PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 17 



be applied, in one instance at least, to a regular passenger 

 service in Germany. A flight across the English Channel has 

 been successfully accomplished in an aeroplane, and we have 

 just heard of a second one, and on other occasions flights up 

 to more than 100 miles in length have been made in these 

 machines, such as the recent flight from London to Manchester. 

 In a manned balloon, a record height of 38,715ft., or rather 

 over seven miles, has been attained. In regard to motoring on 

 terra firma, it is not improbable that special roads for the sole 

 use of motorists will be constructed, which will no doubt be 

 an advantage to those who use them, and a far greater 

 advantage to those who do not. A conference on roads 

 was held in London in May last and advised the use of tar, 

 properly applied, to render roads dustless and more permanent. 

 A new invention of a heavy car carrying 15 tons propelled 

 by a motor and running on a single rail, has been tried with 

 great success, the car remaining level under various searching 

 tests. The equilibrium is sustained by means of gyroscopes. 

 The improvement of American and Canadian waterways has 

 been taken in hand, including the cutting of new canals, to 

 relieve the railway traffic. An aqueduct on a large scale, 92 

 miles in length, is being constructed to supply water to New 

 York from the Catskill mountains. One of the latest advances 

 which has been made in the working of metals is that of cutting 

 thick plates of steel by burning the metal with an oxyhydrogen 

 blow-pipe. By this means an armour plate 6' Sin. thick was 

 cut for the length of a metre in ten minutes. Most metals will 

 thus burn in oxygen at a high temperature, and can be treated 

 in the same manner. It has long been a matter of speculation 

 as to how the Indians of former times gilded the curious works 

 of art that are found in different parts of central and South 

 America, the film of gold being very thin and resembling 

 that produced by electro-plating. Recent experiments have 

 shown the possible truth of a traditional belief that it was 

 done by rubbing the articles with the juices of certain plants. 

 The material is metal containing a small quantity of gold, 

 and the baser parts being dissolved, though very slowly, 



