876 report— 1884. 



its results from those branches which deal with absolute demonstration. Un- 

 deterred, however, by such adverse opinion, the engineers ' kept on pegging away,' 

 experimenting, improving, and progressing, until the scientific speculation was met 

 with the hard fact of the Atlantic voyage steamed the whole way by the ' Sirius ' 

 and by the ' Great Western ' in 1838. The impossible was proved to be the pos- 

 sible, and from that day to this the advancement of steam ocean navigation has 

 continued. The six-weeks' voyage, sailing westward of the year 1831, has become 

 converted into but little over six days. And thus it is that that which would have 

 been a mad proposition in the year 1832, became a perfectly rational one in 1882 ; 

 and the deliberations of the General Committee on the proposition were not 

 directed as to whether it would be possible to convey the members with certainty, 

 expedition, and economy across the Atlantic, but as to whether it was expedient or 

 not on general grounds to hold for the first time a meeting of the British Associa- 

 tion elsewhere than in some city of the United Kingdom. I say again that the 

 possibility of such a meeting is absolutely due to the engineer, and that therefore, 

 on this ground, the present is an appropriate occasion to magnify G, the Mechanical 

 Section of this Association. 



It is true that the man who looks only at that which is on the surface may say, 

 ' You arrogate too much to yourselves. You ignore (to which I say Heaven for- 

 bid !) the skill and daring of your sailors. You ignore commercial enterprise. 

 You ignore the development of iron and steel manufacture, which have enabled 

 you to build the steamers of the present day. You ignore the increased output 

 of the best steam coal in the world, and you attribute the whole result to the 

 engineer.' Such an objector would be in the condition of that man who, in answer 

 to George Stephenson's question, ' What is causing that railway train to move ? ' 

 said, ' Why, I suppose the coal that is burning in the locomotive;' and who was met 

 by that grand and comprehensive answer, that it was the 'Sun,' for the coals were 

 a consequence, and not a first cause. Similarly I venture to say that the mechanical 

 engineer may lay claim to be the central source which has vivified and given rise 

 to the improvements in the manufacture of iron and steel, in the construction of 

 engines, and in the development of our collieries. 



There are those I know who object that Section G deals too little with pure 

 science, too much with its applications. It may be as the members of Section G 

 might retort, that it is possible to attend so much to pure science as to get into 

 the unchecked region of scientific speculation, and that had the members of Section 

 G been debarred from the application of science, the speculation of Dr. Lardner 

 might to the present day have been accepted as fact. 



I have quoted it before, but it has so important a bearing on this point, and 

 eomes from a man of such high authority, that I cannot refrain from once more 

 giving you Dr. Tyndall's views on this question. 



' The knowledge of nature, and the progressive mastery over the powers of 

 ' aature, imply the interaction of two things — namely, thought conceived and 

 ' thought executed ; the conceptions of the brain, and the realisation of those con- 

 1 ceptions by the hand. The history of the human intellect hardly furnishes a more 

 ' striking illustration of this interaction of thought and fact than that furnished by 

 ' the Association of Physics and Engineering. Take for instance the case of steam. 

 'Without knowing its properties, the thought of applying steam could not have 

 ' arisen, hence the first step was physical examination. But that examination 

 ' suggested practice, and the steam-engine at last saw the light ; thus experimental 

 1 physics was the seedling from which the steam-engine sprang. But the matter did 

 ' not end here ; the positions of debtor and creditor were soon reversed, for the 

 ' stupendous operations of the steam-engine forced men of thoughtful philosophic 

 ' minds to inquire into the origin of the power of steam. Guess succeeded guess, 

 ' inspiration succeeded inspiration ; the ever present fact of our railways, and our 

 ' power-looms, and our steamships gave the mind no rest until it had answered the 

 ' question, How are heat and steam, its instruments, related to mechanical power ? 

 'Had the works of the engineer not preceded the work of the natural philosopher, 

 ' this question would never have been asked with the emphasis, nor pursued with 

 ' the vigour, nor answered with the success, which have attended it. It was the 



