eae: PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 499 
‘The man who devotes his life to applied science should be made to feel that he 
is in the main stream of scientific progress. If he is not, both his work and 
science at large will suffer. The opportunities of discovery are so few that we 
cannot afford to miss any, and it is to the man of trained mind, who is in contact 
with the phenomenon of a great applied science, that such opportunities are most 
often given’; and, again, ‘If we are to progress fast there must be no separation 
between pure and applied science. The practical man with his wide knowledge of 
specific natural facts, and the scientific student ever seeking to find the hard 
general truths which the diversity of Nature hides—truths out of which any 
lasting structure of progress must be built—have everything to gain from free 
interchange of experience and ideas.’ 
Engineers who are more immediately concerned with the problems of directing 
the great sources of power in Nature for the use and convenience of man are 
indeed grateful to our President for these inspiring words, and trust that the ties 
which unite investigators in pure and applied science will never slacken, but will 
knit together more closely for a joint advance to a more perfect understanding 
and utilisation of the laws of Nature. 
MELBOURNE. 
FRIDAY, AUGUST 14. 
The following Papers were read :— 
1. Aviation Research. By Professor J. E. Peraven, F.R.S. 
2. Railways and Motive-Power. 
By Professor W. E. Datay, F.R.S., M.Inst.C.E. 
The object of the paper was to initiate a general discussion on the question of 
railway development in Australia. Various curves relating to the development 
and cost of working of English railways were shown on the screen, The question 
of motive-power was then considered and the advantages of the locomotive and 
the electric motor compared. Curves were also shown illustrating the proportion 
of fuel actually used to draw a train as compared with the quantity fired in the 
furnace of a steam locomotive and in the furnace of a central station in the case 
of electric traction. Other curves illustrated the limits of economy and speed of 
a steam locomotive and the electric motor compared together in relation to 
special problems in connexion with suburban traffic. 
3. A Transmission System suitable for Heavy Internal-Combustion 
Locomotives.t By Hepury J. Tuomson, Assoc.M.Inst.C.E., 
M.1.E.E. 
The author pointed out that the slow progress made in the use of internal- 
combustion engines for heavy traction has been due to the want of suitable 
variable-speed control mechanism. He enumerated four types of variable-speed 
gear, and gave in detail, with diagrams, a technical description of the Thomas 
electro-mechanical transmission, which is put forward as the most suitable for the 
class of work referred to. With this system, so long as the prime mover, when in 
direct drive, can overcome the resistance encountered, the transmission is direct 
and altogether mechanical. At all other times the power of the prime mover is 
divided by means of planetary gearing into two parts, one portion being applied 
to the load by electrical means and the other mechanically. The electric trans- 
mission ensures that ease of control characteristic of all electrical drives, and yet, 
owing to the large proportion of the total power transmitted mechanically, the 
system is not subject to the heavy losses unavoidable with a system wholly 
* Published in the Electrician, vol. Ixxiii., p. 826. 
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