ADDRESS. 1 1 



of the most necessary character — necessary to enable those principles to 

 be carried out — have, indeed, been devised since the days of Watt. 

 Although it is still a very sad confession to have to make, that the very 

 best of our steam engines only utilises about one-sixth of the work which 

 resides (if the term may be used) in the fuel that is consumed, it is, never- 

 theless, a satisfaction to know that great economical progress has been made, 

 and that the 6 or 7 lbs. of fuel per horse-power per hour consumed by the 

 very best engines of Watt's days, when working with the aid of condensa- 

 tion, is now brought down to about one-fourth of this consumption ; and 

 this in portable engines, for agricultural purposes, working without con- 

 densation — engines of small size, developing only 20 horse-power ; in such 

 engines the consumption has been reduced to as little as 1'85 lb. per 

 brake horse-power per hour, equal to 1"65 lb. per indicated horse-power 

 per hour, as was shown by the trials at the Royal Agricultural Society's 

 meeting at Newcastle last year — trials in which I had the pleasure of 

 participating. 



In these ti-ials, Mr. William Anderson, one of the Vice-Presidents of 

 Section Gr, and I were associated, and, in making our report of the results, 

 we adopted the balance-sheet system, which I suggested and used so 

 long ago as 1873 (see vol. 52, pages l-r<4 and 155, of the ' Minutes of Pro- 

 ceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers '), and to which I alluded in 

 my address as President of Section G at Montreal. 



I have told you that the engineer of the present day appreciates the 

 value of the 'next-to-nothings.' There is an old housekeeping proverb 

 that, if you take care of the farthings and the pence, the shillings and the 

 pounds will take care of themselves. Without the balance-sheet one 

 knows that for the combustion of 1 lb. of coal, the turning into steam 

 of a given quantity of water at a given pressure is obtained. It is seen,, 

 at once, that the result is much below that which should be had, but 

 to account for the deficiency is the difSculty. The balance-sheet, dealing 

 with the most minute sources of loss — the farthings and the pence of 

 economic working — brings you face to face with these, and you find that 

 improvement must be sought in paying attention to the ' next-to- 

 nothings.' 



Just one illustration. The balance-sheet will enable you at a glance 

 to answer this among many important questions. Has the fuel been 

 properly burnt ? — with neither too much air, nor too little. 



At the Newcastle trials our knowledge as to whether we had the 

 right amount of air for perfect combustion was got by an analysis of 

 the waste gases, taken continuously throughout the whole number of 

 hours' run of each engine, affording, therefore, a fair average. The 

 analysis of any required portion of gases thus obtained was made in a 

 quarter of an hour's time by the aid of the admirable apparatus invented 

 by Mr. Stead, and, on the occasion to which I refer, manipulated by him. 

 In one instance an excess of air had been supplied, causing a percentage 



