OxX THE DEVELOPMENTS OF MECHANICAL ENGINEEEING. 503 



abandonment is to me a matter of regret. I remember tide-mills on 

 the coast between Brighton and Newhaven ; another between Greenwich 

 and Woolwich, another at Northfleet, and others in various places. 

 Indeed such mills were used pretty extensively. They were generally 

 erected at the mouth of a stream, and in that way the river-bed made 

 the reservoir, and even when they were erected in other situations those 

 were of a kind suitable for the purpose — that is, low-lying lands were 

 selected and were embanked to form reservoirs. In 1881 wind-mills and 

 water-wheels are much the same as they were in 1831 ; but turbines are 

 greatly improved, and by means of the turbine we are enabled to make 

 available the pressure derived from heads of water which formerly could 

 not be used at all, or if used they involved the erection of enormous 

 water-wheels, such as those at Glasgow and in the Isle of Man, wheels 

 of some 80 feet in diameter. But now by means of a small turbine an 

 excellent effect is produced from high heads of water. The same effect 

 is obtained from the water-engines which our President has employed 

 with such great success. In addition to these motors we have the gas- 

 engine, which within the last few years only has become a really nseful 

 working and economical machine. With respect to horse-power motors 

 we have not only the old horse-machines, but we have a new application 

 (as it seems to me) of the work of the horse as a motor. I allude to 

 those cases where the horse, drawing a reaping or thrashing machine, 

 not only pulls it forward as he might pull a cart, but causes its machinery 

 to revolve so as to perform the desired kind of work. This species of 

 horse-engine, though known, was but little used in 1831. With respect 

 to hot-air engines there have been many attempts to improve them, and 

 some hot-air engines are working, and with considerable success ; but 

 the amount of power they develop in relation to their size is small, and 

 I am inclined to doubt whether it can be much increased. 



I now come to the subject of the Transmission of Power. I do not 

 mean transmission in the ordinary sense by means of shafting, gearing, or 

 belting, but I mean transmission over long distances. In 1831 we had 

 for this purpose fiat rods, as they were called — rods transmitting power 

 from pumping engines for a considerable distance to the pits where the 

 pumps were placed, and we had also the pneumatic, the exhaustion 

 system, the invention of John Hague, a Torkshireman, my old master, to 

 whom I was apprenticed, which mode of transmission was then used to 

 a very considerable extent. The recollection of it, I find, however, has 

 nearly died out, and I am glad to have this opportunity of reviving it. 

 But in 1881 we have for the transmission of power, first of all quick- 

 moving ropes, and let me refer you to an excellent instance of this system 

 at Schjiffhausen. Anyone who has in recent years gone a mile or two above 

 the falls at Schafifhansen must have seen there, in a house on the bank of 

 the Rhine, opposite to that on which the town is situated, large turbines 

 driven by the river, which is slightly dammed for the purpose. These 

 work quick-going ropes carried on pulleys, erected at intervals along the 

 river-bank for the whole length of the town, and power is delivered from 

 them to shafting below the streets, and from it into any house where 

 it is required for manufacturing purposes. Then we have the compressed- 

 air transmission of power, a mode which is very largely used for under- 

 ground engines, and for the working of rock-drills in mines and tunnels. 

 We have also compressed air in a portable form, and it is now emploved 

 with great success in driving tramcars. I had occasion last January to 



