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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 604. 



by the dam so that the enclosure may be 

 heated and the work carried on during the 

 winter. It is anticipated that 175,000 acres 

 of land will thus be reclaimed, and that a 

 population of 50,000 people will be added 

 to a community now thinly settled. This 

 great work, primarily of the civil engineer, 

 is contributed to by almost all departments 

 of applied science. Suitable foundations 

 for the dam must first be found. The me- 

 chanical engineer explores with his drills; 

 the geologist and the chemist determine the 

 character of soil and rock; the civil engi- 

 neer plans and constructs; the electrical 

 engineer takes power developed from 

 storage reservoirs and transmits it elec- 

 trically to pumping areas and installs a 

 telephone service so that the system may 

 be safely and efficiently administered. 



The once naked savage, who, perhaps, 

 almost dying of hunger and thirst, feebly 

 directed his tottering steps over these lone- 

 ly and unfruitful regions, now at daily 

 wages, which ensure him every comfort, 

 participates as a citizen of the United 

 States in this beneficent undertaking. In 

 place of desolation will be found a large 

 and intelligent population busily engaged 

 in agricultural pursuits and all the attend- 

 ant industries, while the church, the school, 

 the college — companions of the highest type 

 of civilization— create and minister to the 

 noblest aspirations of a prosperous com- 

 munity. Thus does applied science con- 

 tribute to the advancfement of mankind. 



One most potent influence in our indus- 

 trial development has been, our system of 

 patent law. The patent office was created 

 by the act of 1836. Up to January, 1861, 

 31,000 patents had been issued. Up to 

 January, 1906, something more than 800,- 

 000. Under the stimulus of these laws the 

 inventive faculty of our people has ex- 

 ceeded that of any other country. In the 

 administration of these laws within the 



patent office and in the practise under them 

 without, there are now engaged more than 

 thirty of our own graduates who are pe- 

 culiarly fitted because of their training to 

 succeed in this important field. 



The industrial development of the world 

 has been stimulated by the great exposi- 

 tions which have been held from time to 

 time in different countries. That of Eng- 

 land in 1851; at New York in 1853; at 

 Paris in 1855; again in England in 1862; 

 in Paris in 1867, greatest of all up to that 

 time; at Vienna in 1873; at Philadelphia 

 in 1876; at Paris in 1878; at Chicago in 

 1893 ; and at St. Louis in 1904. 



I have recently seen the statement that 

 modern technical education is the direct re- 

 sult of the London exhibition of 1851, 

 where for the first time was given an op- 

 portunity to see side by side the industrial 

 products of all nations. However this may 

 be, it is certainly true that the event was 

 one of great importance to the industrial 

 world. 



In February, 1850, the first of the great 

 public meetings on the subject was held in 

 England. France, Prussia, America .and 

 Belgium were represented. Lord Morpeth, 

 who presided at the meeting, in closing his 

 speech, said: 



I can not better sum all that may be said than 

 in words written nearly a century and a half ago. 

 Listen, ladies and gentlemen, and see if Pope was 

 not almost as good a prophet as he was a poet: 



The time shall come, when, free as seas or wind, 

 Unbounded Thames shall flow for all mankind. 

 Whole nations enter with each swelling tide 

 And seas but join the regions they divide; 

 Earth's distant ends our glories shall behold 

 And the new world launch forth to seek the old. 



The Prince Consort, to whom the chief 

 credit is due for the inception and manage- 

 ment of the great enterprise, made a speech 

 at the Mansion House in March, 1850, in 

 which he said of the purpose of the exhibi- 

 tion that it was to 



