18 PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 



seen a man whose father fought in the '45 on the Pretender's side, 

 nearly 170 years ago ! In the life of a nation 175 years is a span. 



This consumption is still proceeding at an accelerated rate. Between 

 1905 and 1907 the amount of coal raised in the United Kingdom in- 

 creased from 236 to 268 million tons, equal to six tons per head of the 

 population, against three and a half tons in Belgium, two and a half 

 tons in Germany, and one ton in France. Our commercial supremacy 

 and our power of competing with other European nations are obviously 

 governed, so far as we can see, by the relative price of coal; and 

 when our prices rise, owing to the approaching exhaustion of our 

 supplies, we may look forward to the near approach of famine and 

 misery. 



Having been struck some years ago with the optimism of my non- 

 scientific friends as regards our future, I suggested that a committee of 

 the British Science Guild should be formed to investigate our available 

 sources of energy. This Guild is an organisation founded by Sir 

 Norman Lockyer, after his tenure of the Presidency of this Association, 

 for the purpose of endeavouring to impress on our people and their 

 Government the necessity of viewing problems affecting the race and 

 the State from the standpoint of science; and the definition of science 

 in this, as in other connections, is simply the acquisition of knowledge, 

 and orderly reasoning on experience already gained and on experiments 

 capable of being carried out, so as to forecast and control the course of 

 events; and, if possible, to apply this knowledge to the benefit of the 

 human race. 



The Science Guild has enlisted the services of a number of men, 

 each eminent in his own department, and each has now reported on the 

 particular source of energy of which he has special knowledge. 



Besides considering the uses of coal and its products, and how 

 they may be more economically employed, in which branches the Hon. 

 Sir Charles Parsons, Mr. Dugald Clerk, Sir Boverton Redwood, Dr. 

 Beilby, Dr. Hele-Shaw, Prof. Vivian Lewes and others have furnished 

 reports, the following sources of energy have been brought under 

 review: The possibility of utilising the tides; the internal heat of the 

 earth; the winds; solar heat ; water-power; the extension of forests, and 

 the use of wood and peat as fuels ; and lastly, the possibility of con- 

 trolling the undoubted but almost infinitely slow disintegration of the 

 elements, with the view of utilising their stored-up energy. 



However interesting a detailed discussion of these possible sources 

 of energy might be, time prevents my dwelling on them. Suffice it to 

 say that the Hon. R. J. Strutt has shown that in this country at least 

 it would be impracticable to attempt to utilise terrestrial heat from bore- 

 holes; others have deduced that from the tides, the winds, and water- 

 power small supplies of energy are no doubt obtainable, but that, in 



