OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 393 



is dangerous (because overweighted) and too costly. Only by such an 

 instrument as a testing machine can these faults be avoided. 



"Our mode of life is highly artificial, and is daily growing more so. 

 We are everywhere dependent on machinery and on complex struct- 

 ures, be they railroads, steamboats, manufactories, or great public 

 buildings. These things are absolutely necessary, and make the foun- 

 dation of human happiness ; but they bring corresponding perils, so 

 that a community which has bad public works lives in constant dan- 

 ger. Such danger has hitherto been considerable, even in presence 

 of the best precautions, because there were no means for accurately 

 determining the strength of the materials employed. But with this 

 testing machine there can no longer be an excuse for materials weak 

 in themselves, or improperly proportioned. By its use every part 

 may be made safe, from the simple rail to the most complex bridge, 

 from the humble hand-car to the largest locomotive, and from the 

 plain column to the most elaborate trussed roof. 



"A machine which can guarantee the safety of most of our artificial 

 surroundings may properly be called conducive to human welfare. 



"Theodore Lyman, 

 Edward C. Pickering, 

 Charles H. Wing, 

 John Trowbridge, 

 Hiram F. Mills, 

 Henry P. Bowditch." 



The Report of the Committee was accepted. A vote was 

 then taken, which resulted in the selection, unanimously, of 

 the exhibit of results of the testing machine now at the 

 United States Arsenal in Watertown, and designed and con- 

 structed by Albert H. Emery, civil engineer, as the " single 

 exhibit most conducive to human welfare," and therefore the 

 proper one to receive the Grand Medal of Honor. 



Luigi Palma di Cesnola, of New York, was elected an Asso- 

 ciate Fellow in Class III., Section 4. 



The following papers were read : — 



" On the Scientific Use of the Telephone." By John Trow- 

 bridge. 



" On a Machine for Reproducing and Transmitting Vowel 

 and Consonant Sounds." By Amos E. Dolbear. 



