Sec. III., 1896. [ 3 ] Trans. R. S. C 



I. — Presidential Address, 



Bj H. T. BovEY, M.A., LL.D., McGill University. 



(Delivered May 19, 1896.) 



CtEntlemen, — In undertaking to give an address as president of 

 Section III. I am conscious of attempting a task of great ditiiculty, for 

 few men, in these days of specialists, can claim adequately and fairly to 

 represent the claims of pure mathematics, chemistry, astronomy and 

 physics in genei*al. The onl}' plan seems to be for each to speak for his 

 own department, trusting that in this manner the work of the section 

 will be covered in the course of three or four years. I have, therefore, 

 thought it best to call your attention chiefl}- to the latest phase of 

 engineering, namely, that of an experimental science, and especially to 

 the close connection between actual practice and experiment, and the 

 progress of invention, as illustrated by the modern history of engineer- 

 ing. You will, I doubt not, pardon me if I refer somewhat freely to the 

 work now being carried on in the laboratories of McGill University, as, 

 though fully conscious that this is but one of the busy workshops of the 

 world, I am naturall}^ most convei-sant with its details. 



Some one has said that the birthday of modern engineering was the 

 day when Watt announced his new discovery of the power of steam. It 

 is, however, hardly fair to call it the birthday, it is more like the return 

 of Rip Van Winkle. The science which built the pyramids, Avith their 

 wonderful exactness of measurement ; which planned the sculjitured 

 avenue for the rays of the midsummer sun ; which con.structed pools in 

 Gihon and hanging gardens in Babylon ; which warmed the houses of 

 Pompeii and ventilated the tombs of Egypt — this science, I say, if it was 

 really born in the eighteenth century, must have had a previous em- 

 bodiment in far away times. Certainly, however, it has now entered 

 upon a new phase, which has given it a fresh lease of free and Avonderful 

 life. It is as if the spark which had smouldered all through the dai'k 

 ages, and fitfully gleamed, as it were, in the Gothic cathedrals, in Brunel- 

 leschi'sdome and Giotto's tower — the perfect model of strength and beauty 

 — had suddenly burst into a flame. There is no department of human life 

 or industr}^ which has not been illumined, and I do not hesitate to say 

 that no one has done more than the engineer to advance the civilization 

 of the world. 



We begin to realize what was the state of affairs even after the 

 middle of the last century, when we remember that it took from twelve 

 to fourteen days to travel by stage coach from London to Glasgow, that 



