154 Recent Advances in Mechanical Science. 



Our own scientijBc men are not hopeless by any means, if we are 

 to judge of the future as spread out before us at the meeting of 

 electrical engineers in London last month by Mr. Wm. Crookes 

 of radiometer celebrity, whose remarks are well worth reading ; 

 but Mr. Crookes certainly seems to me going a long way when 

 he announces '• that in a single cubic foot of ether, which fills 

 all space, there are locked up 10,000 foot tons of energy which 

 has hitherto escaped all notice." If Mr. Crookes can unlock 

 this store and subdue it to the service of man, the coming 

 generation has not a bad programme before it. '* Live and 

 learn;" "Patience and perseverance" are a good pair of 

 mottoes for the engineer. There is little that cannot be con- 

 quered by the the exercise of these three latter qualities so long 

 as we have that first necessary, life. 



I must now draw my remarks, which have necessarily been 

 of a most glancing and superficial character, to a close, with the 

 hope that this new branch of our Society may be well supported, 

 especially by the younger members of the engineering flock in 

 our city. 



