166 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES, 
power and size. Although work was done by compounding and using 
higher pressures, the greatest advance has come to steam-locomotives 
by the use of superheated steam. This was no new thing, for Papin in 
1705 seemed to have an appreciation of its value. As pressures and the 
resultant temperatures increased there came difficulties with lubrication. 
With the increased use and knowledge of mineral lubricants Dr. Schmit 
was in 1895 able to devise methods of using superheated steam which 
have been of the greatest use to transport and to the community, 
The progress of transport on the rail has latterly strongly followed 
other lines, and I must for a few minutes go back again to the develop- 
ment. of the use of steam in a turbine in order to speak of the subject 
of electric traction. 
In spite of the fact that the idea of the utilisation of steam for giving 
rotary motion is old, its commercial adaptation in the turbine is modern. 
Rarely, if ever, has there been such a direct and instantaneous applica- 
tion of science to practice. We are too close at present to the matter 
to realise what a change has taken place in the world owing to the 
introduction of the steam-turbine. 
If we think for a moment we shall realise what a change has come 
over our lives, not only in an engineering but in a general sense, since 
the end of last century. It has truly been said that this is very largely 
due to an Italian experimenting with Hertz waves, to numberless young 
men lying on their backs on muddy roads under motor-cars, and not 
least to a young Irish engineer who revolutionised transport. 
One realises the work done by De Laval, Curtiss, Rateau, and the 
brothers Ljungstrom, but the name which will always be associated with 
the steam-turbine as firmly as that of James Watt is with the inception 
of the steam-engine is that of Sir Charles A. Parsons, our President 
for the Meeting of 1919 at Bournemouth. The success of his work is 
due to his application of scientific principles to the many points of the 
turbine and its accessories. Apart from its application to marine work, 
it is the turbine which has made possible the economical production of 
electrical energy, which is doing so much, and will do so much more in 
the future, for rail transport. To-day it may be said, as it often has 
been, that there are no mechanical or electrical difficulties in the elec- 
trification of railways, the only difficulties being financial ones, although 
one could hope that the induction troubles could be overcome by a 
cheaper method than at present available. 
It-is impossible here to trace the development of electrical science 
from the experiments described by Gilbert in 1600 to the equipment of 
electric locomotives on the railways of Switzerland and the United States 
of America. If we were able to trace this development we should see 
that it has been not only a gradual but a continuous and ordered increase 
of knowledge of natural phenomena. One must mention, however, 
what « change electrical traction by train and tube has made to our 
town life. It has rendered our large towns possible and given a chance 
to millions of our workers of a wider outlook on life and the opportunity 
of living amongst healthier and more pleasant surroundings. This, as 
just stated, is not the result of a sudden discovery of some fundamental 
principle, but to a studied advance, step by step, from very elementary 
knowledge to the information we have available. and at our disposal 
