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Section G.— MECHATTICAL SCIENCE. 



Peesident of the Section — Professor W. C'aavthoene Ukwin, F.R.S., 



M.Inst.C.E. 



THUIiSDAY, AUGUST i. 

 Tlie Peesident delivered the following Address: — 



By what process selection is made of a Sectional President of the British Associa- 

 tion is 10 me unknown. I may confess that it was pleasant to receive the request 

 of the Council to preside at the meetings of Section G, even though much of the 

 pleasure was due to its unexpectedness. I ventured to believe I might accept 

 the honour gratefully, trusting to your kindness to assist me in fulMlling its 

 obligations. Amongst engineers there are many with greater claims than I have 

 to such a position, and who could speak to you from a wider practical experience. 

 Here, in Section CI, I think it may be claimed that the profession of engineering 

 owes much to some who from circumstances or natural bias have concerned them- 

 selves more with those scientific studies and experimental researches which are 

 useful to the engineer than with the actual carrying on of engineering operations. 

 Here, at so short a distance from the University wdiere Eankine and James 

 Thomson laboured, I may venture to feel proud of being amongst those whose 

 business it has been rather to investigate problems than to execute works. 



The year just passed is not one unmemorable in the annals of engineering. 

 By an elfort remarkable for its rapidity, and as an example of organisation of 

 labour, the broad gauge system has been extinguished. It has disappeared like 

 some prehistoric mammoth, a large-limbed organism, perfect for its purpose and 

 created in a generous mood, but conquered in the struggle for existence bj' smaller 

 but more active rivals. If we recognise that the great controversy of filty years 

 ago has at last been decided against Brunei, at least we ought to remember that 

 the broad gauge system was one only o'i many original experiments, due to his 

 genius and courage, experiments in every field of engineering, in bridge building, 

 in locomotive design, in ship construction, the successes and failures of which 

 have alike enlarged the knowledge of engineers and helped the progress of 

 engineering. 



The past year has seen the completion of the magnificent scheme of water 

 supply for Liverpool, from the Vyrnwy, carried out from 1879 to 1885 by 

 Mr. Hawksley and ^Ir. Deacon, and since then completed under the direction of 

 the latter engineer. Tliis is one of the largest and most striking of those works of 

 municipal engineering, rendered necessary by the growth of great city communities, 

 and made possible by their wealth and public spirit. For the supply of water to 

 Liverpool the largest artificial lake in Europe has been created in Mid- "Wales by 

 the construction across a mountain valley of a dam of cyclopeau masonry, itself 

 one of the most remarkable masonry works in tlie world. The lake contains an 

 available supply of over 12,000 million gallons, its size having been determined, 

 not only to supply forty million gallons daily for tlie increasing demand of 

 Liverpool, but also to meet the necessity imposed by Parliament that an unpre- 



