14-2 Recent Advances in Mechanical Science. 



one branch of this subject, be^'ng that which seems to^me most 

 suitable to draw your attention to this evening. Practically, until 

 the beginning of this century little had been done to utilize the 

 great resources of nature, and the development of the services 

 they can be made to render to man has only been followed up 

 within the last 50 years or so. 



In the present assembly, I think I may safely put mechanical 

 achievements in the first place ; next come electrical, and in 

 the third place chemical discoveries, which are worked in, one 

 with the other, to bring about the development of those results 

 which we daily hear of and see. 



To sub-divide my subject into some of its branches, we may 

 begin with the development of our present gigantic railway 

 system — its construction and working — from the first short cast- 

 iron rails, with horse-drawn cars or waggons, jolting along with- 

 out springs, at a few miles an hour, to the long mild steel rails, 

 palace cars, and tubulous trucks drawn smoothly along by a 

 compound locomotive at a speed, in some cases, of about a mile a 

 minute : where the traveller can repose in a comfortable berth, 

 almost as if he were at home, while the train he is conveyed by 

 hurries him all through the black night over hill and dale, 

 through the long tunnel, and over the high bridge, without his 

 being even conscious of any risk. Should the mechanical skill 

 which has apportioned and proportioned the various appliances 

 and parts to their duty have made an error of judgment, and some 

 apparently trifling detail be overlooked or forgotten, or some law 

 of nature be disregarded in carrying out the construction or 

 working, what would be the result ? I may say, what has 

 been the result in some cases ? Crash, collapse, cries of agony, 

 and the stillness of death when it is all over ; and yet, as a rule, 

 it is found that the cause of most so-called accidents is an 

 an attempt to violate some trifling, it may be, but inexorable 

 law of nature, or some carelessness in not having sufficiently 

 considered these laws of nature. This is only one of the diffi- 

 culties the engineer has to cope with, and no wonder it is an 

 interesting and engrossing profession and business. Let me 



