ON THE DEVELOPMENTS OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING. 505 



to occupy them ; but at the date when the British Association first met, 

 these j^ad die -boxes covered large tread -wheels, in which the men trod so 

 as to raise a weight. Now, although I know that, in fact, there is 

 nothing more objectionable in a man turning a wheel by treading inside 

 of it, than there is if he turn it round by a winch-handle, yet somehow it 

 strikes one more as being merely the work of an animal, a turnspit or a 

 squirrel, or indeed as being the task imposed on the criminal. Never- 

 theless, in this way there were a lai'ge number of persons getting their 

 living by the mere exercise of their muscles, but, as might be expected, 

 a very poor living, derived as it was from unintelligent labour. That 

 work, since the introduction of Sir William's hydraulic system, is no 

 longer possible, and is not so for the powerful reason that it 'does not 

 pay. Those persons, therefore, who would formerly have been thus 

 occupied are compelled to elevate themselves, and to become competent 

 to earn their living in a manner which is more worthy of an intelligent 

 human being. It is on these grounds that I say we owe very much the 

 elevation of the working classes — especially of the class below the artizan 

 — to this excellent invention of our distinguished President. 



In addition to the modes of transmission I have already mentioned, there 

 is the Transmission of Power hy means of Gas. I think that there is a very 

 large future indeed for gas-engines. I do not know whether this may 

 be the place wherein to state it, but I believe the way in which we shall 

 utilise our fuel hereafter will, in all probability, not be by the way of 

 the steam-engine. Sir William Armstrong alluded to this probability in 

 his address, and I entirely agree — if he will allow me to say so — that such 

 a change in the production of power from fuel appears to be impending, 

 if not in the immediate future, at all events in a time not very far remote : 

 and however much the Mechanical Section of the British Association may 

 to-day contemplate with regret even the mere distant prospect of the 

 steam-engine becoming a thing of the past, I very much doubt whether 

 those who meet here fifty years hence will then speak of that motor 

 except in the character of a curiosity to be found in a museum. 



With respect to the transmission of power electrically I won't venture 

 to touch upon that ; but will content myself by reminding you that, 

 while Sir William Armstrong did refer to the fact that there were com- 

 paratively small streams which could be utilised, he did not inform you of 

 what he himself had done in this direction. Let me now say that Sir 

 William Armstrong has thus utilised a fall of water situated about a 

 mile from his house, to work a turbine, which drives a dynamo-machine 

 generating electricity for the illumination of the house. When I was last 

 at Crag Side that illumination was being effected by the arc light, but 

 since then, he has replaced the arc light by the incandescent lamp (a 

 form of electi'Ical lighting far more applicable than the arc light to 

 domestic purposes), and has done this with the greatest possible success. 

 Thus in Sir William Armstrong's own case a small stream is made to 

 afford light in a dwelling a mile away. Certainly' nothing could have 

 seemed more improbable fifty years ago than that the light of a house 

 should be derived from a fall of water without the employment of any 

 kind or description of combustible matter. 



The next subject upon which I propose to touch is that of the 

 Manufacture of Iron and Steel. In 1831, Neilson's hot blast specification 

 had been published for 2^ years only. The Butterley Company had tried 

 the hot blast for the first time in the November preceding the meeting 



