THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 7 



one : could anything surpass the drawing of fibres of quartz, finer by far 

 than a human hair, by means of the bow and arrow ? It was a feat to 

 imagine that it could be done, to anticipate that when done it would 

 fill so perfectly an urgent need in the construction of many important 

 instruments, and finally, to do it. 



Now we come to the point at which I would ask you to consider the 

 relation of science to the craftsmanship which I have been trying to define. 

 I would draw your attention to the manner in which, under the urgent 

 drive of self-preservation, the craftsman has called scientific knowledge 

 to his aid. Sometimes the moment has been dramatic on account of the 

 great need of the occasion and the prompt effectiveness of the reply. 

 When, for example, coalmining was at a low ebb because the mines were 

 becoming waterlogged and no available power was strong enough to clear 

 them, Savery and Newcomen made use of the new discoveries respecting 

 the pressures of gases and vapours which Torricelli and Pascal, Papin and 

 Hooke, had just been examining and trying to explain. The steam engine 

 thus came into being and saved the situation. And when, at a somewhat 

 later date, your own citizen, James Watt, by further application of the 

 same physical laws, added fresh powers to the engine, the modern steam 

 engine came into view, with all its applications to railways and steamships 

 and many other marvels of to-day. In 1831 Faraday, in the course of 

 certain systematic searchings, found out the way in which one electric 

 current could bring another into being, the so-called electromagnetic 

 induction. With that single day's work began the whole development of 

 electrical engineering in its innumerable forms. I need not increase the 

 number of my illustrations. 



More often it happens that scientific knowledge enters with less 

 instantaneous and startling effect into the history of a craft. It is only 

 when you Come to consider the various details of some modern product of 

 craftsmanship that you suddenly realise how closely every detail is con- 

 nected with the advance of science, and indeed, Do be more particular, 

 with the scientific laboratory. Let us think for a moment of one of those 

 magnificent ships for which the Clyde is famous. Let us survey its various 

 parts in our minds. Its hull of steel recalls the great forges of Britain, 

 and the wealth of research that has been spent in works and metallurgical 

 laboratories on the nature and qualities of steels of all kinds, research 

 which is still in progress. Within are the engines, turbines perhaps, or 

 reciprocating, or it may be internal combustion engines, Diesel or others . 

 What a range of inquiry and trial and development lies in every detail, 



