228 REPOET — 1873. 



an established custom, miglit abstain from reading addresses wliich would be really 

 instructive to their hearers. This being so I have an excuse for that -which would 

 otherwise savour of impertinence. I say of impertinence, because it is imdoubted 

 that many of the Members present, and,'_in fact, probably all the Members present, 

 are so well instructed in the matters pertaining to our Section, that I cannot put 

 forward any thing which will be new to them. It is this which gives the appear- 

 ance of impertinence to an address ; but the custom which renders an address- 

 obligatory takes away from that appearance. And there is another cause which 

 also redeems it from that appearance, and that is, that although the hearers of the 

 address will not hear any thing which they did not know before, it may bring things 

 to their minds which they did know, but which were lying, as it were, in abey- 

 ance ; and thus they may be forcibly reminded of subjects which they had some- 

 what neglected. 



It is on these two grounds of custom and of exciting attention to that which may 

 be for the moment forgotten, that I alone venture to take up time by addressing 

 gentlemen, many of whom are my seniors, if not in life, at least in experience of 

 our profession. 



The question now arises. What, among the vast range of matters which fall 

 within the scope of the Mechanical Section of the British Association, shall I select 

 for the subject of my address ? 



I am aware that some of our former Presidents, on taking the Chair, have dealt 

 generally with the progress and state of engineering knowledge, — they have, in fact, 

 generalized. But ni order to render an address of this kind useful, the writer of 

 it must be a man of a grasp of intellect sufficiently large to really take in the leading 

 subjects of Mechanical Science, and to deal with them in a comprehensive although 

 a compendious manner. Such a power as this is possessed but by few, by the few 

 who are men of deep thought and large experience, and who have the faculty not 

 only of appreciating that which is taking place roiuid about them, but the further 

 faculty of arranging, classifying, and putting into methodical order the various facts 

 which their minds have embraced, and then of connnunicating the very essence of 

 this mental arrangement to those whom they address. 



Such powers and faculties unhappilj' are not mine : I will not therefore attempt 

 a task in which I must signally and utterly fail were I to essay it, and I must con- 

 tent myself M-ith confining my observiitions to some one subject of interest. 



The point I now have to determine is, what shall my one subject be ? on what 

 shall I address you ? 



I have thought over many subjects connected with IMechanical Science, but I 

 cannot discover any thing more practically important than " Coal." Very few 

 matters are of greater real interest at all times to the nation at large, and very few 

 are more prominently before the minds of the public at the present time ; and cer- 

 tainly no subject can be more appropriate for a mechanical engineer, if for no other 

 reason than this, that the steam-engine is still the very crowning glory of mecha- 

 nical engineering, and that coal is the staff' of life and, so to speak, the breath of 

 the nostrils of the steam-engine. 



I am aware it may be said that the subject of coal is a hackneyed one : no doubt 

 it is. We have had Coal Commissions ; we have had letters in scienliffc and non- 

 scientific publications, indulging in all sorts of speculations as to how long the kno-mi 

 deposits of coal could last, and what were the probabilities of discovering new 

 sources of supply ; but I do not propose to trouble you at all upon the geological 

 feature of the matter ; and with respect to the statistical aspect, I will merely state 

 in reference to it that the raisings of coal, which in 1855 were only 04 millions of 

 tons in Great Britain, rose to 80 millions in 18G0, and to 108 millions in 18G9 ; and 

 I will also advert to the fact that the price of all kinds of coal has in the colliery 

 districts risen, speakiug in round numbers, about 100 per cent, within the last twelve 

 months, and is still rising. 



This increase of consumption and this rise in price are startling facts, and force 

 us seriously to reflect upon the use and also upon the abuse of coal. These reflections 

 will make us remember that whatever the kno\\'u store may be, and whatever new 

 discoveries of other beds may be made, the supply after all is but a finite quantity — ■ 

 that, unlike the fuel wood, which grows year by year to replace the annual con- 



