ASSOCIATIONS FOR ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. (BRITISH.) 



31 



General Session. The first session met on 

 Sept. 3, when President William H. Flower called 

 the association to order, and the exercises began 

 with the reading of the report of the council for 

 1$89-'90. It contained the announcement of the 

 election of the following corresponding members 

 from abroad ; M. A. Gobert, Brussels, Belgium ; 

 G.Gilsen, Louvairi, Belgium ; F. Nansen, Christi- 



SIR FREDERICK A. ABEL. 



ania, Sweden ; and A. S. Packard, Providence, 

 R. I. Also it advised the printing in full of the 

 following papers : " The Incidence and Effects 

 of Import and Export Duties," by C. F. Bastable, 

 and " The Comtist Criticism of Economic Sci- 

 ence," by Rev. Dr. Cunningham. The council 

 were recommended to urge upon the Govern- 

 ment of India : " (a) The desirability of procuring 

 anthropometric measurements of a representa- 

 tive series of tribes and castes in the Punjab, 

 Bombay, Madras, the Central Provinces, and As- 

 sam, it being understood that trained observers 

 .are already available, (b) Also that in the enu- 

 merators' schedule of the census of 1891 provision 

 should be made for recording not only the caste 

 to which a man belongs, but also the endogamous 

 and exogamous groups within which he is a mem- 

 ber." Correspondence toward the accomplish- 

 ment of the forgoing purpose had been condxicted 

 with the Indian officials through the office of 

 the Secretary of State for India. The committee 

 also recommended the publication of the report 

 of the committee on a uniform nomenclature for 

 the fundamental units of mechanics. The treas- 

 urer submitted the balance-sheet for the year, 

 showing ah excess of expenditure over receipts 

 of 753 9s. The sectional officers were then elect- 

 ed, including the presidents mentioned above, 

 six or more vice-presidents, and four secretaries. 

 In the evening the association assembled in the 

 Coliseum, and President Flower introduced the 

 incoming president, gracefully referring to Sir 

 Frederick Abel's researches in regard to explo- 

 sives as tending to diminish the horrors of war, 

 as well as to the great part which he had played 

 in endeavoring to prevent mining accidents. 



The President's Address. On this occasion 

 the president dwelt upon the advances made in 

 the practical applications of electricity to the 

 telegraph, to the telephone, as a tractive force, 

 and as an" illuminant ; upon the modern chemis- 



try of metallurgy ; upon the modern develop- 

 ment of explosives ; upon the greater safety of 

 mines ; and upon the increased employment of 

 natural mineral oil and gas for the purposes of 

 heating and of illumination./ In opening, he re- 

 ferred to the meeting held in Leeds in 1858, 

 under the presidency of Richard Owen, and then 

 to the illustrious men who were born or lived in 

 the vicinity. Of Priestley, who was born within 

 six miles of Leeds, he said that his " name holds 

 rank among the foremost of successful workers 

 in science ; who, by brilliant powers of experi- 

 mental investigation, rapidly achieved a series 

 of discoveries which helped largely to dispel the 

 shroud of mystery surrounding the art of alche- 

 my, and to lay the foundation of true chemical 

 science." Farther, he said : " His acquaintance 

 with Franklin probably developed the taste for 

 the study of electric science which led him to la- 

 bor successfully in this direction." Then, passing 

 to the development of applied science, he first 

 considered electricity, in " which the greatest 

 strides have been made since the association 

 met in Leeds in 1858." It was in that year that 

 the first Atlantic cable was successfully laid, 

 and so he described the advances made by the 

 application of electricity to telegraphy. He told 

 of the early history of electric lighting and the 

 telephone, and of the wire lighting companies 

 now in London, while " there are already twenty- 

 seven lighting stations actually at work in dif- 

 ferent towns, besides others in course of estab- 

 lishment, and many more projected." Continu- 

 ing in this direction, he added : " Our recent 

 progress is insignificant compared with the 

 strides made in the application of electric light- 

 ing in the United States." Of the telephone, he 

 told how the National Telephone Company " has 

 now 22,743 exchange lines, besides nearly 5,000 

 private lines ; its exchanges number 272, and its 

 call offices 326. The number of instruments 

 under rental in England has now reached 99,- 

 000." The electric transmission of power and 

 its application to railways and to water traffic 

 were described. Under the head of electric weld- 

 ing and fusing, he described the results achieved 

 by Elihu Thomson and the Cowles Brothers in 

 this country. This led to the aluminum alloys, 

 and of the Castner process at Oldbury he said 

 that it k ' constitutes one of the most interesting 

 of recent illustrations of the progress made in 

 technical chemistry, consequent upon the happy 

 blending of chemical with mechanical science, 

 through the labors of the chemical engineer." 

 (Castner is an American, and studied chemistry 

 in New York. He is now but thirty years of 

 age.) Other metallurgical advances were dis- 

 cussed and much credit was given to the Ameri- 

 can metallurgists for their work. The progress 

 made by sanitary science since the period of the 

 Crimean War -was described, after which he took 

 up that branch of science which is peculiarly his 

 own. namely, explosives. He first considered in 

 detail the improvements made in explosives and 

 cannon powders since 1858. In this part he gave 

 credit to the work done by Rodman and Dore- 

 . mus, but described in full* the results of experi- 

 ments made by Capt. Noble and himself at Wal- 

 tham Abbey. * The smokeless powders received 

 full consideration, and the French, German, Bel- 

 gian, and English inventions were described. 



