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185 



i'Y him in ls:o will be found to embrace only some improvements 

 in this machine. Hence it is an undoubted fact that gutta- 

 percha was applied to the insulation of wire in Germany several 

 a before the patents mentioned by the President this evening 

 us having hern taken out in 1848. I should correct myself. The 

 patents taken out in England in 1848 were for covering the wire 

 I n't ween strips of gutta-percha, a method which had been tried by 

 my brother in Germany in 18-K! ; but the covering of gutta- 

 percha by means of a machine working on the principle of a lead 

 piping or macaroni machine was, I think, not adopted by the 

 <Jutta-percha Company until 1850. Therefore, although sub- 

 marine telegraphy is decidedly an English enterprise it must be 

 admitted that much has also been effected abroad to bring 

 appliances to their present state of perfection. 



Another remark I think fell from Mr. Varley with reference to 

 \\ater tanks on board vessels, and he implied that my brother 

 claimed the introduction of those tanks. If he refers to the paper 

 Mr. Varley will find that is not the case. He does not claim the 

 tanks, but says they were introduced in England. But it so 

 happens I have had a great deal to do myself with the employment 

 of these tanks. Whether I was absolutely the first to broach the 

 idea or not I will not say. It might have occurred to several, but 

 may I say this, that in 1859, when the Rangoon and Singapore 

 cable was carried out for the Board of Trade, I was employed to 

 test that cable, and I strongly urged upon the Government the 

 construction of water-tight tanks on board the steamship Queen 

 I 'icloriu. The matter was referred by Messrs. Glass and Elliott to 

 the constructors of the ship at Newcastle, who wrote a letter to 

 the Board of Trade stating that they thought it impracticable, 

 that water-tight tanks constructed on board ship would inevitably 

 fail on account of the natural motions of the ship, and iny recom- 

 mendation was negatived. This was, perhaps, fortunate, because 

 it gave rise to the first application of the resistance thermometer 

 t'.r ascertaining the fact that a cable is subject to spontaneous 

 generation of heat when coiled in a dry tank, and of proving the 

 absolute necessity of water-tight tanks, which, as is well-known 

 have been in use ever since. 



I should like to make a few remarks regarding an observation 

 that occurs in the paper where my name has been mentioned in 



