648 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 621. 



the earth's surface for every twenty-four 

 hours, we may surely consider it a problem 

 worthy of profound study by our scientific 

 investigators. 



But I dare not go farther in this inter- 

 esting subject. I shall only add, if ever 

 the desert is 'to blossom as the rose,' util- 

 ization of the direct energy of the sun on 

 the desert wastes will bring to us a realiza- 

 tion of the prophetic vision. 



What has the university done for us in 

 the domain of the physical sciences ? Here 

 we open up another field of unlimited acre- 

 age, rich in revealed and yet undiscovered 

 treasures. 



Eighteen years ago I was the guest of 

 Professor Dewar at the Royal Institution 

 in London. Among the treasures of that 

 historic laboratory I was shown the first 

 safety lamp made by Sir Humphry Davy 

 and after I had examined it to my heart's 

 content, my friend placed in my hand the 

 first induction coil made by Michael Fara- 

 day in 1841. Professor Dewar remarked 

 as I examined the precious, though crude 

 piece of apparatus, 'That is the father of 

 all the dynamos and motors of the present 

 day. ' This was eighteen years ago. What 

 marvels in electrical science have been de- 

 veloped in this short interval. One has 

 only to walk through the great Westing- 

 house works at Pittsburg, or the General 

 Electric, at Schenectady, to see the mag- 

 nificent dynamos and motors that are the 

 direct evolution of the Faraday induction 

 coil. 



Follow these finished machines to Ni- 

 agara or the great power plants driving 

 electric cars over a vast network of lines 

 that already cover thousands of miles, both 

 urban and suburban, and the end is not 

 yet. I dare not undertake to predict what 

 surely will be done in the very near future 

 by the aid of this powerful ally of man, 

 but I do know that for more than a double 



decade the university men have been all- 

 important factors in this wonderful devel- 

 opment of electric machinery. Go with me 

 through the Westinghouse Electric and 

 Manufacturing Works at East Pittsburg— 

 and what do you find? 



I can say from personal knowledge and 

 contact with the men that are doing things 

 in that great center for the output of elec- 

 tric machinery that a very large proportion 

 of those connected with the testing labora- 

 tories, the experimental shops, in short, all 

 scientific departments of this typical Amer- 

 ican workshop, are dominated by graduates 

 of universities. 



I am sure it would delight any of your 

 men of Lehigh to spend an evening with 

 the Westinghouse Club. I do not know of 

 any place on earth among men where I 

 have felt a greater inspiration than in 

 talking to these young college graduates, 

 saturated as they are with a love for their 

 chosen pursuit. Here are gathered from 

 four to five hundred men from the colleges 

 and universities all over the land. They 

 are here not only to hear lectures on the 

 purely scientific side of their work, but to 

 learn of men, of methods and other topics 

 so necessary in modem institutions, and I 

 am glad to say that the ethical relations of 

 this splendid body of men are of immense 

 value in their life work. 



While writing the last paragraph I 

 thought to call by telephone my friend, 

 Charles F. Scott, who for a long period of 

 years has been the chief electrician of the 

 Westinghouse interests. In my conversa- 

 tion with him I was informed that when he 

 came to the Westinghouse works eighteen 

 years ago there were only four or five col- 

 lege men besides himself in. the entire es- 

 tablishment. You will be surprised when 

 I tell you that of the young men who grad- 

 uated from colleges and universities last 



