president's address. Ixxv. 



use of separate propellers for vertical and horizontal motion, 

 or by some other device, they can scarcely cease to be a very 

 risky mode of progression. The great disaster which took 

 place in the sinking, through collision with an iceberg, of 

 the " Titanic," a monster ship which was considered to be 

 absolutely safe on account of its water-tight compartments 

 and other precautionary arrangements, and the great loss of 

 life which followed, has caused much investigation into the 

 safety of ships at sea, and various more effective regulations as 

 to lifeboats to be carried, the supply for the Titanic having been 

 most insufficient, and the difficulties of launching them from 

 so great a height as the ship's side being serious. The further 

 subdivision of the watertight compartments for passenger 

 ships is also desirable, so that if two or three are injured the 

 ship may still float. This appears to have been made a 

 special feature of in the " Aquitania," an immense ship 

 just launched in the Clyde, in which there are stated 

 to be 41 watertight compartments in the double bottom 

 and 84 above. A pumping pontoon for the Manchester 

 Ship Canal has been constructed of ferro-concrete, and is the 

 first vessel of this material in this country. At the British 

 Association a paper was read describing experiments on the 

 suction caused by passing vessels, which at distances of less 

 than 100 feet was found to be considerable. Aluminium has 

 presented difficulties in working, especially in regard to being 

 soldered, which cannot, I believe, at present be done success- 

 fully ; but it can be satisfactorily welded, though its alloys 

 are not so amenable to this process. I have not yet seen or 

 heard a film-parlant or speaking kinematograph, but the 

 difficulties connected with these are said to have been to a 

 great extent overcome, and synchronisation produced to 

 satisfy the spectator's eye and ear. One of the great 

 problems that will have to be faced in the future is a 

 substitute for coal and petroleum, both of which will in time 

 be exhausted. The most promising results appear to have 

 come from the heat of the sun, which in warmer countries has 

 an immense power stored up in it, and has already been used 



