Sept. 29, 1881] 



NA TURE 



511 



particulnr it^ universities. It would have Veen 1 etter if these 

 strictures, now forgotten, had not been adverted to, especially 

 with reference to the Association. The truth is, they formed the 

 chief difficulty in carrying such a proposal as h.id been made 

 into effect. It was clear that any attempt at scientific association 

 not headed i r joined by many persons who could not but feel 

 aggrieved by the strictures referred to, and who have been since 

 among the chief lights of the intitution, would probably have 

 led to results more mischievous than beneficial to science. 



" As soon as Dr. Brewster's propoal was m.ide, .ind before it 

 could be acceded to, I thought it needful to enter into correspond- 

 ence with numerous imiividuils thus situated, a:id finding tha*, 

 agreeing for the most part in the opinion that such rfuninns would 

 operate for the benefit of science, they lo^t sight of all personal 

 feelings, and consented to co-operate on certain conditions, I 

 proceeded to draw up the scheme which was ultimately 

 followed. 



" It is a mistake to consider this Association as having been 

 formed on any foreign m del. My conception of the manner 

 in which a great scientific combinati-in might be effectually 

 worked in England was founded on different principles. No 

 one could be insensible of the advantage to be derived from 

 bringing men of science together to co-ifer and discuss ; but 

 even this point I considered it impo s ble to gain without ex- 

 tending our views considerably further. I did not believe that 

 the great labourers in science would undergo the inconvenience 

 and interruption of travelling to various places to meet ot;e 

 another, as a continuous system, on mere invitation, and for the 

 sole purpose of discussion, and I knew that if such men should 

 absent themselves from the meetings, those meetings would 

 become no better than/p«' of •dolism and vanity. 



" I therefore proposed to found the Association on the 1 rin- 

 ciple of acqinr-ng funds to be devoted to the expenses of un- 

 remunerative objects of science, of levying such funds from the 

 multitudes of per ons who might be expected to feel interested 

 in scientific rii'cussions at populous places, and giving the appro 

 priation of them first to the selection of committee-men attached 

 to the various sections of science, and secondly to the final 

 determination of the whole body of actual scientific labcurers 

 at the meeting assembled in general committee. 



" To this principle in the constitu'ion of the Briti-h Associa- 

 tion its success has been maiidy due. To this principle we 

 owed, for instance, the unintermitting attendance, to the time of 

 his lamented death, of one of its ablest members, Mr. I'aily, 

 under who'e direction one of the largest applications of its 

 funds was made. 



" These grant= of assistance, conjoined w ith requests to indi- 

 viduals to execute particular tasks for the interests of science, 

 have given the exertions of the Association as a body a direct 

 utility peculiarly its own, tending far beyond the promiscuous 

 discussions of the sections both to advance material objects and 

 to maintain the attendance at its meetings of persons pursuing 

 such objects. 



"The wealth, the public spirit, the intelligence, the curiosity, 

 of the great cities of the United Kingdom, offertd great en- 

 couragement to the financial part of this plan, which by its adoption 

 has enabled the Association to carry out its entire objects not 

 only in regard to liberal grants for scientific objects and in de- 

 fraying all expenses incidental to its operations and es>ential to 

 its permanence, but even in maintaining an establishment of its 

 own for experimental research. 



"This plan, proposed by me at York, was adopted in all its 

 detail, and my acceptance of the office of general secretary 

 enabled me, with able and zealous co-operation, to work a 

 machine of great magnitude and complexity with a success 

 surpassing my expectations from 1831 to 1837, during which 

 years I was charged with its chief ma- agement, and revised 

 all that was printed in its name. 



