SESSION OF THURSDAY AFTERNOON, NOVEMBER 17, 1921. 105 



SECOND SESSION. 



Thursday Afternoon, November 17, 1921. 



The President, Admiral Capps, called tlie meeting to order at 2.15 o'clock. 



The President : — Appearances indicate very strongly that we are going to have quite 

 a lively session. It is not well to begin with an excuse, but I do wish to apologize for being 

 a little late for reasons which I could not personally control. I had to leave behind me thirty 

 good men and true, who are very important members of this Society, and whom we hope to 

 have with us in a short time. We are going to have presented to the Society this afternoon 

 two very important papers on subjects that are interesting alike to the American Institute 

 of Electrical Engineers and the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers. With 

 that condition before us, it was considered very desirable to have a joint session. The presi- 

 dent of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers very kindly consented to preside. I 

 therefore have great pleasure in presenting to you Mr. William McClellan, president of the 

 American Institute of Electrical Engineers, who will please act as chairman of the meeting. 



President McClellan : — Gentlemen, it gives me a very great deal of pleasure to be 

 here personally and also officially, to take part in this meeting which expresses the coopera- 

 tion of the electrical engineers with the naval architects and marine engineers in carrying for- 

 ward one of the greatest pieces of work in connection with modern progress. Electricity grad- 

 ually gets into almost every phase of our existence, and sooner or later it was bound to get 

 into the great work of marine propulsion. 



I always like to think, in connection with every engineering problem, that there is a 

 social aspect to it, and that engineers do well to look upon that social aspect. We can always 

 find it, because engineering is alw^ays done for the benefit of people in general. In this case, 

 we find it because it has to deal with the easier exchange of goods, with the more frequent 

 meeting of peoples, and the ease of getting from one place to the other, over the great natu- 

 ral highways provided for us. In cormection with this great meeting which is being held in 

 Washington today — of course, I have seen comments in the papers as to what it will do, and 

 the effect it will have on certain activities in the world — fortunately for us, while there is great 

 spectacular interest in a warship coming up the bay on a successful trial trip, nevertheless, 

 after all, that is only one phase, even though the most spectacular and perhaps the most inter- 

 esting phase. The activities of shipbuilders and shipowners are not going to be taken from 

 them, and we shall have a great opportunity, as much as any group of engineers could de- 

 mand, to bring this great work of ship propulsion by electricity and by every modem device 

 to the greatest possible point of advance. 



You know that we are accustomed to have certain things interrupt our plans at times, 

 and we ought to get used to it. There is a man in this audience today — I think he will talk 

 to you before the meeting closes — who has been spending much time on certain devices, to 

 keep the ships on an even keel, making use of an old toy we were all familiar with at one 

 time, the gyroscope. I imderstand that not very long ago he was hard at work on a device 

 to be hung on the end of a watch chain, so that as long as you had that on your watch chain 

 in your pocket, you yourself would remain on an even keel. An inconsiderate Congress passed 



