XVin. PRESIDENTIAI. AHDKESS. 



calcium carbide, once a rarity in the laboratory, then a rare 

 material, at so many shillings per ounce, almost ranging with 

 precious metals, and then, all at once, brought by methods of 

 practical Electro Chemistry, into the market as a commercial 

 product, with innumerable applications in the Arts. Aluminium, 

 a beautiful metal, and one of the most plentiful on the 

 earth, is steadily working its way into the arts and manufactures, 

 just so surely and steadily as its cost of production is lessening, 

 The metal was first isolated by Wohler in 1827, but remained 

 as one of the rare metals until 1855, when Deville and JJunsen 

 reduced small quantities by Electrolysis, but the process was 

 found to be far too costly {£'20 per lb.) to be of any commercial 

 value. From this time up to 1884, numerous furnace smelting 

 and reduction by sodium methods, were employed, which 

 gradually reduced the cost to 70s. per lb., still a prohibitive 

 price ; but through the introduction of modern electric machinery 

 driven by waler power, such as Niagara, the electrolitic process 

 has again been reverted to. and that which cost, forty years ago, 

 400s. per lb., is being now made by a similar process by modern 

 appliances at Is. 4d. per lb., thus making it bulk for bulk, cor- 

 responding in price to brass, and taking its place with the 

 common metals. The tensile strain in relation to weight, pure 

 aluminium is as strong as steel of over 80,000 lb. per square 

 inch. The total production of this metal in the year 1882 was 

 only 83 lbs., but since that date to the present time has risen to 

 something like 4,000,000 lbs. per annum. The greatest use is as 

 alloys with other metals, particularly copper. The lightness of 

 aluminium, its non-corrosive properties, and the fact that it is 

 antiseptic, renders it a most suitable metal for surgical and 

 optical instruments. 



Artificial Lightixg. — Of all that trends to the comfort 

 and well-being of mankind, good artificial light stands 

 pre-eminent. Imagine us to-day being suddenly reverted 

 back to the use of the old tallow and wax candle ■? why, life would 

 become unendurable. The ruddy lights and picturesque 

 shadows faithfully handed on to us by Rembrandt's pictures 

 point very clearly to what our poets called the dim glimmer of 

 the taper. The advancement in artificial lighting has played 

 no small part in the advent of science and civilization. A few 

 years before the introduction of coal gas, Argand by his improve- 

 ment in burners for oil lamps, enabled our Fathers to 



