22 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION A. 



plete, a number of undertakings giving no return, and the large 

 power companies not being included, an addition of 70,000 H.P 

 is accounted for, bringing the total horse-power of motors known 

 to be connected to public supply mains to over 630,000. 



Electricity has of late years been increasingly used for trac- 

 tion purposes on railways. Up to March of last year about 

 800 miles of line in Europe and America were being operated by 

 high-pressure continuous current, the longest line being an 

 American one of 90 miles. I am unable to say the extent to 

 which alternating current is being used or the length of the lines 

 so operated. 



The Prussian House of Deputies has adopted a proposal to 

 spend £2,500.000 on further railway electrification, and the 

 Chilian Government is considering the electrification of over 

 6.000 miles of railway, energy for which is to be water-power 

 generated. 



The very satisfactory results which have hitherto been 

 obtained from the employment of electricity for traction on rail- 

 way? in all parts of the world is bound to lead to tremendous 

 development in the near future. 



Another form of electric traction which has met with success 

 quite recently is what has come to be known as " rail-less " trac- 

 tion. This system was first tried in England at Bradford and 

 Leeds, where the formal opening of the new service took place 

 on June 20th of last year. Since then several other municipal 

 bodies have decided to adopt the system, mostly as extensions to 

 their existing tramways. 



The improvements in electric lamps, both of the arc and 

 incandescent type, during the last few years must not be allowed 

 to escape notice. In both kinds of lamp the efficiency has been 

 enormously increased, and, as a consequence, electric light has 

 been greatly cheapened. For these benefits we have to thank 

 the chemist more than the engineer. 



Whereas the efficiency of the early incandescent lamp wa> 

 one C.P. per 4 watts, it is now one C.P. for 1^ watts. The useful 

 life of incandescent lamps has also increased. 



When we consider the growth of electricity supply in the 

 various countries, to the great proportion of its present-dav 

 attainments, in so short a period, and the ever-increasing uses to 

 which electricity is being put, one may be forgiven for anticipat- 

 ing that, great as the progress has been, it will be trifling com- 

 pared with what it will be in the years to come. Already we 

 have in most countries numbers of huge power supply systems 

 being developed over enormous areas, and we may anticipate, 

 with Mr. Ferranti, that electricity will eventually become the 

 chief agent in the material progress of the world. 



The time at my disposal has been sufficient to refer to only 

 a few of the industries which have benefited by the application 

 of electricity, but when one reflects that almost every industry 

 has been assisted by the use of electricity in one way or another, 

 one begins to perceive that an enormous field of usefulness is 

 open to this versatile agent in the service of man. 



