76 THE ADDRESSES, LECTURES, ETC., OF 



represented at present by a separate learned society, ranking with 

 the Chemical or Astronomical Societies, I am of opinion that we 

 should not exclude from our subjects questions of purely electrical 

 science. The phenomena of electrification and polarisation, of 

 specific induction and conduction, the laws regulating the electrical 

 wave, the influences of rise of temperature on conduction or the 

 potential force residing in a coil of wire of a given form, when 

 traversed by a current, involve questions belonging just as much 

 to pure physical science as to the daily practice of the Telegraph 

 Engineer, and would at any rate be inseparable from our proceed- 

 ings. Next in order come questions of selection of materials for 

 conduction or insulation, of apparatus for the best utilisation of 

 feeble currents, of apparatus for producing, alternating, and direct- 

 ing electrical currents, which, although still intimately connected 

 with physical science, call into play considerations of mechanical 

 combinations. This brings us to questions of purely mechanical 

 import, such as the mechanical construction of instruments for 

 recording or printing messages, of protecting and supporting in- 

 sulated conductors by sea or land, or of constructing machinery 

 for the manufacture, the laying, and the repairing of submarine 

 cables. 



These questions again lead up to the more general ones of 

 transport of materials through difficult and inhospitable countries, 

 of navigation, of investigations into the depth and the nature of the 

 bottom of seas, into the nature and effect of sea currents, and so 

 forth, all of which belong, under certain aspects at least, to the 

 province of the Telegraph Engineer. 



I would go further, and include even statistical information 

 respecting the nature and growth of telegraphic correspondence, 

 without which it is impossible to adapt the construction of lines 

 and of working instruments to the requirements of particular cases. 

 The invention of a telegraphic instrument, for instance, is only of 

 practical value if it is suited to the circumstances of the particular 

 traffic for which it is intended, and to the electrical condition of 

 the lines which it is proposed to work, and when the early pioneers 

 of telegraphic progress elaborated ingenious instruments for send- 

 ing and recording messages automatically or for printing them in 

 Roman type, they invariably failed, because the then existing lines 

 were insufficient in every way for such refinement, and the simple 



