xxxvi Ainmal Report of tJie Council. 



knighted by Queen Victoria on board the Royal Yacht on the 

 occasion of the opening of the Manchester Ship Canal by Her 

 Majesty. The interests of Manchester and Salford always lay 

 very near his heart ; thus he foresaw the enormous value of the 

 Ship Canal, and was one of its most ardent advocates : more- 

 over, he gave time and material aid ungrudgingly to many 

 movements and institutions which had for their object the 

 promotion of scientific, literary or social studies in the district. 

 He was an old Volunteer, and presented cups for shooting to 

 the 7th and 8th Battalions Lancashire Fusiliers, the Monmouth- 

 shire Territorial Association, and the Old Mancunian Territorial 

 Society. In 1874 he collaborated with Prof. Tyndall in the 

 experiments carried out off the South Foreland to determine the 

 relative value of guns and sirens for signalling in different states 

 of the atmosphere. 



Sir William's connection with the Society began in 1888, 

 and in 1905 he was elected President, when he initiated the 

 custom of delivering an address from the chair on taking office. 

 Owing to his efforts a conversazione was held at the Society's 

 rooms in December, 1905, at which a large number of mem- 

 bers and guests were present. 



In 1889 he read a paper "On an old canoe found in the 

 Irwell Valley, near Barton, with observations on pre-historic 

 Chat Moss " {Memoirs, 4th ser., Vol. II,). A communication 

 " On the topographical distribution of mechanical inventions 

 in the County of Lancaster, and their influence on some 

 British industries," occupies several pages of the " Proceedings " 

 for 1901, and in the following year he exhibited a model of a 

 switchback railway, invented and made by Richard Roberts 

 ( I 789-1864). The Society is also indebted to him for a fine 

 photograph of the statues of Dalton and Joule in the vestibule 

 of the Town Hall. 



His presence at our meetings was always welcome, and he 

 seldom failed to recall some experience connected with the 

 great inventors, ironmasters and engineers of the North of 



