ADDRESS. 1). 
ments for the generation of the supply, its efficient distribution from 
centres, and its delivery to the consumer in a form in which it can be 
safely and conveniently dealt with and applied at an outlay which, even 
‘now, does not preclude a considerable section of the public from enjoying 
_the decided advantages presented by electric lighting over illumination 
by coal-gas. Yet our recent progress in this direction, encouraging 
though it has been, is insignificant as compared with the strides made 
‘ in the application of electric lighting in the United States, as may be 
gauged by the fact that, while in America the number of arc lamps 
in use, in: April of this year, was 235,000, and of glow-lamps about 
three millions, there are at present about one-tenth the number of the 
latter, and one hundredth the number of arc lamps, in operation in 
England. 
In some important directions we may, however, lay claim to rank 
foremost in the application of the electric light ; thus, our iarge passenger- 
ships and our warships are provided with efficient electrical illumination ; 
to the active operations of our Navy the electric light has become an in- 
dispensable adjunct; and our system of coast defence, by artillery and 
submarine mines, is equaily dependent, for its thorough efficiency, upon 
he applications of electricity in connection with range-finding, with the 
arrangement and explosion of mines, and with the important auxiliary 
n attack and defence, the electric light, which, while so arranged, at the 
operating stations, as to be protected against destruction by artillery-fire 
and difficult of detection by the enemy, is available at any moment for 
affording invaluable information and important assistance and protec- 
ion. 
Other valuable applications of the electric light, such as its use as a 
ighthouse-illuminant, for the lighting of main roads in coal-mines, where 
its value is being increasingly appreciated, and even for signalling pur- 
poses in mid-air, through the agency of captive balloons, are continually 
affording fresh demonstrations of the importance of this particular branch 
of applied electric science. 
At the Electrical Exhibition at Vienna in 1883, where, not long before 
the lamented death of Siemens, I had the honour of serving as one of his 
colleagues in the representation of British interests, the progress which 
had been made in the construction of electrical measuring instruments 
since the French Exhibition and the Electrical Congress, two years before, 
Was very considerable. The advance in this direction has been enormous 
Since that time; but although the practical outcome of Thomson’s and of 
ardew’s important work has been the provision of trustworthy electrical 
balances and voltmeters, while efficient instruments have also been made 
by other well-known practical electricians, we have still to attain results 
in all respects satisfactory in these indispensable adjuncts to the com- 
“mercial supply and utilisation of electric energy. 
In connection with this important subject the recent completion of the 
