4 president's address. 



merit in Science, Art, and Economics have first seen the light of 

 publication and discussion. 



For more than half a century it has pleaded strongly for the advance- 

 ment of Science and its apphcation to the Arts. In the yearly volume 

 for 1855 will be found a report in which it is stated that ' The Objects for 

 which the Association was established have been carried out in three 

 ways : First, by requisitioning and printing reports on tRe present state 

 of different branches of Science; secondly, by granting sums of money 

 to small committees or individuals, to enable them to carry on new 

 researches; thirdly, by recommending the Government to undertake 

 expeditions of discovery, or to make grants of money for certain and 

 national purposes, which were beyond the means of the Association.' 

 As a matter of fact it has, since its commencement, paid out of its own 

 funds upwards of 80,000L in grants in aid of research. 



Developments Prior to the War. 



It is twenty-nine years since an engineer, Sir Frederick Bramwell, 

 occupied this chair and discoursed so charmingly on the great import- 

 ance of the next to nothing, the importance of looking after little 

 things which, in engineering, as in other walks of life, are often too 

 lightly considered. 



The advances in engineering during the last twenty years are too 

 many and complex to allow of their description, however short', being 

 included in one Address, and, following the example of some of my 

 predecessors in this chair, I shall refer only to some of the most 

 important features of this wide subject. I feel that I cannot do 

 better than begin by quoting from a speech made recently by Lord 

 Inchcape, when speaking on the question of the nationalisation of 

 coal : ' It is no exaggeration to say that coal has been the maker of 

 modern Britain, and that those who discovered and developed the 

 methods of working it have done more to determine the bent of 

 British activities and the form of British society than all the Parlia- 

 ments of the past hundred and twenty years. ' 



James Watt. — No excuse is necessary for entering upon this theme, 

 because this year marks the hundredth anniversary of the death of 

 James Watt, and in reviewing the past, it appears that England has 

 gained her present proud position by her early enterprise and by the 

 success of the Watt steam engine, which enabled her to become the 

 first country to develop her resources in coal, and led to the estab- 

 lishment of her great manufactures and her immense mercantile 

 marine. 



The laws of steam which James Watt discovered are simply these : 

 That the latent heat is nearly constant for dift'erent pressures within 



