70 SELLERS — TRANSMISSION OF ENERGY BY ELECTRICITY. [Feb. 3, 



Copper is, of the available materials, the best conductor and the 

 cheapest. The price of aluminum, however, owing to the cheap 

 power used in its manufacture, has fallen from five dollars per 

 pound to twenty-five cents per pound. Pure aluminum, properly- 

 alloyed with a metal that will increase its strength without decreas- 

 ing its conducting quality, renders it possible at the present time 

 for aluminum conductors to be offered at exactly the same price 

 per mile as copper, with the added advantage of allowing the poles 

 supporting the line to be placed much farther apart, thus using 

 fewer insulators and decreasing the cost of the line ; also insuring 

 more economy in transmission, as there is less leakage, due to the 

 diminished number of supports, all of which will be weak points 

 in the transmitting system. The increased area required for the 

 lighter metal, resulting in a larger radiating surface, is favorable 

 also to the dissipation of the heat engendered by the resistance in 

 the line, as whatever energy is lost in such transmission assumes the 

 form of heat energy. 



What can this or any other learned Society do to help in the 

 promotion of the knowledge of electricity applied to the use of 

 man ? It is a matter of great importance to those interested in the 

 work of this Society that they recognize the necessity of exerting 

 themselves to carry out the intent of its founder in promoting useful 

 knowledge. We must try to induce the members and others to make 

 use of the advantages that the Society possesses in disseminating 

 useful knowledge through its publications, and to make this build- 

 ing and these rooms the place for the discussion of subjects of 

 practical as well as theoretical importance in the same direction, on 

 the lines so earnestly followed by its founder, who tried to bring 

 together representative men of varied attainments and to have 

 them submit papers for discussion. 



In my efforts to interest members in our work in the direction of 

 the subject of this discourse, and to have them submit papers for 

 discussion, I have been met, first, with the excuse of want of time 

 for the preparation of matter ; second, the desire of most specialists 

 to contribute to the societies devoted to their specialties; third, 

 to the fact that there are so many periodicals for each special de- 

 partment of science ready and eager to obtain, even to pay for, 

 copy, and in the case of electricity as applied to the service of man 

 many of the professors of physics in colleges, specialists besides 

 those on the staffs of the great manufacturing companies, are re- 



