ELECTRO -TECHNICAL SOCIETY. 367 



I had a large share in the establishment of the 

 Electro-Technical Society through the mediation of the 

 Secretary of State Dr. von Stephan,/! was" the first 

 active president of the Society and made many of my 

 technical labours for the first time public through 

 lectures in this Society. Similar societies were founded 

 in several places after the pattern of the Berlin Electro- 

 Technical Society; at the same time the meritorious 

 older Society of Telegraph Engineers in London, called 

 into existence by my brother William, expanded their 

 name and programme by adopting electric engineering 

 as the aim of the Society. The formation of the 

 Berlin Society is to be regarded as the commencement 

 of electro -technical science as a special branch of 

 civil engineering, the term "electro -technical" itself 

 occurring for the first time in the designation of the 

 Society. By the adoption of the resolution subsequently 

 brought forward by me, "to request governments to 

 establish professorships of electric engineering at all 

 technical academies, in order that young engineers may 

 have the opportunity of getting to know the assistance 

 which electrical technology might afford them in their 

 special work", the Society has rendered good service 

 as regards the rapid development of electric engi- 

 neering in all its branches, as the resolution was almost 

 everywhere complied with. Also by its endeavours 

 to obtain an international system of electric standards, 

 the Society has done great service. The initiative was 

 taken by the Congress, which was connected with the 

 Industrial Electric Exhibition in Paris of 1881, - a 



