336 EEPOBT— 1887. 



Second Report of the Committee, consisting of Professors Arm- 

 strong, Lodge, Sir William Thomson, Lord Rayleigh, Fitz- 

 gerald, J. J. Thomson, Schuster, Poynting, Crum Brown, 

 Ramsay, Frankland, Tilden, Hartley, S. P. Thompson, McLeod, 

 Roberts-Austen, Rucker, Reinold, and Carey Foster, Captain 

 Abney, Drs. Gladstone, Hopkinson, and Fleming, and Messrs. 

 Crookes, Shelford Bidwell, W. N. Shaw, J. Larmor, J. T. 

 Bottomley, H. B. Dixon, R. T. Glazebrook, J. Brown, E. J. 

 Love, and John ]\L Thomson, for the purpose of considering 

 the subject of Electrolysis in its Physical and Chemical Bearings. 

 {Edited by Oliver Lodge.) 



Work has been carried on during the past year by several members of 

 the Committee ; and nearly all the questions issued after the Aberdeen 

 meeting by the Secretary have been in some shape or other attacked. 



The first, ' On the Accuracy of Ohm's Law in Electrolytes,' by Pro- 

 fessor Fitzgerald and Mr. Trouton, who reported last year and will make 

 a further report to-day. 



The second, ' On Conduction in Semi- Insulators,' by Professor J. J. 

 Thomson and Mr. Newall. See the 'Proceedings of the Royal Society,' 

 No. 256, 1887. 



On the third question, the ' Mode of Conduction of Alloys,' Professor 

 Roberts- Austen will inform us of his experiments to-day. 



Mr. Shelford Bidwell has experimented on the subject of the fourth 

 question, concerning the ' Transparency of Electrolytes.' 



The sixth, seventh, and eighth, ' On the Velocity of Ions,' are being 

 worked at by the Secretary. 



Concerning the ninth we have heard from Mr. J. Brown, of Belfast, 

 and on the tenth we have had a letter from Professor Willard Gibbs. 



In order to enable the members of so large a committee to work with 

 some knowledge of what each other is doing, and also to keep up a 

 general intercommunication and interest in the subject, it has been 

 thought desirable and proper to spend a certain portion of the sum 

 granted to the Committee in printing and postage. Periodical circulars 

 have been sent among the members and to a few outsiders likely to be 

 interested, and these have been the means of drawing out one or two 

 communications of very distinct interest and value. 



It is felt that such informal reports of discussion and free circulation 

 of provisional communications are suSiciently useful to justify the Com- 

 mittee in continuing the practice, which was begun as an experiment ; 

 and they accoi'dingly are asking for reappointment, with another grant 

 of 50Z., of which not more than 20Z. is to be spent in printing and 

 postage. 



They should explain that of the grant made last year to the Com- 

 mittee 20L has been purposely allowed to lapse, for it had been intended 

 to try some chemical experiments on very pure substances, and these 

 experiments have not yet been begun. The 30Z. applied for has been 

 spent — about 15Z. in printing, 4Z. in postage, and Wl. in experimental 

 expenses contracted by the Secretary. 



Tour Committee feel that the expenditure of a small sum such as this 

 has acted, and may be expected to act, as a trigger capable of liberating 



