WILLIAM SIEMENS, F.R.S. 215 



frinully sentiments, and even admiration on our part for the 

 aciiic\ rmi'iits of our confreres. These intercommunications must 

 lead ultimately, not only to the cheapening of the cost of pro- 

 duct ion, but chiefly to the attainment of fresh starting-points in 

 the application of iron and steel for the useful purposes of man, 

 and through which we may hope to re-establish that balance 

 between consumption and our increased means of production 

 so essential to our prosperity as a class. 



REMARKS AT THE ANNUAL DINNER OP THE 

 IRON AND STEEL INSTITUTE, 



Held in the H6tel Continental, Paris, on the llth September, 1878. 



THE Chairman,* (DR. C. W. SIEMENS), said he had now the 

 pleasure to propose, "Prosperity to the Learned Societies of 

 France." In his introductory remarks on the previous day he 

 had referred to the educational establishments of France so far as 

 concerned technical education, and he pointed out that the 

 " Ecole Polytechnique " gave an education of the very highest order 

 to the mining and railway engineers of that country. He also 

 pointed out that the " Ecole Centrale " gave an education of 

 perhaps not quite so high an order, but still very good, to the 

 young manufacturer, who, after he left that establishment, entered 

 the workshop and the factory. He had also pointed to the 

 admirable " Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers," which was so ably 

 presided over by General Morin and by M. Tresca. In order to 

 convey such an amount of knowledge, it was necessary that science 

 should be cultivated, and for the cultivation of science that 

 country also possessed establishments that might well be called 

 the envy of the civilised world. The " Academic des Sciences," 

 one of the five branches of the Institute of France, was an 

 establishment which had arisen towards the end of the latst century, 

 and had attained great fame throughout the world. He need only 



* Excerpt Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute, 1878, pp. 494-496. 



