32 



Mr. Alexander Siemens 



[Feb. 3, 



The ingenious way in which Mr. Crompton has utilised the 

 heating effect of electric currents for cooking purposes has no doubt 

 been admired by most of you at the Crystal Palace Exhibition last 

 year ; and when we remember that these cooking utensils consume 

 fuel only during the time they are actually in use, and that they can 

 be put in and out of action at a moment's notice, we cannot doubt 



Diagram 3. 



Rivet-heating. 



that these and many other obvious advantages will facilitate their 

 introduction in spite of the figures, as to cost, given by the scientific 

 data. 



Of late the transmission of power by electricity has occupied a 

 very prominent place in the public interest, and the project of 

 utilising the force of the Niagara Falls at distant towns is as closely 

 discussed as the plan of constructing long railways on which trains 

 are to run at fabulous speeds. 



As you will hear a discourse on electric railways in three weeks 

 from to-day, I will not take up your time with this branch of the 

 subject, but will rather draw your attention to the distribution of 

 power by electricity from a central generating station. Before 

 entering further into this, let me remind you that the earliest 

 magneto-electric machines were used nearly sixty years ago for the 

 production of power. I will mention only Jacobi's electric launch of 

 1835 as an example ; it must, therefore, be considered altogether 

 erroneous to ascribe the invention of the transmission of power to an 

 accident at the Vienna Exhibition in 1873, when, it is said, an 

 attendant placed some stray wires into the terminals of a dynamo- 

 machine ; it began to turn, and the transmission of power was first 

 demonstrated. 



As a matter of fact, Sir William Siemens once informed me that 

 his brother Werner was led to the discovery of the dynamo-electric 



