3S8 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— G. 



a determining factor. With electric propulsion bridge control is possible. 

 The author advocates the greatest possible use of automatic control, and 

 maintains that the great reliability such gear has shown in land practice 

 will be repeated at sea. The propulsion equipments of the Viceroy of India, 

 Monarch of Bermuda, and E.M.V. Cement Karrier are considered in some 

 detail , as well as the various systems of electric propulsion and the circum- 

 stances which determine a choice between them. 



Afternoon. 

 Excursion to Blackburn Aeroplane and Motor Co., Ltd., Brough. 



Friday, September 2. 



Presidential Address by Prof. Miles Walker, F.R.S., on The Call to 

 the Engineer and Scientist. (See p. 119.) 



Mr. A. P. M. Fleming. — An engineer's review of the Soviet enterprise. 



Dr. Miles Walker's Presidential Address discusses some of the problems 

 associated with world economic conditions, and suggests the part that the 

 engineer can play in their solution. His proposals have suggested to the 

 writer the desirability of considering what bearing the huge experiment at 

 present conducted in Soviet Russia has on these economic conditions. 

 This review of the Soviet enterprise is made from a first-hand study of 

 conditions in Russia, primarily from the standpoint of the engineering 

 objectives and the plan and achievements thus far. 



The Soviet plan envisages the development of the natural resources of 

 one-sixth of the earth's land surface, comprising practically all the kinds of 

 material wealth necessary for human well-being, and the distribution of these 

 resources to the 1 50 millions of people confined within its borders. The plan 

 to achieve this result within a comparatively short time, and the considerable 

 measure of success that has attended the beginnings of the operation, justify 

 very serious consideration of the scheme and the method in which it is 

 carried out, especially when one appreciates that the economic difficulties 

 that confront the rest of the world are largely those that relate to the dis- 

 tribution of the existing ample productive facilities. The carrying out of 

 the Russian enterprise rests essentially upon an engineering basis, and 

 especially upon the provision of an abundant supply of cheap power. The 

 underlying basis is summed up in Lenin's formula that ' Electrification plus 

 Soviets equals Socialism.' The basic factors in the engineering aspect of 

 the enterprise include the pursuit of hydro-electric developments on a 

 large scale, the establishment of the manufacturing facilities for engineering 

 plant, the setting up of metallurgical and other enterprises required for the 

 supply of raw materials, and the application of the most advanced methods 

 of engineering to agricultural developments, transport and communication. 

 Associated with, and ancillary to, all these is the development of education, 

 and particularly the training of personnel to replace the vast numbers of 

 foreign experts that have been employed in connection with these develop- 

 ments. Consideration is given to the subject principally from the engineer- 

 ing aspect, and without reference to its political significance. 



Some comparison is made between the methods adopted in the Soviet 

 enterprise and elsewhere. 



