858 EEPORT— 1887. 



condenser, high-pressure boilers, and compound engines which led up to it have been 

 the immediate results of the premium on economy of coal offered by the opening up 

 of the long steam routes, first through the Suez Canal and recently round the Cape. 

 But these steps must none the less be considered as the results of the unprecedented 

 attention and labour, theoretical and practical, which has been devoted to this- 

 object during the last fifty years. Thej^ have been a result of the theoretical work of 

 Carnot and Ilegnault, crowned by the great discoveries of Joule and Meyer, and the 

 subsequent work of Rankine, Thomson, Clausens, and Hern, besides others, which 

 about the commencement of the period I am speaking of accomplished that com- 

 plete exposition of the principles underlying the internal economy of all heat 

 engines which have since furnished incitation and guidance to practical efforts. 

 And not less have thej' been a result of the many practical attempts which have in 

 the meantime been made to introduce similar and equally effective developments in 

 the steam engine without waiting till they were called forth by circumstances ;, 

 as notable amongst which I may instance the labours and successes of Mr. Perkins, 

 who has experimentally developed the organisation of the steam engine beyond 

 any point it has commercially reached. Each and all of these efforts has un- 

 doubtedly taken part in that readiness to take the forward step, as soon as circum- 

 stances were favourable, which is as necessary to development as are the favourable 

 circumstances themselves, The fact that a great advance has been made in the use 

 of higher-class steam engines, while it is the most gratifying circumstance one 

 could have to record, affords the greatest encouragement to all those numerous 

 Avorkers for mechanical advance whose work is good, yet who do not see its imme- 

 diate effect. It also emphasises the lesson that the most perfect machine is that 

 which is most perfectly adapted to the circumstances under which it has to work ; 

 and amongst these circumstances is efBcient attendance, which involves sufficient 

 knowledge of its requirements and familiarity with its detail on the part of those 

 who have it in charge ; and while in a process of gradual development this edu- 

 cation is insured, in the case of a sudden step it is generally wanting. 



IIow far the present advance towards the limits to economy which are theo- 

 retically evident may extend in the immediate future it would be dangerous to pre- 

 dict. The present rate is immense, and not by any means confined to the marine 

 engine, although I am not aware of any other class of engine in which triple expan- 

 sion has yet been adopted as a system. The recent compound pumping engines have 

 attained to very high organisation ; and even in those classes of engines where economy 

 of coal is more a matter of morality than of proved commercial importance, as mill 

 engines and locomotives, great activity is evident in adapting and substituting 

 compound engines, so as to allow of the use of greater pressures and higher degrees 

 of expansion. The slow breathing compound locomotive of Mr. Webb has drawn, 

 many members of this Association on their way to this meeting. Nor is the port- 

 able engine behind, as has been shown by the recent trials of the Royal Agricul- 

 tural Society at York. The result of these trials cannot but offer the greatest 

 encouragement to engine-makers of all kinds in their attempt at higher organisa- 

 tion. It is indeed difficult to say which has been the most gratifying — the high 

 state of economy which these trials have shown to be realised, or the reinstitution 

 of the trials themselves after a lapse of twenty years, during which interval their 

 non-continuance has called forth but one expression — that of regret. 



These almost sudden steps towards the realisation of efforts now extending over 

 a century, to bring higher developments of the steam engine into practical use, 

 have not passed without notice. The interest and excitement amongst those more 

 directly acquainted and concerned with the steam engine and the use of steam are 

 probably such as have not existed since the very early days of the railway. It is 

 not therefore as something likely to be new to the members of this Section that I 

 have dwelt upon it. Remembering that there was another subject other than 

 actual mechanical achievements on which I was, as it were, in duty boimd to say 

 something, it seemed hopeless for me to attempt to touch on all the many advances 

 towards a higher degree of organisation in mechanics which constitute the mechani- 

 cal feature of our era. I therefore have chosen this decided movement of the prime 

 mover as the most significant and most gratifying, besides being of a kind the full 



