for the year 1874. xiii 



the custody of the secretary, except for publication in the 

 Transactions, was clearly a breach of them ; again, several 

 papers so lent had been lost, and therefore could not appear 

 in our Transactions when published. There can be no two 

 opinions as to the desirability of giving immediate publicity 

 to our work through the medium of the papers, as well as 

 the early publication in the Transactions of the Society ; but 

 papers are often too long, or of too abstract a character, for 

 newspaper publication. I believe most of our members feel 

 interested in getting a fair and correct account of our pro- 

 ceedings in the daily press, but we cannot expect this unless 

 we furnish the materials. It sometimes happens that nothing 

 short of a verbatim report of our proceedings could be satis- 

 factory, but this cannot be obtained, except (as is frequently 

 done in London) by shorthand writers paid by the Society. 

 I think, therefore, that we should modify our rules, to admit 

 of papers of immediate interest being handed to the press 

 under certain conditions, or where the length or character of 

 the paper is such as to preclude its publication in full, the 

 writer should append to his paper a concise and clear 

 abstract for the press. By adopting this course, a much 

 more satisfactory report of our proceedings would appear 

 than is possible under the present arrangements. 



At our meeting of the 1 1th of September, in 1871, a paper 

 was contributed by Mr. R. S. Deverell, of Portland, on 

 " Ocean Waves and their Action on Floating Bodies ; " and 

 again on December the 9th, 1872, another paper by the 

 same gentleman, entitled " Ocean Wave Power Machinery, " 

 was read. The first of these led up to the theory that in the 

 motion of the ocean waves we have a redundant natural force 

 capable of being conserved by proper mechanical arrangement 

 for doing work at the will of man. The second paper dealt 

 -with the principles of the mechanical arrangements by 

 which this force could be cod served. Mr. Deverell is a true 



