PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. cv. 



celebration of the jubilee of the coal tar industry held in honour 

 of Sir W. H. Perkin, who began when only 17 years old by 

 discovering the first aniline dye, mauve, a discovery which had 

 such far-reaching and important effects on the world's industries. 



ENGINEERING. 



Perhaps the most important development in engineering is in 

 the navigation of the air, towards which great steps have lately 

 been made, though it can hardly be said that it has yet assumed 

 a useful form. The first successful public flight of a flying 

 machine which could raise itself from the ground took place 

 on October 23rd last, when M. Santos Dumont's machine 

 successfully raised itself and its driver from the ground several 

 feet and transported itself by its own power for 80 yards. Fur- 

 ther successful experiments have since been made. In this 

 machine no sort of balloon was used for support, the entire 

 power being derived from mechanical means ; and it seems not 

 improbable that in the near future some airship of this sort will 

 come into practical use. It is said that similar private experi- 

 ments of a much more successful nature have been made by an 

 inventor in America; but they are conducted with as much 

 secrecy as the nature of the case admits of, and one cannot, 

 therefore, speak of them with certainty. A great balloon race 

 was organised in Paris, in which 16 competitors started, but no 

 record flight was made, the greatest distance covered being 400 

 miles. The size of ships appears to be increasing, and the 

 largest ship afloat, the Mauretania, of 43,000 tons burden and 

 having a length of 785 feet, being 80 feet longer than the Great 

 Eastern, was launched on September 2oth, 1906. It is not 

 improbable that gas engines may replace steam engines as the 

 motive power in ships in the near future. The economy is 

 considerable, and could the tormer be made as reliable in their 

 action they would doubtless be at once adopted. What promises 

 to be a most important discovery is the application of a 

 gyroscope to the prevention of rolling in ships, and recent 



