PROCEEDINGS, SEPTEMBER. 



SEPTEMBER. 



The monthly meeting of this Society was held on Tuesday, September 

 8, the President, His Excellency Sir R. G. C. Hamilton, K.C B., in the 

 chair. There was a large attendance of members and ladies. 



The following were elected Fellows of the Royal Society : — VeD. 

 Archdeacon Mason, Rev. James Scott, D.D. 



His Excellency referred to the paper read on behalf of Mr. A. J. 

 Ogilvy at last meeting on the best means of collecting scientific infor- 

 mation, and suggested that the matter should be brought under the 

 notice of the approaching meeting of the Australasian Association for the 

 Advancement of Science. He considered that valuable information 

 would be obtained if, as suggested, there was a representative of the 

 Society in every district to keep his eyes and ears open, and let them 

 know of anything of scientific interest. 



Mr. A. J. Ogilvy said he regarded it as very important that in every 

 district the Society should have some one to represent it, and pointed 

 out that if at any time it wanted any special local knowledge there 

 would be somebody to whom application could be made. He thought 

 that the Fellows should consider as to the best means of carrying out 

 the suggestion made, and deal with the subject at a future meeting. 



Mr. A. Morton, as General Secretary to the Association, gave a 

 satisfactory progress report re the arrangements for the approaching 

 meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 and hoped at next meeting to present a report giving a list of the papers 

 to be read. 



ELECTRIC TRACTION. 



Mr. Montague Jones, C.E., read a paper on the above subject. He 

 said that whether the present generation had discovered the ultimate 

 force in nature most applicable to the service of men was a question for 

 the scientist of the future to decide, but he thought they could claim 

 the present to be an electrical age, as in pre-historic times there were 

 ages of stone and bronze. The practical utility of the application of 

 electricity to the propulsion of railway and tramway cars was first 

 demonstrated at Berlin in 1879 by Siemens and Halske on an experi- 

 mental line of 500 metres, in the form of an oval. The train consisted 

 of a small electric locomotive and carriages, which had very small 

 wheels, with two rows of seats running parallel to the rails. The 

 success of this experiment led to other attempts of an exhibitional 

 nature at Brussels, Dusseldorf, Frankfort and other places, and then 

 electrical traction passed from the experimental to the commercial 

 process of development. The Lichterfelde electric tram near Berlin 

 was the first of its kind. The length was 1| miles, and the equipment 

 in 1881 consisted of two motor cars, the motion being transmitted to 

 the wheels by belts working on grooved pulleys outside the wheels. 

 The prime source of power was a steam engine, with a Siemens motor 

 and generator, but the installation differed in some respects from the 

 Berlin line, the central rail not being used, but the one rail acting as a 

 lead, and the other as a return for the current. Up to 1887 this line 

 canied 100,000 passengers yearly. These instances showed that the 

 inception of electrical tramways took place in Europe, the principle 

 being the generation of electricity by dynamo, and conveying the 

 current through conductors connected by sliding contact with the cars 



