760 liEPOHT— 1903. 



launched in the United Kingdom between 1900 and June 1903. It is given in 

 aggregate below : 



In the Address already referred to I mentioned the application as having been 

 then recently made of the Parsons steam turbine to H.M. torpedo-boat destroyers. 

 The South-Eastern and Chatham Railway Company's new steamer ' The Queen ' 

 has been fitted with this class of engine of latest design. There is a central high- 

 pressure turbine, driving its sbaft at 700 revolutions a minute, and two side low- 

 pressure turbines, each driving its separate shaft at 500 revolutions a minute. 

 The steamer is 310 feet long, and is now running successfully in the service 

 between Dover and Calais. 



For some time past much attention has been paid, more especially in France, 

 to the perfecting of submarine vessels for the purposes of naval warfare, but it 

 cannot yet be said that they have passed beyond the experimental stage, although 

 the advance made has been such as to cause our Admiralty to order several addi- 

 tional vessels of the submarine type. These vessels are to be propelled by internal- 

 combustion engines when on the surface of the water and by electric motors when 

 submerged. 



Aero7iautics. 



Another of the attempted means of locomotion is that of aerial navigation. 

 How little we appear to have advanced beyond where we were fifty years ago, 

 when on September 24, 1852, that eminent French engineer, Henri Gittard, 

 succeeded during im experimental ascent in Paris in driving a balloon against the 

 wind for a very short distance, altliough on October 19, 1901, M. Santos Dumont 

 was successful in navigating bis balloon from St. Cloud round the Eiffel Tower in 

 Paris and back to the spot where he had started only half an hour previously. 

 Many have been engaged in this so far unsolved problem of aerial navigation, but 

 lliere is one of whom we seldom hear. I will quote what Mr. Janssen said in his 

 I'residential Address to the International Aeronautic Congress, held in France on 

 September 15, 1900, regarding Mr. Langley, Correspondent of the Institute of 

 France and Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution ai AVashington. ' Inde- 

 pendently of the fine and profound researches of this scientist upon the resistance 

 of air, Mr. Langley lias constructed an aeroplane which has progressed and has 

 sustained itself during a time notably longer than any of the apparatus previously 

 constructed.' 



In the last report of the Smithsonian Institute, that for 1901, it is stated that 

 this steel flying-machine had a supporting area of 54 square feet, a weight of 

 ;>0 lb., developed li horse-power, and repeatedly flew from one-half a mile to 

 three-quarters of a mile. I cannot close this portion of my Address without 

 referring to the death on 7th February last, in the ninety-fourth year of his age, of 

 that eminent scientific aeronaut, Mr. James Glaisber, F.R.S., who in 1863 made his 

 famous ascent to an altitude of seven miles, and who described at the Newcastle- 

 upon-Tyne Meeting in that year, in an evening lecture, the balloon ascents made 

 for the British Association. 



Wirek'Si Tcler/raphy. 



In addressing this Section I feel that I ought to say a few words on the subject 

 of ' wirele.ss telegraphy.' With regard to signalling Signer Marconi certainly 

 seems to have made progress. In January, 1901, signals were conveyed from Pold 

 in Cornwall to the Isle of Wight, a distance of 200 miles, and in December of the 



