RECORDS OF MEETINGS. 703 



serves to emphasize the difference between scientific knowledge and 

 scientific possibilities in 1780 and in 1910. 



The advance of our investigators has carried them farther and farther 

 from the central starting point of ignorance on the radius which meas- 

 ures the circle of knowledge, but with every outward step that has 

 been taken the contact of the circumference of this area of conquered 

 territory with the unknown beyond has become larger and larger. The 

 proceedings of the thousand meetings of the Academy contain a record 

 of the conquest of a large part of the field which we now occupj?" and 

 there is no sign as yet that our students flatter themselves that the 

 unconquered space of the beyond has given up all its secrets. 



Following Mr. Davis's address the Toastmaster called for the 

 second toast : 



The second toast I propose to you is " The First Extant Communi- 

 cation Presented to the Academy." There is one name, more prominent 

 than any other in the science of Physics, which has repeated itself in 

 different individuals, in no way connected with each other. There is 

 no danger that this Academy will forget the name of Benjamin Thomp- 

 son, Count Rumford, the greatest name in science that America pro- 

 duced during the eighteenth century, with the possible exception of 

 the other Benjamin — Franklin. In the nineteenth century, Sir William 

 Thomson stands preeminent, now better known as Lord Kelvin. At 

 the present time, no name stands higher than that of Sir Joseph 

 Thomson of Cambridge, England, the worthy successor of Maxwell and 

 Rayleigh. All three Thomsons were Foreign Honorary Members of 

 this Academy, but to them we may add a fourth, who like Lord Kelvin 

 gave a practical turn to his work. I will ask Professor Elihu Thomson 

 to respond to this toast. 



Professor Thomson responded as follows : 



The first Academy paper, brief as it was, dealt with an extremely 

 important subject, the making of steel. It was an art comparatively 

 new to the Western world. Reliable information was needed, and this 

 the paper furnished. There is no occasion to dwell upon the present 

 importance of this art for it now dominates all our industries. The 

 United States stands preeminent to-day as a steel producing and con- 

 suming nation. Indeed, our great manufacturing industries, our rail- 

 roads, our steamships, our electrical plants, and our buildings largely 

 rest, so to speak, on foundations of iron and steel. The telegraph 



