Ixxii. president's address. 



Electricity. 



In Electricity, wireless telegraphy and its developments 

 still continue to hold the foremost place of interest, and 

 though the distances traversed since I last addressed you 

 have not strikingly increased, being about a quarter of the 

 earth's circumference, or 6,000 miles, improvements continue 

 to be made, especially in wireless telephony, which advances 

 slowly. The International Radio-telegraphic Conference, 

 which met in London last June, occupied itself chiefly with 

 regulations for wireless telegraphy on ships, and suggested 

 various rules, amongst others that all ships should be obliged 

 to be fitted with suitable apparatus for this purpose. Perhaps 

 the latest special use of this means of communication is 

 between aeroplanes and earth stations, the distances over 

 which it can be worked reaching at present to 50 or 60 miles. 

 Another application of Electricity on a large scale is carried 

 out chiefly in Norway to produce nitrogenous products, 

 which are in great demand for agricultural purposes, to supply 

 the deficiency experienced in the natural nitre, which has 

 hitherto been sent from Chile in great quantities, but is now 

 becoming used up. Such plant placed near our coalfields 

 might be also desirable for producing nitre for military 

 purposes, should other supplies fail. At Niagara there is a 

 gigantic electric installation for chemical purposes, and 

 England would doubtless follow suit were there more natural 

 mechanical power available. A new use for Electricity is a 

 method of measuring wind velocity by the aid of a small bare 

 wire Wheatstone bridge, having arms of manganin and 

 platinum. The cooling effect of a current of air lowers the 

 resistance of the platinum, but does not affect the manganin, 

 and an increased current is therefore required to effect a 

 balance, the measure of which shews the wind velocity. 



Chemistry. 



Recent discoveries in Chemistry, chiefly in connection 

 with radium and radio-active substances, have so upset the 



