1888-89.] I09 



caissons for the Forth Bridge, but when the boulder clay was 

 reached, its tenacious nature required special appliances — spades 

 with hydraulic rams in the hollow handles. With the roof of 

 the chamber to thrust against, it was only necessary to place 

 the spade in position, turn a tap, and the cutting edge was 

 thrust with a force of tons into the clay. In the construction 

 of the Manchester Canal a giant navvy is at work, exca- 

 vating daily a mass of earth 50 feet wide, 23 feet deep, and 

 20 feet long. In the general application of mechanical science, 

 we have had the introduction and general adoption of gas 

 engines, and the extended use of hydraulic motors, showing a 

 considerable economic advantage in comparison with steam, 

 in cases where the amount of power is small, or required only 

 at intervals. While progress has been made in the arts of 

 peace, those of war have also advanced. Some thirty years ago 

 steam had been adopted as the motive power in our warships, 

 and armour-plated vessels were taking the place of our wooden 

 walls, the first ironclad ship built for our Government having 

 been ordered in 1859. The introduction of such vessels as the 

 Merrimac and Monitor in the American Civil War was another 

 step, and we have seen the gradual development of armour 

 plates supposed to be invulnerable, and of heavy ordnance to 

 prove that they were not so, till in recent years we find that a 

 tiny torpedo boat or a submarine mine is capable ot effecting 

 more destruction than the one can prevent, or the other 

 accomplish. 



In no department of science has progress been so marked as 

 in electrical research and its applications. In our Club's early 

 days we had, I believe, only one telegraph office in Belfast, and 

 the rate was 3s. 6d. for twenty words. Now we have telegraph 

 business transacted at almost every post office in the kingdom, 

 and at the sixpenny rate we send messages upon the veriest trifles. 

 The increase in the number of telegrams sent last year, as com- 

 pared with the number sent in 1869 or 1870, is about 850 per 

 cent., while the annual revenue has increased from ^"5 50,000 to 

 ^"2,000,000. Mr. W. H. Preece, in his address to the Mechani- 



