xvi President's Address for the year 1887. 



light engines working at a high speed with steam of 150 lbs. 

 per square incb, expanded most effectively in three cylinders 

 of successfully increasing size, and not consuming more than 

 IJlbs. of coal per horse-power per hour. With vessels then 

 of far larger size, and engines that obtain four times as much 

 power from the coal consumed, no wonder greatly enhanced 

 speed results. And the great success of Trans-Atlantic 

 steam navigation has naturally led to the use of similar 

 vessels elsewhere, so that now all seas are traversed by 

 magnificent ocean steamships, and places distant from each 

 other by the whole diameter of the earth, are brought 

 within a little more than one month's voyage. With such 

 vast improvements in steamers, sailing vessels are constantly 

 falling more and more into the back ground. 



In 1837 the aggregate tonnage of British steamers was 

 less than 70,000, while that of the British ships was over 

 2,000,000. In 1883 the steam and sailing tonnage was 

 equal, each being 3,500,000, while in 1885 the steam 

 tonnage was nearly 4,000,000, and the sailing tonnage not 

 much over 3,000,000. We may then I think fairly claim 

 the establisliment of the great ocean steam service of the 

 world, with all its momentous consequences as having taken 

 place entirely within the Jubilee period. Thus we see that 

 telegraphs, railways, and ocean steam navigation, application 

 of science to practical uses of the most enormous importance, 

 and affecting most profoundly the social and commercial 

 relations and mental development of the human race, all 

 belong to the past fifty years, which period must for all 

 future time be looked upon as in one most important 

 respect the most remarkable the human race has yet seen. 



The introduction of railways, with their necessary bridges 

 and viaducts, &c., and the substitution of iron for wood in 

 ship-building, together with the continually increasing use 

 of machinery for all kinds of industrial processes, has involved 

 a very large increase in the production of iron and steel, 

 the amount of crude or pig iron of British origin being 

 1,120,000 tons in 1837, and 8,529,000 tons in 1883, while 

 the other nations of the world, whose iron production fifty 



