TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION G. 883 



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 civilisa- 

 tion 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 development 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 con- 

 sumption of fuel, and many matters which come within the purview of Section F, 

 are of importance 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 provision should be made for 

 prospective increase of population or of industries ; he sees the chances of the com- 

 mercial 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 appertaining to the other sections : an application most important in the 

 progress of the world, and an application not to be lightly regarded, even by the 

 strictest votaries of pure science, for it would be vain to hope that pure science 

 would continue to be pursued if from time to time its discoveries were not brought 

 into practical use. 



Under ordinary circumstances I should have closed my address at this point, but 

 there is a subject which at this, the first meeting of Section G after the meeting at 

 Southport, must be touched upon. It is one of so sad a character that I have 

 avoided all allusion to it until this the very last moment, but now I am compelled 

 to grapple with it. 



In the course of this address I have bad occasion to mention several names of 

 eminent men, many of them happily still with us. some of them passed away : but 

 1 doubt not you have been struck by the absence of one name, which of all others 

 demands mention when considering physical science, and still more does it come 

 vividly before us when considering the application of science to industrial purposes. 

 I am sure I need not tell you that this name, which I can hardly trust myself to 

 speak, is that of our dear friend William Siemens, whose contributions to science, 

 and whose ability in the application of science, have for years enriched the trans- 

 actions of this section, and of Sections A and B, for in him were combined 

 the mechanic, the physicist, and the chemist. 



But a brief year has elapsed since he quitted the Presidential chair of the 

 Association, and, with us at Southport, was taking his accustomed part in the 

 work of this and of other sections, apparently in good health, and with a reasonable 

 prospect of being further useful to science for many valuable years to come. But 

 it was not to be ; be is lost to us, and in losing bim we are deprived of a man 

 whose electrical work has been second to none, whose thermic work has been 

 second to none, and whose enlarged views justified him in embarking in scientific 

 speculations of the grandest and most profound character. Whether or not his 

 theory of the conservation of the energy of the sun shall prove to be correct, it 

 cannot be denied that it was a bold end original conception, and one thoroughly 

 well reasoned out from first to last. 



I feel that were I to attempt anything like tbe barest summary of his discoveries 



3 i. 2 



