38o SECTION MECHANICS. 



cither science or practice is to continue to live, for to use his expres- 

 sive language, without this combination both die of atrophy the 

 one becomes a ghost, the other a corpse. 



We have every reason to believe that this combination will 

 become more intimate, not only in the engineers of the present day, 

 but in those of the next and of succeeding generations ; and to men 

 thus endowed with science and practice we may trustfully leave the 

 continued improvement of Prime-Movers, and may rest assured that 

 as a more general application of these machines must of necessity 

 follow such improvements, the day will soon dawn when in no civilized 

 country will there continue to be, from the hope of gain, the tempta- 

 tion to employ intelligent humanity in the brutal labour of the turnspit 

 or of the criminal on the treadwheel. 



The PRESIDENT : Ladies and Gentlemen, In coming here on this 

 wet morning to listen to Mr. B ram well on Prime-Movers we all expected 

 to hear something worth listening to, but I think our expectations have 

 been surpassed by the discourse to which we have actually listened. 

 Mr. Bramwell, after dealing with the theoretical principles upon which 

 prime motion must depend, has brought before us in review all those 

 early attempts by which the labour of man has been gradually sup- 

 planted by machine labour, and he has been aided in a way he could 

 not have been aided in any other place by the models which he has 

 had at his disposal. These models show us not only the principles 

 upon which those early pioneers acted, but they bring home to our 

 minds the difficulties the mechanical difficulties with which theymust 

 have had to contend. Altogether I look upon the communication to 

 which we have listened as a standard treatise on this subject : and I 

 hope that the department will do it ample justice in publishing it in the 

 Proceedings with such illustrations as will make it valuable. I call 

 upon you to accord your thanks to Mr. Bramwell for his com- 

 munication. 



Mr. BRAMWELL : Ladies and Gentlemen, I have to thank you most 

 sincerely for having responded in the way that you have to the kind 

 expressions of our President, Dr. Siemens. I regret the great length 

 to which my Address has extended, but I could not deal with it more 

 concisely ; in fact, I had not time to write a short one. 



The PRESIDENT : The time is rather short before we adjourn, and 



