TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION G.—-PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 587 
Section G.mWmENGINEERING. 
PRESIDENT OF THE SEcTION.—Proressor GisperT Kapp, M.8c., 
D.Eng. 
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11. 
The President delivered the following Address :— 
ENGINEERING, the subject with which Section G-is concerned, covers so wide a 
field that it has been found convenient to introduce a rough sub-division into the 
three branches of civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering. By applying 
any such term to a particular piece of engineering work we do not necessarily 
exclude the others; we merely characterise a predominant feature. There is 
often a considerable amount of overlapping between the three branches, and that 
is especially the case with mechanical and electrical engineering. Sometimes the 
boundary-line even becomes indistinct, and then it is difficult to say which branch 
of our science is the predominant feature. Is the equipment of a works with 
electric-power mechanical or electrical engineering? It is both, but not neces- 
sarily to the same degree. The mere replacement of a steam engine by an electric 
motor to drive the main shafting of a works can hardly be called a piece of 
electrical engineering ; but if special electric appliances are introduced to perform 
duties which cannot be done, or not done as well, by purely mechanical 
machinery, then we have electrical engineering in the true sense of the term. 
Electricity has invaded almost every branch of our industrial activity, some- 
times as a rival to older methods, but often also as a helpmate, stimulating pro- 
gress all round. Electricity is a ‘ great source of power in nature,’ and the ‘art of 
directing it for the use and convenience of man’ belongs to our generation. Yet, 
like all new things, it has had to fight its way in the face of strenuous opposition 
—generally an absolutely honest opposition, not in any way traceable to self- 
interest, but’ simply to inability to see things in the right perspective. Let me 
illustrate my meaning by an example. Shortly after Charles Brown had estab- 
lished the first electric-power transmission between Kriegstetten and Solothurn 
I happened to visit a well-known mechanical engineer in Zurich, who had in his 
time been professionally (not financially) interested in so-called teledynamic 
transmission of power by wire-rope, first introduced into Alsatia by the celebrated 
Professor Hirn, of thermodynamic fame, about the middle of last century, and 
then also imported into Switzerland. To my old friend these transmission 
systems appeared to be the acme of perfection; and on my pointing out that 
the range was necessarily very limited, he replied that transmission to longer 
distances would be useless, since there would be no market for the power. My 
friend was not able to look at the subject in the right perspective; he failed com- 
pletely in appreciating the fundamental conditions of the problem, and although 
it is easy for us now, fortified as we are by experience, to appreciate electric 
transmission of power correctly and feel contempt for the old gentleman’s narrow- 
mindedness, yet we should be careful not to fall into the same error about elec- 
trical developments which are new to us, as the transmission of power was new 
to my Swiss friend. It is not so very long ago that mechanical engineers 
