Sept. n, 1884] 



NA TURE 



475 



coal) which but a few years ago would have been deemed impos- 

 sible ; and so far is this improvement from being attended with 

 extra cost, that the residual products not now uncommonly all but 

 pay the whole cost of the coal, and in some rare instances even 

 leave a slight profit to go towards the charge of labour. Again, 

 it is by the application of chemical science in the dynamite and 

 the gun-cotton of the present day that the engineer is enabled 

 to prepare submarine foundations, to blast away shoals, and to 

 drive tunnels through rock of a character that cannot be dealt 

 with by mere cutting machines. Equally to the application of 

 chemistry is it due that there are hopes, by the employment of 

 lime cartridges, of breaking down coal without that risk of 

 igniting fire-damp which is attendant upon the use of gunpowder. 

 I need hardly observe that much more might most pertinently be 

 said on the way in which the engineer applies chemical science. 

 In fact, those ways are so multifarious that a volume might be 

 written upon them, but I must pass on and ask you to consider 

 how the engineer applies geological science, the science treated 

 by Section C. 



I have already spoken of the engineer supplying towns by 

 water collected from the surface ; even he, however, must have 

 a knowledge of geology, fir without it he will not know what 

 places are apt for the huge reservoirs he constructs, nor where he 

 can in safety make his enormous embankments. In this con- 

 tinent of vast lakes one feels it must excite a sensation of the 

 ridiculous when a " Welsh lake " is spoken of, but I must ask 

 you to believe you are in Liliput, and to imagine that the " Bala 

 Pond" of 1 100 acres in extent, is really " Bala Lake," as it is 

 called. Within a few miles of that, our friends at the other end 

 of the Atlantic steam ferry, the inhabitants of Liverpool, are 

 now constructing under the engineering and advice of Mr. 

 Hawksley, a waterworks which will involve the formation, 

 I believe one may say the re-formation, of a lake, prac- 

 tically the same area as that of Bala, of some So feet in 

 depth, and containing between the overflow and the point 

 of lowest discharge nearly twelve thousand million gallons. 

 This lake will be made by the throwing from side to side 

 of the valley of a solid stone bank, 100 feet above the 

 ground, 140 feet above the deepest part of the foundations, and 

 113 feet thick at its thickest part. Contrasted with Lake Supe- 

 rior this new like will be small, a thing demanding a micro- 

 scope even, but the bursting of the wall would liberate a body 

 of water sufficient to carry death and ruin throughout a con- 

 siderable district. It is, therefore, in the highest degree impor- 

 tant that whether he be constructing the solid stone wall, or the 

 more common earthen embankment with a puddle trench, the 

 engineer should so apply geological science as to insure the 

 safety of his work. But in those cases where the waterworks 

 engineer has to derive the supply from underground sources, the 

 application of this science is still more necessary ; he must know 

 whether he is likely to find a water-bearing stratification at all 

 — if so, where it receives the rain from heaven, and the extent 

 of the area which receives it ; in what direction the water travels 

 through it, what is the varying height of water in the different 

 parts of the stratification giving the "head" to produce that 

 travel ; how far this height is likely to be affected by the pump- 

 ing of the desired quantity ; whether, if near the outflow into 

 the sea, the pumping is likely to reverse the direction of the 

 current, and to bring back brackish water, and whether the 

 rocks are of such a character as to be liable to yield a water 

 impregnated with iron or with lime, and whether these water- 

 bearing rocks are accessible from the surface without the execu- 

 tion of costly and laborious work in passing through overlying 

 stratifications of an unfit or it may be even of a dangerous cha- 

 racter. It need hardly be said that the engineer when engaged 

 in metalliferous mining, or in the extraction of coal or of petro- 

 leum, unless he applies the science of Section C, is but a hap- 

 hazard explorer whose work is more likely to end in disaster 

 than in success. Again, the engineer, when laying out a rail- 

 way, has to consider the geological features of the country in 

 determining the angles of his cuttings, and to determine where 

 it becomes more economical to tunnel than to cut. Indeed, 

 without the application of that science to engineering there are 

 some enterprises on the feasibility of which the engineer would 

 not be able to pronounce an opinion — a notable instance, the 

 Channel Tunnel. The engineers, of whom I am one, said there 

 is a material, the compact non-water-bearing grey chalk, which 

 we have at a convenient depth on the English side and, is of all 

 materials the most suitable ; if that exist the whole way across, 

 success is certain. Then came geological science, and that told 

 the engineer that in France the same material existed ; that it ex- 



isted in the same position in relation to other stratifications as it 

 existed in England ; that the line of outcrop of the gault lying 

 below it had been checked across; and that taken together these 

 indications enabled a confident opinion to be expressed that it 

 was all but certain this grey chalk stratification did prevail from 

 side to side. The engineers believed it, an intelligent section of 

 the public believed it, and came forward with their money ; 

