THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 9 



connection between craftsmanship and science may be illustrated in yet 

 another way. It is, I think, a fact, and a remarkable fact, that the most 

 active of our modern industries are those which are founded on recent 

 scientific research. The most notable is, of course, that of electrical 

 engineering. The year that sees the celebration of our Association's 

 centenary will witness also the ceremonies that commemorate the basic 

 experiment of Faraday. It is diJ0&cult to sketch in a few words the great 

 edifices that have been built upon the discovery of electromagnetic induc- 

 tion. We might look upon it financially and picture, as some of my hearers 

 can do, the amount of capital involved in electrical undertakings through- 

 out the world, electric lighting, electric transmission of power, cables and 

 now wireless, not to mention all the minor uses to which electricity is put. 

 The transference of matter, of intelligence, of thought, of sound, even of 

 vision, is largely dependent on electromagnetic action. If we are not 

 familiar with financial quantities, let us just think for a moment of the 

 change in our lives if every electric current ceased to run ; and let us 

 realise that the whole mechanism of modern intercourse would fail and 

 that populations born to use it would be brought to dire distress. 



Though the electrical engineering industry with all its branches may 

 be said to have its source in a single laboratory experiment, yet it has 

 grown by the continuous adaptation of fresh streams of knowledge. The 

 huge American corporations maintain research laboratories costing 

 millions of pounds annually, and find that the financial return justifies 

 their policy. The General Electric Company found that a costly research 

 into the structure of the electric lamp repaid itself over and over again. 

 The very important technical discoveries of Langmuir and Coolidge were 

 consequent upon an attempt to find out what happened on the surfaces 

 of the glass bulb and of the glowing filament. The point is that the 

 electrical industry was not merely launched by a single discovery ; it is 

 continually guided, strengthened and extended by unremitting research. 



Consider the very active motor industry. The most important of all 

 the problems connected with the internal combustion engine is that of 

 the nature of the explosion, the efEects of varying the mixture, the move- 

 ment of the gas in the cylinder before the ignition, the actual occurrences 

 at the moment of ignition, the movement of the subsequent explosion 

 wave. The problems are exceedingly intricate. They have been and are 

 the subject of intense research in various laboratories in this country. 

 The research is new and the industry is new. The construction of the 

 engine depends on the use of alloys_^possessing the most remarkable 



