Oci. 27, 1 881] 



NATURE 



623 



companies and corporations rightly understand their mission, 

 they will take timely steps to supply, separately, heating gas at 

 a greatly reduced cost, the demand for which would soon be 

 tenfold the gas consumption of the present day. The economy 

 and the comfort which would accrue to the inhabitants of large 

 towns by such a change would be great indeed, and it would, 

 amongst other things, effect a radical cure of that great bugbear 

 of our winter existence, a smol^y atmosphere. 



The third great practical illustration furnished by the Paris 

 Exhibition has reference to the transmission of power from one 

 place to another by means of the electric conductor. When, 

 only five years ago, in addre-sing the Iron and Steel Institute, I 

 ventured upon the assertion that the time was not distant when 

 the great natural sources of power, such as waterfalls, would be 

 transferred to considerable distances by means of stout electric 

 conductors, to be there utilised for providing towns with light 

 and motive poiver, I elicited an incredulous smile even from 

 .some of those most conversant with tire laws of electricity. 

 Electricity had been looked upon by them as a swift agent to 

 flash our thoughts from country to country, but the means of pro- 

 ducing that form of energy by the expenditure of power on the 

 dynamo-electric machine, although known, was not yet pro- 

 perly appreciated. Such can hardly now be considered the case. 

 I could point to at least three instances in this country where 

 power is practically transmitted to a distance by means of electri- 

 city, to be utilised for pumping water, for lighting, and for 

 working machinery, and the Paris Exhibition furnishes addi- 

 tional illustration of the facility with which that transmission 

 may be effected. 



The electric railway leading from the Place de la Concorde 

 into the Exhibition, and only half a kilometre in leng'h, does 

 its work regularly and well, running a trip every five minutes, 

 and conveying generally as many passengers as can be packed 

 both inside and outside of a tram-car of ordinary dimensions. 

 This system of propulsion w ill soon be in operation on a new 

 line of railway six miles long, w ith which I am connected, in 

 the north of Ireland, to be extended, if successful, to a further 

 equal distance. This will give us twelve ruiles of electric rail- 

 way worked without expenditure of fuel, for the motive power 

 will be obtained from a neighbouring waterfall, which at present 

 i-uns to waste. Mr. W. A. Traill, the Re-ident Engineer of the 

 line, has already commenced operations, and I hope that by next 

 spring, visitors to the sister island may reach one of its most 

 interesting sights, the Giant's Causeway, propelled by invisible 

 but yet potential agency. 



The experience gained by my brother in the working of the 

 first electric railway, two miles in length, established by him at 

 Lichtenfelde, near Berlin, leaves no reasonable donbt regarding 

 the economy and certainty of this mode of propulsion, although 

 it is not anticipated that it will supersede locomotive power upon 

 our main trunk railways. It will have plenty of scope in re- 

 lieving the toiling horses on our tramways, in use on elevated 

 railways in populous districts, and in such cases as the Metro- 

 politan Railway, where the emission of the products of com- 

 bustion causes not only the propulsion but the suffocation of 

 passengers. 



Another application of electricity, also at any rate indicated 

 at the Paris Exhibition, is that to agriculture and horticulture, 

 upon which I have been practically engaged during the last two 

 winters on my farm near Tunbridge Wells. This is neither 

 the time nor place for me to enlarge upon this applica- 

 tion, which should be mentioned, how-ever, because I believe 

 that it will ultimately exercise a considerable influence upon 

 an important interest, besides providing a means of adding 

 to the pleasures of country pursuits. Electroculture by itself 

 would be expensive, but not so if combined, .as it is at 

 Sherwood, with the utilisation of electric'energy for accomplishing 

 other objects — such as chaff- and root-cutting at one place, wood- 

 cutting at another, and pumping of water at a third, while the 

 waste heat of the steam at the generating station is utilised to 

 heat the water circulating through the greenhouses, &c. In this 

 way labour and expense are saved in many w'ays, and the men 

 employed on the farm find no difficulty in working the electrical 

 horses, no longer experimentally, but as a regularly established 

 thing. 



