ADDRESS. 15 



■community — ' We will oppose you in Parliament, unless you will consent 

 that, at the end of twenty-one years, we may acquire compulsorily your 

 property, and may do so, if it turns out to be remunerative, without other 

 payment than that for the mere buildings and plant at that time 

 existing.' This is the way English enterprise is met, and then English 

 engineers are taunted, by Englishmen — often by the very men who have 

 had a share in making this ' boa-constrictor ' of a ' Facilities Act ' — that 

 their energy is not to be compared with that which is to be found in the 

 United States and other countries. Again, however, I must remember 

 that I am not addressing Section F. 



There is one application of science, by engineers, which is of extreme 

 beauty and interest, and that cannot be regarded with indifference by 

 the agriculturists of this country. I allude to the Heat-withdrawing 

 Engines (I should like to say, ' Cold-Producers,' but I presume, if I did, 

 I should be criticised), which are now so very extensively used for the 

 importation of fresh meat, and for its storage when received here. It 

 need hardly be said, that that which will keep cool and sweet the car- 

 cases of sheep will equally well preserve milk, and many other perish- 

 able articles of food. We have in these machines daily instances that, if 

 you wish to make a ship's hold cold, you can do it by burning a certain 

 quantity of coals — a paradox, if ever there was one. 



In this climate of ours, where the summer has been said to consist of 

 ' three hot days and a thunderstorm,' there is hardly need to make a 

 provision for cooling our houses, although there is an undoubted need for 

 making a provision to heat them. Nevertheless, those of us who have 

 hot-water heating arrangements for use in the winter would be very glad 

 indeed if, without much trouble or expense, they could turn these about, 

 so as to utilise them for cooling their houses in summer. Mr. Loftus 

 Perkins, so well known for his labours in the use of very high-pressure 

 steam (600 to 1,000 lbs. on the inch), and also so well known for those 

 most useful high-pressure warming arrangements which, without disfigur- 

 ing our houses by the passage of large pipes, keep them in a state of 

 warmth and comfort throughout the winter, has lately taken up the mode 

 of, I will say it, producing ' cold ' by the evaporation of ammonia, and, 

 by improvements in detail, has succeeded in making an apparatus which, 

 without engine or pumps, produces ' cold ' for some hours in succession, 

 and requires, to put it in action, the preliminary combustion of only a 

 few pounds of coke or a few feet of gas. 



As I have said, our climate gives us but little need to provide or 

 employ apparatus to cool our houses, but one can well imagine that the 

 Anglo-Indian will be glad to give up his punkah for some more certain, 

 and less draughty, mode of cooling. 



I now desire to point out how, as the work of the engineer grows, 

 his needs increase. New material, or better material of the old kind, 

 has to be found to enable him to carry out these works of greater mag- 



