper, on the I6th inst, his subject being the Conieal Projection' of Maps. an ex-! tremely trelinical paper, the object being to show the necessity of allowing for the curvature of the earth's surface in_ making nlaige map. Mr. Foy begins by telling how this necessity was brought home tohim when Lo was sent to survey certain railway estates in Western Australia, and his paper is not all dry, as the following extract shows Nearly a month after this, the author was camped about 60 miles' north of his "first position, when one night about 11 o'clock, he was awakened by this same surveyor riding up to his tent. He had ridden nearly 20° mils that night te announce that he had proved beyond a doubt that the earth had moved at Toast two deurees in its orbit, and, that being the erse, a large quantity of his work was wrong. After comparing notes and working out his observations and with the aid of sundry observations through the bottom of tumblers, it was discovered that he hnd been using x last year's antical Almanne, which zecouuted for his error, and next moming he returned to his camp rejoicing.
Phe fourth paper, read on the same acca sion, was a description by Mr. 1. 'T, H. Ferguson of his new application ut the Hodograph, but " notice of this we must reserve for another occasion,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.