16 PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



useful in destroying locusts, though I do not know with how 

 much success. Other papers on special subjects connected 

 with war engines were also read. A matter that has also been 

 much discussed is the amount of water power in this country, 

 in which unfortunately we are but poorly supplied, compared 

 with some other countries, and its use to the best advantage. 

 This has been caused to a great extent by the consideration of 

 the supply of nitrogenous products, the nitrogen being 

 obtained most easily in large quantities from the atmosphere, 

 for which purpose water power is extensively used elsewhere; 

 the greatest example being Niagara, which is now being still 

 further utilized. It has been lately proposed to use the water 

 power from Dartmoor and from the river Dee for this purpose ; 

 but neither project has been carried out. One of the latest 

 suggestions is to sink a borehole 12 miles deep with a view to 

 obtaining a new source of power from the internal heat of the 

 earth. Whether the result would be satisfactory is problem- 

 atical; but as it is estimated that it would take 85 years to 

 accomplish, it is only future generations who would be able to 

 judge of its merits. Experiments have been made which tend 

 to shew that granite would not collapse and fill the shaft at 

 that depth. Another estimate gives only 30 years for the 

 boring. The deepest shaft yet sunk is 11 mile. An ultra- 

 rapid kinematograph has been invented in which the film 

 moves continuously, the object being illuminated by electric 

 sparks. In this way it is said that 20,000 photographs a 

 second can be taken on the film. 



GEOGRAPHY. 



A new method of world survey has been proposed, viz. : 

 that by means of wireless time signals the exact longitude of 

 three spots on the earth, say at Paris, Shanghai and San Fran- 

 cisco, shall be determined, the latitude being found by ordinary 

 means, and that from these, other points shall have their exact 

 positions deduced, so that the surveys of different portions of 

 the earth may be co-ordinated with each other. A geodetic 