 large sums were expended in England and in France on the 

 faith of the repeated declaration of the English Government (of 

 both sides of politics), that so long as the nation was not called 

 on to contribute towards the cost of the work, it would hail with 

 satisfaction the improved mean^ of communication between 

 England and the Continent ; the experimental works were 

 carried on from both sides with the happiest results, and then, 

 when success appeared certain, the whole work was stopped by 

 the incredible suggestion that in the event of a war the soldiers 

 of England, and the science of England, could not defend a 

 couple of rat -holes, holes 14 feet in diameter and 20 miles long, 

 situated far below the surface of the sea, having a rapid dip from 

 the shore to a low point, gradually rising from there to the centre 

 of the length of the tunnel, so that the English end could be 

 flooded with sea-water in twenty-five minutes up to the soffit of 

 the arch at the dip ; and in consequence of this incredible and 

 much-to-be-ashamed-of scare it is due that one of the finest 

 instances of civil engineering work in connection with the 

 science of geology, and as I believe one of the most useful 

 works that has ever been proposed, has been put a stop to. 



To come to Section D, the botanical side of it is interesting to 

 the engineer as instructing him in the locality and quality of the 

 various woods that he occasionally uses in his work. With 

 regard to that most important part of the work of D, which 

 relates to "germs" and their influence upon health, the 

 engineer deals with it thus far : he bears in mind that the water- 

 supply must be pure, and that the building must be ventilated, 

 and that excreta must be removed without causing contamina- 

 tion ; thus the waterworks engineer, the warming and ventilating 

 engineer, and the sewage engineer can (and do) all of them 

 profit by the labours of Section D, and can by their works assist 

 in giving practical value to the pure science of that section. 



Section E, Geography. Probably in these days, when our 

 kingdom at home and the old countries near us are all but full 

 of the works of the engineer, there are few who take a greater 

 interest in geography than he does, and I am quite sure there are 

 none who make a more useful application of geographical know- 

 ledge for the benefit of mankind at large than does the engineer. 

 Almost at the outset of this address I claimed to magnify Sec- 

 tion G, on the ground that without the aid of its members we 

 should not have had that practical lesson in geography which we 

 have received by our visit here, a lesson that no doubt will be 

 continued and amplified by many of us before we return to our 

 homes. Whether it be by the ocean steamer or by the railway 

 train, the enterprising geographical explorer is carried to or 

 through countries which now, thanks to the engineer, are well 

 known and settled, up to the beginning of the unknown and not 

 settled ; and thus his labours are lightened, he consumes his 

 energies only upon his true work, brings back his report, which 

 is, as I have said, studied by the engineer with a view to still 

 further development, and thus, turn by turn, the geographer 

 and the engineer carry civilisation over the face of the world. 



Now to come to Section F, which treats of Economic Science. 

 The matters with which this Section deals — birth-rate, death- 

 rate, the increase or the diminution of populations, the develop- 

 ment of particular industries in different localities, the varying 

 rates of wages, the extent and nature of taxation, the cost of 

 production, the cost of transport, the statistics of railway and of 

 marine disasters, the consumption of fuel, and many matters 

 which come within the purview of F, are of impo tance to the 

 engineer. Guided by the information given him by the labours 

 of this Section, he comes to the conclusion that a work having a 

 particular object in view should or should not be undertaken. 

 With the information derived from the past he judges of the 

 future ; he sees what prov : sion should be made for prospective 

 increase of population or of industries ; he sees the chances of 

 the commercial success of an undertaking or of its failure, and 

 he advises accordingly. 



I do not propose to say anything about Section H, for I have 

 dealt with it as being still included within D. 



I trust I have now established the proposition with which I 

 set out, viz. that not only is Section G the Section of Mechanical 

 Science, but it is emphatically the Section of all others that 

 applies in engineering to the uses of man the several sciences 



