886 REPORT—1896, 
Section G.m—MECHANICAL SCIENCE. 
PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION—Sir DoverAs Fox, Vice-President of the Institution 
of Civil Engineers. 
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1i. 
The PresivEnT delivered the following address :— 
Iv is rather over a quarter of a century since the British Association last held 
its meeting in the hospitable city of Liverpool. The intervening period has been 
one of unparalleled progress, both generally and locally, in the many branches of 
knowledge and of practical application covered by Civil and Mechanical Engi- 
neering, and therefore rightly coming within the limits for discussion in the 
important Section of the Association in which we are specially interested. 
During these twenty-five years the railway system of the British Isles, which 
saw one of its earliest developments in this neighbourhood, has extended from 
15,376 miles, at a capital cost of 552,680,000/., to 21,174 miles, at a capital cost of 
1,001,000,0002, The railway system of the United States has more than trebled 
in the same period, and now represents a total mileage of 181,082, with a capital 
cost of $11,565,000,000. 
The Forth and Brooklyn, amongst bridges, the Severn and St. Gothard, 
amongst tunnels, the gigantic works for the water-supply of towns, are some of 
the larger triumphs of the civil engineer; the substitution of steel for iron for so 
many purposes, the perfecting of the locomotive, of the marine engine, of hydraulic 
machinery, of gas and electric plant, those of the mechanical branch of the pro- 
fession. 
The city of Liverpool and its sister town of Birkenhead have witnessed 
wonderful changes during the period under review. Great and successful efforts 
have been made to improve the watergate to the noble estuary, which forms the 
key to the city’s greatness and prosperity ; constant additions have been made to 
the docks, which are by far the finest and most extensive in the world. The 
docks on the two sides of the river have been amalgamated into one great trust. 
In order properly to serve the vast and growing passenger and goods traffic of the 
port, the great railway companies have expended vast sums on the connections 
with the dock lines and on the provision of station accommodation, and there have 
been introduced, in order to facilitate intercommunication, the Mersey Railway, 
crossing under the river, and carrying annually nearly 10 millions of passengers, 
and the Liverpool Overhead Railway, traversing for six miles the whole line of 
docks, and already showing a traffic of 7} millions of passengers per annum. A 
very complete waterside station connected with the landing-stage has been lately 
opened by the Dock Board in connection with the London and North-Western 
Railway. In addition to this, the water-supply from Rivington and Vyrnwy has 
now been made one of the finest in the world. 