A somewhat special application of electricity, also shown at 

 the Paris Exhibition, is its employment as a heating agent. For 

 temperatures not exceeding that of a welding furnace, solid or- 

 gaseous fuel produces the desired effect at a cheaper rate than it 

 is likely to be accomplished by electricity. When electricity is 



used, heat energy has in the first place to be transferred from the 

 burning fuel to the boiler of the ste.am-engine. The mechanical 

 energy of the engine works the dynamo-electric machine, whence 

 electric energy is tr.ansmitted through the conductor to the point 

 where it is to be utilised as heat. At each intermediate stage a 

 loss will have to be incurred, and it is therefore absolutely certain 

 that the amount of heat finally produced in the electric arc must 

 fall very much short of that generated by the fuel under the 

 boiler. But the electric arc has this advantage over other sources 

 of heat, that no waste heat need pass away from it in the shape 

 of heated products of combustion. This loss of heat in the fur- 

 nace by combustion increases with the temperature at which the 

 work has to be accomplished, and reaches its maximum in a 

 furnace for melting steel or platinum. Beyond this the point is 

 soon reached wliere combustion ceases entirely, where, to use 

 the scientific phrase, the point of di-sociation of carbonic acid is 

 reached ; and it is for purposes where such degrees of heat are 

 required that the electric arc can he advantageously employed, 

 and will enable us to accomplish chemical efl'ects which have 

 hitherto been beyond the reach of science. 



My chief object in dwelling, perhap> unduly, upon these prac- 

 tical questions is to present to your minds in a concrete form the 

 hopelessness of looking upon any of the practical processes of the 

 present day as permanent, to be acquired in youth and to be the 

 staple occupation of a lifetime. 



The res])ectable millwright of former years had already to 

 enlarge his scope of knowledge and become a steam-engine 

 builder ; having made himself master of the construction of 

 simple forms of high-pressure engines, he has had to go to 

 school again, to study the laws of condensation and of the ex- 

 pansive action of steam, in order to produce an engine using 

 only a fractional amount of the fuel which his customers were 

 willing io expend in former years for a given effect ; he now has 

 to study the laws of electricity and understand the construction 

 of dynamo-electric machines, in order to be able to transmit and 

 distribute his steam power more readily than could be accom- 

 plished by means of wheels and belts. But even his condensing 

 steam-engine with variable expansion, of which he is so justly 

 proud to-day, will no longer be acceptable to his client to- 

 morrow, when it will be made clear to him, by the light of 

 thermo-dynamics, that even the best of steam-engines utilises 

 barely a seventh part of the heat-energy residing in fuel, and 

 that the attainment of perhaps three-fourths of that ultimate 

 limit will be required of him. 



Analogous changes threaten to invade almost every existing 

 branch of industry, and it is necessary for every one of you to 

 be prepared for such changes. 



The jiractical man of former days will have to yield bis place 

 to the unbiased worker w ho with open mind is prepared for 

 every forward step as it arises. For this purpose it is necessary 

 that he should possess, beyond the mere practical knowledge of 

 his trade, a clear appreciation of the principles of action under- 

 lying eacli operation, and such general acquaintance with the 

 laws of chemi>try and physical science as will ma'ce it easy for 

 him to adapt himself to the new order of things. 



In order to be so prepared, it is by no means necessary that 

 you should have had the advantage of an elaborate school educa- 

 tion. No man or woman should consider him or herself out of 

 school until approaching the final reckoning, and it is through 

 advantages such as are offered by the Midland Institute, that the 

 means are afforded you of continuing the educational process 

 near your homes, and without much expense or difficulty of any 

 kind. 



Let no one of you suppose that his early training or natural 

 ability is unequal to the task of making a career in life. Goethe, 

 that man of wonderful insight into the working of the human 

 mind, says : — 



Or, translated. 



' What you desire in youth. 

 Mature age will give you in abunda 



At first sight this expression seems to involve almost an 

 absurdity, and it is necessary to interpret the " desire " of youth 

 to mean not simply a vague sentiment or wish to be looked up 

 to in after life, or to drive about in easy carriages, but a deter- 

 mination to leave no stone unturned, and let no opportunity go 

 past that may advance you towards the well-defined object of 

 your ambition. With a firm resolution almost every difiiculty in 

 your way will recede before you ; disappointments you will 



