SfK WILLIAM SIEMENS, F.R.S. 413 



have been impossible to accomplish this in the space of time 

 allowed me, and moreover I think it better to deal with the 

 principles involved in these machines, than with those most im- 

 portant, yet practical and secondary, results obtained by modifica- 

 tions of the elements which are at the bottom of all of them. It 

 is so far fortunate that all the essential principles involved in 

 dynamo-machinal are public property, and there is a fair field for 

 inventive faculty to develop those forms which are productive of 

 maximum results with the least amount of inconvenience or 

 expense. This is a matter that can only be decided by experience, 

 and little would be gained by upholding one machine to the detri- 

 ment of another. I hope, at any rate, I have succeeded in giving 

 you a general outline of this most important question of the 

 dynamo-machine and the electric transmission of power. 



Mr. Brunlees, President, said the lecture just delivered had 

 been so interesting and so instructive, that he was satisfied all 

 present would desire to record the sense of their indebtedness to 

 Dr. Siemens, in the usual manner, by passing a cordial vote of 

 thanks. 



The vote was carried by acclamation. 



[When Sir William Siemens was attacked by his fatal illness, he 

 was engaged in preparing the Address which he would have 

 delivered to the Society of Arts, as Chairman of their Council, at 

 the Opening Meeting of the 130th Session of that Society, on the 

 21st of November last. The Address was not in a sufficiently 

 advanced form to render it fit for publication, even as a fragment ; 

 but a few copies of what was actually in type at the time of Sir 

 William Siemens's death have been struck off, with the idea that 

 some of his friends might like to possess them, unfinished as they 

 are. It will be understood that these copies are intended for 

 private circulation only.] 



Having been a second time honoured by being appointed 

 Chairman of your Council, I shall now open the proceedings of 





