184 
MISCELLANEOUS, 
G. Bell and Sons, Ltd.—Buddhist Psychology, 
C. A. F. Rhys Davids; Montessori Principles and 
Practice, Prof. E. P. Culverwell, illustrated. A. and 
C. Black.—A First Book of Experimental Science 
for Girls, Mrs. Jessie White. W. Blackwood and 
Sons.—A History of European Thought in the Nine- 
teenth Century, J. T. Merz, vol. iv. Constable and 
Co., Ltd.—Letters and Recollections of Alexander 
Agassiz, edited by G. R. Agassiz. A.C. Fifield.—The 
Discovery of the Future, H. G. Wells, new edition. 
Macmillan and Co., Ltd.—Statistics, by the late Sir R. 
Giffen, K.C.B., F.R.S., written about the years 1898- 
1g00, edited with an introduction by H. Higgs, C.B., 
with the assistance of G. U. Yule; Studies in Water 
Supply, Dr. A. C. Houston, illustrated; Land Survey- 
ing, Prof. H. Adams, illustrated. Methuen and Co:, 
Ltd.—The Book of the Ball: an Account of what it 
Does and Why (cricket, football, golf, baseball, 
tennis, lawn tennis, pelota, polo, fives, pallone, 
rackets, hockey, lacrosse, croquet, bowls, squash, 
badminton, billiards), A. E. Crawley, illustrated. 
John Murray.—History of the Royal Society of Arts, 
Sir H. Trueman Wood, illustrated. T. Fisher Unwin. 
—Surface Waves of Sand and Snow, and the Eddies 
which Produce them, Dr. Vaughan Cornish, illus- 
trated. 
THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT. 
BIRMINGHAM. 
SECTION G. 
ENGINEERING. 
OPENING AppREss By Pror. Gispert Kapp, PRESIDENT 
OF THE SECTION, 
ENGINEERING, the subject with which Section G is 
concerned, covers so wide a field that it has been found 
convenient to introduce a rough subdivision into the 
three branches of civil, mechanical, and _ electrical 
engineering. By applying any such term to a par- 
ticular piece of engineering work we do not neces- 
sarily exclude the others; we merely characterise a 
predominant feature. There is often a considerable 
amount of overlapping between the three branches, 
and that is especially the case with mechanical and 
electrical engineering. Sometimes the boundary-line 
even becomes indistinct, and then it is difficult to say 
which branch of our science is the predominant 
feature. Is the equipment of a works with electric 
power mechanical or electrical engineering? It is 
both, but not necessarily to the same degree. The 
mere replacement of a steam engine by an electric 
motor to drive the main shafting of a works can 
searcely be called a piece of electrical engineering; 
but if special electric appliances are introduced to 
perform duties which cannot be done, or not done as 
well, by purely mechanical machinery, then we have 
electrical engineering in the true sense of the term. 
Electricity has invaded almost every branch of our in- 
dustrial activity, sometimes as a rival to older methods, 
but often also as a helpmate, stimulating progress 
all round. Electricity is a “great source of power 
in nature,’ and the ‘art of directing it for the use 
and convenience of man” belongs to our generation. 
Yet, like all new things, it has had to fight its way 
in the face of strenuous opposition—generally an abso- 
lutely honest opposition, not in any way traceable to 
self-interest, but simply to inability to see things in 
the right perspective. Let me illustrate my meaning 
by an example. Shortly after Charles Brown had 
established the first electric-power transmission be- 
NO. 2293, VOL. 92] 
NATURE 
[OcTOBER 9, 1913 
tween Kriegstetten and Solothurn I happened to visit 
a well-known mechanical engineer in Ziirich, who had | 
in his time been professionally (not financially) in- 
terested in so-called teledynanfic transmission of power 
by wire-rope, first introduced into Alsatia by the cele- 
bated Prof. Hirn, of thermodynamic fame, about the 
middle of last century, and then also imported into 
Switzerland. To my old friend these transmission’ 
systems appeared to be the acme of perfection; and 
on my pointing out that the range was necessarily 
very limited, he replied that transmission to longer 
distances would be useless, since there would be no _ 
market for the power. My friend was not able tow 
look at the subject in the right perspective; he failed 
completely in appreciating the fundamental conditions 
of the problem, and although it is easy for us now, 
fortified as we are by experience, to appreciate electric 
transmission of power correctly and feel contempt for 
the old gentleman’s narrow-mindedness, yet we should’ 
be careful not to fall into the same error about elec- 
trical developments which are new to us, as the trans- 
mission of power was new to my Swiss friend. a 
It is not so very long ago that mechanical engineers 
thought there was no advantage in electrifying textile 
mills; and I do not feel quite certain whether a good 
many and very capable engineers are not still of the q 
same opinion. A commission has been investigating 
this subject, and its first report was by no means: 
encouraging to the electrical engineer. Yet at the | 
very time when that report was issued hundreds of 
motors were being installed in Continental mills. The 
spinners there had found out that by using a motor 
with very delicate speed regulation they could speed 
up their frames and increase the output considerably. — 
In the long run a good thing must win through, and 
the electrification of English textile mills is no excep- — 
tion to this economic law; but in some cases it would 
almost seem that the way is made longer by the 
narrowness of the mental horizon of opposing experts. 
This process of gradually overcoming the opposing 
expert had to be gone through in all applications of 
electricity, but the opposition being generally honest, 
once it is overcome, the very men who opposed become 
strong friends. There is no question now that elec-_ 
tricity can do some things better than could be done 
formerly. The separation of magnetic from non- 
magnetic material; the lifting of hot pigs, ingots, 
plates, and scrap by electromagnets; the production 
of high-grade steel in the electric furnace; the sinking 
of shafts by electrically-driven pumps; in mines the 
use underground of electromotors instead of steam 
engines, in shipyards the use of magnetically-fixed and 
electrically-driven tools; the electric driving of rolling | 
mills, and the use of electric traction on tube and 
other underground railways are familiar examples of 
the application of electricity in which unanimity as to 
its advantages has been reached between the electrical 
engineer and what, without any intention of being 
disrespectful, we may call the old school of mechanical 
engineers. There are, however, other applications of 
electricity where the old and new school of engineers 
have either not at all, or only partially, reached 
unanimity of opinion, and it is with one of these 
applications—namely the electrification of railways— 
that I propose to deal in this Address. 
As regards urban and suburban lines, not only the pos- 
sibility of electric traction, but its immense superiority 
over steam traction, is fairly generally admitted. 
Where we get on debatable ground is when we begin 
to discuss main-line traffic. Here the process of over- 
coming opposition, of which I spoke a moment ago 
in connection with other applications of electricity now 
generally approved, has only just begun. Will it lead 
| to the same result, or will the electrician have to 
