310 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



2. liritish A sso<-i< it ion ; fifty-first meeting , at Southampton.— 

 The fifty-first meeting of the British Association opened on the 

 23d of August. The address of the president of the year, C. W. 

 Siemens, related especially to recent practical applications of 

 science, to which some of the profoundest workers in pure 

 science have contributed - srientitio progress having "rendered 

 theory and practice so interdependent that an intimate union of' 

 them is a matter of absolute necessity for our future progress." 

 Mr. Siemens first speaks of the importance of adopting generally 

 in his country the metric system, which is now legalized there 

 and used in science; and passing from this subject of " accurate 

 measures of length, weight and time," discus es the subject of 

 unit measures in electricity. He proposed four new units: (1) a 

 unit of powe-r to he called' a " Watt" = the rate of doing work 

 when a current of one ami. ere passes through a resistance of one 

 ohm, or, ^ of- a horse-power, thus eliminating a factor which 

 comes into calculations; (2) a unit of magnetic pole, to be called 

 a "Weber;" {:>>) a unit of magnetic Held, to be called a "Gauss;" 

 "ii of heat, to be called a "Joule" = the i 



&?. 



equivalent, the quantity of heat generated, by 

 1 an ohm for" one second. The watt 



i flowing thn 



jnx/r were unanimously approved by the Association at one of the 

 'sessions of the Physical section. Another topic of the presidential 

 address was the elect tic current as a means of transmitting power, 

 which was discussed in its .application to telegraphy, to the 

 telephone, " that marvel of the present day," in connection with 

 which -Miie names <>f 11,-iss, Graham Bell, Edison and Hughes, 

 will ever be rememhered ;" and to the transformation of electricity 

 into mechanical energy and its application for the transmission of 

 power; stating, on this last point, that "the small space occupied 

 by the electro-motor, its high working speed, and the absence of 

 waste products, render it -pecially available for the general distri- 

 bution of power to cranes and light machinery of every description. 

 A loss of effect of 50 per cent does not stand in the* way of such 

 ins, for it must be remembered that a powerful central 

 engine of best construction produces motive power with a con- 

 sumption of two pounds of coal per horse-power per hour, whereas 

 small engines distrihuted over a district would consume not less 

 than five; we thus see that there is an advantage in favor of 

 electric transmission as regards fuel, independently of the saving 

 of labor and other collateral benefits." 



He remarked further that " the electric railway posseses great 

 advantages over horse- or steam-power for towns, in tunnels, and in 