"The cordial reception of the first meeting of the Eri'ish 

 Association by the city of York, the hospitality of Bishopthorpe, 

 the countenance of the Royal President of the Royal Society, 

 the presence of Lord Fitzwilliam, the aid of Prof. Phillips, the 

 attendance of the distinguished philo opher Brewster, with Bris- 

 bane, Robison, Forbes, and John-ton, the attendance frrm 

 London of Murchison, from ISublin of Provost Lloyd, from 

 Oxford of Daubeny, from Manchester of Dalton, the concur- 

 rence of Buckland ai.d Whewell and Conybeare, and many 

 others cf known repute, these incidents helped to launch ihe 

 vessel; of the early history of which, if any one would write 

 accurately of that part of its history, he may record that 



Brew-ter first proposed that a craft shuld le built wherein the 

 united crew of British science iviight -ail, and manfully embarked 

 in it all his high cientific reputation ; but for myself I must be 

 allowed to claim that I manned (he ship, that I constructed her 

 charts, ai d piloted the vessel for six years. The labriur which I 

 bestowed on this service has since b en divided among more 

 capable hands ; but none of us could have worked the vessel at 

 all without the constant and invaluable helping hand of the 

 assistant- secretary. Prof. Phillips. 



" I am induced to put down on paper and transmit to you, as 

 actual President of the Association, a statement of the real facts, 

 without (he least intention, however, of involving either you or 

 any one else in c-ntroversy on the subject." 



THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION AND 

 CONGRESS OF ELECTRICITY AT PARIS 



THE Exhibition must be pronounced a great success. 

 Even those who are well read in electricity are 

 taken by surprise at the display of power presented ; and 

 the first favourable impression is strengthened as further 

 examination discloses the immense variety of applications 

 exhibited and the beauty of much of the m.ichinery. 



The first thing seen on approaching the Exhibition 

 from the city is the Siemens electrical railway. It is 

 about a quarter of a mile long, with a sharp turn at one 

 place. The carriage is a good- ized tramcar, and pre- 

 sents no special feature to a casual observer, except two 

 wires which travel with it, and connect it by running 

 contacts with two aerial guides suspended on posts like 

 telegraph posts. The prime mover is a steam-engine 

 near the centre of the Exhibition, which drives a dynamo- 

 electric machine. The continuous current which the 

 latter furnishes is led to the aerial guides, and is con- 

 ducted by the two travelling wires to an electro-magnetic 

 engine beneath the floor of the carriage which drives the 

 wheels. Passengers are conveyed by this tramcar at a 

 small charge between an outdoor station and a station 

 just within the Exhibition. 



On entering the building by this tramway one of the 

 most prominent fe.Ttures is the collection of powerful 

 engines which occupies the whole of the space under one 

 of the side galleries. They are for the most part dynamo- 

 machines driven by steam-engines. The dynamos are 

 close to us as we walk down the main passage on this 

 side; the steam-engines, which drive them by belts, are 

 a little further back ; the furnaces and boilers are close 

 to the outer wall. Wires are led froin the dynamos to 

 electric lamps, some of them close at hand, and others on 

 the opposite side of the building, or overhead. 



Every variety of electric lamp is of course to be seen, 

 and their regulators furnish a very interesting study. To 

 illustrate their diversity we may mention that in the Brush 

 system the regulation depends on the variation of resist- 

 ance in a series of carbon plates as they are inore or less 

 strongly pressed together ; in the Crompton it depends 

 on the frictional support of a vertical metallic rod by two 

 pieces which pinch it between them, and pinch it more or 

 less strongly according to the strength of tbe current ; 

 while in the Pilsen lamp a spindle-shaped piece of iron is 

 the common core of two electromagnets one above the 

 other, and is drawn up or down as the contact in one or 

 the other prevails. Then again there are the Serrin and 

 other well-lnown forms of lamp, in which the carbons are 

 caused to approach by means of clockwork, which is 

 regulated by the strength of the current. There is the 

 Jablochkoff candle, in which the two carbons are parallel 

 and separated by plaster of Paris ; the Jamin, which is 

 something like the Jablochkoff, with the plaster of Paris 

 removed, and only air between the carbon pencils; the 

 Werdermann, in which a carbon point below bears against 

 a flat block of carbon above (the point being the positive, 

 and the block the negative terminal) ; the Joel, in which 

 a carbon point below bears against a disk of copper 



