G.—ENGINEERING. 169 
These were scientific men working on scientific lines, and their work 
was put to full practical test at once. The mass of information collected 
and used has been immense. One cannot in any collection of names 
omit one to whom one must ever be grateful—Sir Richard Glazebrook, 
again a son of Liverpool, who not only as Director of the National - 
Physical Laboratory, but also as chairman, under the presidency of 
Lord Rayleigh, of the Advisory Committee of Aeronautics, did so much 
towards the development of this method of transport. 
It is impossible to touch more than in the lightest possible manner 
on the developments which have taken place in aeronautics due to scien- 
tific work. In the means of propulsion research has given an engine 
of such size and so light in weight per horse-power that what was a 
laboured struggle against the effects of gravity has changed into the 
ability to rise at considerably over 1,000 feet per minute to heights where 
the rarefaction of the atmosphere renders it necessary for oxygen for 
breathing to be obtained artificially. The safety of flying as the result 
of the work of Busk has rendered the machines stable even in such a 
medium as the air. There is no greater instance of the indebtedness of 
transport to science than the rapidity with which the possibilities of 
transport by air have advanced. That the realities have not advanced 
at the same rate is due to financial reasons. Asa rule we have a close 
relationship between these two, but in this instance, owing to the de- 
mands of war, this has not been the case, for we have the knowledge 
before we are financially able to use it to the greatest advantage. 
The other point I would deal with in some detail is the question of 
materials. Here we are dealing with a matter which has to be con- 
sidered in an entirely different manner. We to-day have no basic metal 
or material which was not known when transport first turned to 
mechanical methods for assistance. The change which has come about 
has been as largely due to the advances made in metallurgy as to the 
inventions in mechanics that have led to the improvements in means 
of propulsion and in machinery. I am aware that neither of these 
would have been of any use were it not for the increase in facilities of 
production, but most certainly the scientific work of the metallurgist is 
one of the many points which, taken together, have caused the resultant 
progress. The early builders of steam-engines were not only troubled 
through inability to get their engines machined properly, but also with 
the difficulties of obtaining suitable material for the parts they required. 
Steel has been known for thousands of years, but its rapid and economic 
production is of very recent growth. It has very iruly been said that 
every great metallurgical discovery has led to a rapid advance in other 
directions. I will as before deal with the railway as an example. We 
can hardly appreciate at this date the conditions which existed from a 
metallurgical standpoint on our railways when our first Meeting at 
Liverpool was held in 1837. Tron—made laboriously, heterogeneous 
in character and expensive of production not only in money 
but, owing to the heavy character of the methods employed, 
detrimental to the very character of the workman—was the only 
material available. Remember for a moment that this was not only 
the material employed for the various parts of the mechanism of the 
locomotive, but for the vails. Towever improved the methods of 
