73 



of the numerous coiuniunications presently to be mentioned as contri- 

 buted to the Society of Arts. 



" In all other respects than as a contributor, his services to the 

 Royal Society were numerous and incessant. By his example and 

 assistance, its affairs were conducted in a more methodical and 

 exact manner than had previously been usual ; he kept more exact 

 minutes than had before been done ; he contributed to our Museum 

 and its re-arrangement ; he charged liimself almost exclusively with 

 the editorial labour of our Transactions ; and, by his extensive ac- 

 quaintance with the scientific men of Paris, where he was himself 

 favourably known, he also extended the connections and character of 

 this Society. 



" But whilst thus intimately connected with the Royal Society, he 

 took a great deal of concern in another, the Society of Arts, which 

 he had contributed to establish, of which he acted as Secretary fi-oni 

 1822 to 1824, and of which he was twice Vice-President, and finally 

 President for the year 1841-2. By far his most numerous public 

 communications were to that Society, and the complete list of them 

 which the present Secretary, Mr Tod, has, with great courtesy and 

 labour, extracted for me from the minute books, includes about 60 

 contributions of one kind or other, spread over a period of 17 years. 

 It would be wrong to judge of these communications as formal 

 papers ; the nature of the proceedings of the Society admitted of 

 merely verbal and occasional notices not necessarily of an original 

 character. During his frequent visits to Paris he seldom failed to 

 pick up some improvement in the ornamental or useful arts, which 

 he thought worthy of being known to practical men at home, and 

 farther publicity he did not desire. Such were many of his com- 

 munications ; others of very various degrees of importance were 

 properly original, comprising the results of his own experiments on 

 mechanical subjects. And though many of these appear trivial by the 

 titles, few pei*sons capable of judging of or appreciating the ingenuity 

 of his improvements, or the beauty of the workmanship by which he 

 rarely failed to illustrate them, considered them really to be so. To 

 myself, who was for a long period a constant visitor of his work- 

 room, these memoranda recall the rapid succession of most ingenious 

 plans and contrivances with which he was almost continually occu- 

 pied, and of which only a very small part ever underwent even a 

 partial publication. Amongst the more prominent of his communi- 

 cations to the Society of Arts may be reckoned his improvements in 

 the difficult art of cutting accurate metal screws, for which the Keith 



