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02 PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS—SECTION J. 
In Electrical Engineering the necessity for scientific training is 
so clear that I need not refer to it, only to point out that every 
electrical engineer, besides posessing as sound knowledge of 
physical science, should be a good mechanical engineer. I am 
aware of the fact that many of the leading members of the 
profession have not received such a complete scientific training as 
the one I have referred to. 2 
These may be divided into two classes. On the one hand we 
have men who have succeeded by their knowledge of processes 
and their practical knowledge of materials, tact in business 
matters, capacity to organise and manage workmen ; and in such 
cases the real engineering knowledge and ability is supplied by a 
partner or assistant, who has generally acquired that knowledge 
in the manner indicated. 
On the other hand, we have had men who have been inde- 
fatigable students, bent above all things on self-improvement, 
whose labours were actuated by a spirit as truth-loving and with 
a zeal as keen as that of any of the purely scientific investigators. 
I refer to such men as John Smeaton, born in 1724; James 
Watt, born in 1736; Thomas Telford, born in 1757; John 
Rennie, Sir. William Fairbairn, George and Robert Stevenson, 
Dr. Roebuck, Muschet, Nielson, Sir Charles William Siemens, 
Sydney Thomas Gilchrist, Sir Joseph Whitworth, and others. 
The time at my disposal for this address will not permit me to 
give even a brief account of their lives ; but you will find a most 
interesting account of some of their labours in Smiles’ “ Lives of 
the Engineers.” We still hear in the colonies the terms “theory” 
and “practice” grossly misapplied. For instance, Mr. A is 
designated a theorist, while Mr. B is said to. be a thoroughly 
practical man. We have also heard it stated ‘that one ounce of 
practice is worth a pound of theory.” And, on the other hand, 
the late Sir John Anderson, Superintendent of the Arsenal at 
Woolwich, said, with reference to this subject, ‘‘ that one ounce 
of theory thoroughly understood was worth any amount of 
practice which was not based upon scientific principles.” Now, 
it is clear to everyone that if you require todo a thing which you 
have not done before, and which probably no one else has done 
before, you must first of all think out carefully how you are to do 
it before you can commence. 
So, also, an engineer, if he wishes to design a structure of an 
original type, or which differs in its dimensions, or loads which it 
has to carry, forces which may be brought to bear upon it, or in 
any other respect from existing structures, he must first carefully 
think out and design the structure, taking into account all the 
conditions and circumstances which govern the case, before he 
can finally build the structure. 
IT have mentioned the case of a structure, but the same course 
should be followed with regard to machinery—the one part is 
