PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 17 



50 J miles, delays occurring at the locks, by which the long 

 central portion of 32 miles, raised 85 feet above the sea-level, 

 is attained. By an arrangement with two connected water 

 tanks the rolling in ships appears to be much reduced, the 

 invention having proved satisfactory in the few experimental 

 cases in which it has been tried. The " Thunderer " the 

 largest ship in the Navy, was launched on February 1st. In 

 these days of wonderful inventions it is refreshing to read of 

 primitive methods still in force in connection with engineering 

 undertakings. The object was to withdraw bore-castings 

 from a river bed. A pontoon crowded with natives was 

 brought to the spot, and attached to the bore-casting. At 

 a signal all the natives sprang overboard, and the pontoon, 

 going up with a bound, drew up the bore-casting. What 

 an opportunity for the unemployed ! The condition of the 

 Tower of Pisa has been giving cause for anxiety, but a com- 

 mission has decided that it is not at present in danger, though 

 its leaning has increased in the last 80 years, and its founda- 

 tions, which are made more insecure by the presence of water, 

 are found to be much less deep than had been believed. The 

 Commission has no doubt that the leaning is caused by sub- 

 sidence, and that it was originally vertical. It was com- 

 menced in 1174, and is built of white marble. The extreme 

 accuracy with which surveying can now be accomplished is 

 illustrated by a recent survey in India of the Bombay-Madras 

 line, 806 miles long, where the levelling from end to end showed 

 an error of only 1- 100th inch per mile. It has long been sought 

 to combine the gramophone with the cinematograph so as to 

 produce the sounds simultaneously with the moving picture, 

 and the difficulties seem at length to have been surmounted, 

 so that we may have a complete representation of a scene with 

 the words and other sounds brought before our eyes and ears. 

 A new process has been discovered of coating with metals, 

 which is on much the same principle as the ordinary spray 

 disperser, a stream of the liquid hot metal being broken up 

 into spray by a current of gas impinging on it. The fine 

 particles, being blown with great force against the object 



