.S7A 1 \\-II.I.IAM SIEMENS, F.R.S. 39! 



Till: ELECTRICAL TRANSMISSION AND STORAGE 

 OF POWER. 



A Lecture delivered on the 15th March, 1883, being one of the series 

 of Ifcfttres delivered at the Institution of Civil Engineers, 

 Session 1882-3, 



BY C. WILLIAM SIEMENS, F.R.S., M. Inst. C.E. 



MR. PRESIDENT, Colleagues, and Gentlemen, If I interpret 

 rightly the intention of your Council, it was not that these lec- 

 tures should be what may be called popular lectures, or appeals to 

 mere amateurs interested in the subject ; nor do I understand that 

 it was their intention that they should be strictly scientific lectures, 

 such as would deal with ultimate laws, and formulae, or such other 

 information as might be found in text-books ; but I presume the 

 intention was that those members of your body who have given 

 thought and study, and also attained experience in particular 

 branches of engineering, should communicate their knowledge to 

 their colleagues, having regard particularly to the younger mem- 

 bers of the profession. 



The general subject that has been selected for the present session 

 is Electricity the most subtle of the forces of nature which it is 

 the business of the Civil Engineer, according to the terms of our 

 Charter, to direct. The two lectures preceding this have been 

 devoted to the action of electricity when it is a swift agent, carry- 

 ing our thoughts to distances only limited by geographical bounds. 

 The first lecture, by Mr. Preece, dealt with telegraphy ; the second, 

 by Sir Frederick Bramwell, was upon that branch of telegraphy 

 (for so I must call it) telephony, which accomplishes the won- 

 derful feat of communicating speech to reasonable distances. In 

 both cases the receiving instrument is of the most delicate nature 

 that the ingenuity of engineers has been able to contrive for re- 

 cording the small efforts of energy flowing through the wire. 

 The task that has been assigned to me is to introduce electricity 

 to you, still as a precise and swift agent, but as one that can more- 

 over accomplish quantitative effects, rivalling those produced by 



