Ixiv REPORT — 1861. 



machinery of tlie present time owes its smoothness of motion and certainty 

 of action. When I first entered this city, the whole of the machinery was 

 executed by hand. There were neither planing, slotting, nor shaping 

 machines, and, with the exception of very imperfect lathes and a few drills, 

 the preparatory operations of construction were effected entirely by the 

 hands of the workmen. Now everything is done by machine tools, with a 

 degree of accuracy which the unaided hand could never accomplish. The 

 automaton, or self-acting machine tool, has within itself an almost creative 

 power; in fact, so great are its powers of adaptation, that there is no opera- 

 tion of the human hand that it does not imitate. For many of these improve- 

 ments, the country is indebted to the genius of our townsmen, Mr. Richard 

 Roberts and Mr. Joseph Whitworth. The importance of these constructive 

 machines is, moreover, strikingly exemplified in the Government works at 

 Woolwich and Enfield Lock, chiefly arranged under the direction of 

 Mr. Anderson, the present inspector of machinery, to whose skill and 

 ingenuity the country is greatly indebted for the efficient state of those great 

 arsenals. 



Amongst the changes which have largely contributed to the comfort and 

 enjoyment of life, are the improvements in the sanitary condition of towns. 

 These belong, probably, to the province of social rather than mechanical 

 science ; but I cannot omit noticing some of the great works that have of 

 late years been constructed for the supply of water, and for the drainage of 

 towns. In former days, ten gallons of water to each person per day was 

 considered an ample allowance. Now thirty gallons is much nearer the rate 

 of consumption. I may instance the water-works of this city and of Liver- 

 pool, each of which yield a supply of from twenty to thirty gallons of water 

 to each inhabitant. In the former case, the water is collected from the 

 Cheshire and Derbyshire Hills, and, after being conveyed in tunnels and 

 aqueducts a distance of ten miles to a reservoir, where it is strained and 

 purified, it is ultimately taken a further distance of eight miles in pipes, in 

 a perfectly pure state, ready for distribution. The greatest undertaking of 

 this kind, however, yet accomplished, is that by which the pure waters of 

 Loch Katrine are distributed to the city of Glasgow. This work, recently 

 completed by Mr. Bateman, who was also the constructor of the water-works 

 of this city, is of the most gigantic character, the water being conveyed in a 

 covered tunnel a distance of twenty-seven miles, through an almost impass- 

 able country, to the service reservoir, about eight miles from Glasgow. By 

 this means forty million gallons of water per day are conveyed through the 

 hills which flank Ben Lomond, and after traversing the sides of Loch Chon 

 and Loch Aird, are finally discharged into the Mugdock basin, where the 

 water is impounded for distribution. We may reasonably look forward to 

 an extension of similar benefits to the metropolis, by the same engineer, 

 whose energies are now directed to an examination of the pure fountains of 

 Wales, from whence the future supply of water to the great city is likely to 

 be derived. A work of so gigantic a character may be looked upon as 

 problematical; but when it is known that six or seven millions of money 

 would be sufficient for its execution, I can see no reason why an undertaking 

 of so much consequence to the health of London should not ultimately be 

 accomplished. 



In leaving this subject, I cannot refrain from an expression of deep regret 

 at the loss which science has sustained through the death of one of our 

 "Vice-Presidents, the late Professor Hodgkinson. For a long series of years 

 he and I worked together in the same field of scientific research, and our 

 labours are recorded in the Transactions of this and other Associations. 



