XXII. PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



sulphuric acid, the copper going to the cathode, the nicKel dis- 

 solving in the bath, while the gold, silver, and platinum, fall in 

 the form of sludge, the nickel being subsequently separated 

 electrolitically, using insoluble anodes of lead or carbon, and 

 cathodes of nickel. A large amount of attention has been given 

 to the electrolitic production of zinc. There are many difficul- 

 ties, however, in connection with the practical commercial ap- 

 plication of electricity to this metal. Its solutions are poor con- 

 ductors, the metal is frequently deposited in a spongy state, and 

 above all, the low market price of zinc renders an electrical pro- 

 cess almost too expensive. The process of Seimens and Halske, 

 and Hoepfner, have both met with some success, but the best 

 results so far have been obtained by the Ashcroft method, in 

 which a solution is obtained bv treating oxide of zinc with ferric 

 chloride, and electrolysed. This process has been used on a large 

 scale at Broken Hill, but it is not yet altogether demonstrated 

 that the commercial economy of any of the processes is satisfac- 

 tory unless the recovery of the more valuable associated metals 

 are included. At the present time the various processes of electro 

 metallurgy may fairly be considered to have passed the 

 experimental stage, and A'hile there are doubtless many improve- 

 ments to b": made, there is every possibility that in the near 

 future, the electrolitic tank will in very many instances 

 replace altogether the more primitive furnace. 



Wireless Telegraphy. — Professor Oliver Lodge has said, 

 that at the end of the eighteenth century, the wonder was that 

 you should be able to signal with wires ; now at the end of this 

 nineteenth century, the wonder is that you should be able to 

 signal without wires. Telegraphing without wires has been the 

 dreani and aim of electricians for the past thirty years or more, 

 and if anyone were to ask me who discovered wireless telegraphy, 

 I should unhesitatingly say Professor Hughes, not that I desire 

 in the slightest degree to detract one iota of merit from Marconi, 

 whose research and ingenuity has made it a practical success, 

 and who deserves all the honour and merit attached thereto ; 

 but at the same time one cannot help sympathising with 

 Professor Hughes, after having' spent years of labour and 

 research, and actually demonstrating the fact, to be deprived of 

 the honour appertaining thereto. In 1879 Hughes found that 

 electric sparks from an induction coil or frictional machine, 

 acted on the surrounding medium in form of waves, the laws of 



