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FOR GENERAL READERS. 



Vol. II. 



SEPTEMBER 14, 1 5 



No. 11. 



PAGE 



British Association 273 



The Huacas of Chiriqui ... ... 274 



Birds' Tongues ... ... ... ... 276 



On the Gigantic Dimensions of Certain 



Fossil Mammalia 27S 



General Notes ... . . ... ... 279 



Natural History : — 



Orchids, What are They ? 2S1 



The International Geological Congress 283 



C ONTENTS . 



t 



The British Association (Sectional 

 Meetings) — ■ 



Mathematical and Physical Section — 

 Light and Electricity Department 

 Mathematics and General Physics 

 Lighting-Conductors 



Chemical Section 



Geological Section- 

 Volcanic Department 

 Geological Department ... 291. 





Biological Section — 







Zoological Department 



293 





Geographical Section 



29S 



28 I 



Economic Science and Statistical 





2S4 



Section 



29 s 



28s 



Mechanical Section ... 



297 



286 



Anthropological Section 



■:oo 





Customs of Savage Races 



302 



288 



Notices ... 



304 



292 



Meteorological Returns 



3°4 



Mr. Preece's Address. — To further the " advancement 

 of science " we should have welcomed a little more light 

 and leading than is to be found in the address of the 

 President of the Mechanical Section. Mr. Preece is an 

 electrician, and electricity was his theme, and we cannot 

 but feel that he was not quite equal to the occasion. It 

 is true he gave an interesting historical resume of many 

 of the applications of electricity, and that he pleased 

 many of his hearers by the popular nature of his dis- 

 course, but the thoughtlul and the scientific could not but 

 have been disappointed. It is one thing to popularise 

 scientific information in the sense of making it under- 

 stood by those who have not been trained technically ; it 

 is another thing to give a rather common-place record of 

 results more or less known, without any touches of the 

 master mind. 



It must not, however, be supposed that no grains of 

 wheat were to be found amongst the chaff. Mr. Preece 

 did good service in again calling attention to the ignor- 

 ance and indifference of the public about the proper 

 treatment of lightning conductors. If they are properly 

 erected, duly maintained, and periodically inspected, they 

 are an absolute source of safety ; " but," says Mr. Preece, 

 " if they are erected by the village blacksmith, maintained 

 by the economical churchwarden, and never inspected 

 at all, a loud report will some day be heard, and the 

 beautiful steeple will convert the churchyard into a new 

 geological formation." Speaking of the development of 

 telegraphy, Mr. Preece mentioned that since the Govern- 

 ment took over the telegraphs the number of messages 

 has increased from six to fifty-two million per annum. 

 . On one important occasion as many as 1,500,000 

 words were sent from the Central Telegraph Office in 

 London in one night. On the subject of electric lighting 

 at the Central Savings Bank in London, Mr. Preece 

 made a rather novel calculation. He said that after two 

 years' experience the average absences from illness had 

 been reduced by about two days a year for each person 

 on the staff, and that this was equivalent to a gain to the 

 service of the time of about eight clerks in that depart- 

 ment. Taking this into account, he then estimated that 

 the electric lighting costs ^266 less than lighting by gas. 



As regards the telephone, it appears that in and about 

 New York there are 15,000 subscribers, but in London 



there are only 4,851, even Stockholm having more sub- 

 scribers than our own capital. As a Government official, 

 Mr. Preece was, however, careful not to suggest that the 

 probable reason of this slow development was the well- 

 known restrictive action of the Government. 



After speaking of the transmission of power by 

 electricity being within the range of practice, Mr. Preece 

 added these words of comfort, "When the evil day 

 arrives that our supply of natural fuel ceases, then we 

 may look to electricity to bring to our aid the waste 

 energies of nature — the heat of the sun, the tidal wave 

 of the ocean, the flowing river, the roaring falls, and the 

 raging storm." We trust, however, that as a nation we 

 shall not allow ourselves to be prodigal of fuel, because 

 of the power we may derive from the sun we so seldom 

 feel, or from the raging storms which come at such un- 

 certain intervals. 



Mr. Preece referred to the progress made in the appli- 

 cation of electricity to electro-metallurgy and electro- 

 plating, and speaking of the electrolytic separation of 

 silver from gold, he mentioned that nearly ninety 

 million ounces of silver are produced annually, and that 

 the greater portion of it contains sufficient gold to render 

 refining remunerative. He also referred to the very 

 powerful electric furnaces now used for aluminium, and 

 the alloys formed with it. The welding of metals, 

 including steel, can now be effected by electricity, and 

 Mr. Preece said it was even proposed to weld together 

 in one continuous length the rails of our railways, so as 

 to dispense entirely with joints ! Later on he took occa- 

 sion to speak rather slightingly of physicists as mere 

 theorists, but if the superior "practical" electrician 

 ignores the contraction and expansion of several miles 

 of continuous iron rails, no wonder there is a want of 

 agreement between them. 



Professor Ayrton's Lecture. — The Friday ever.ing 

 discourse of Professor Ayrton on the Electrical Trans- 

 mission of Power was a great success. Professor Ayrton 

 has not only a thorough knowledge of his subject, but 

 has also the valuable gift of explaining it in a clear and 

 forcible manner. Moreover, he performed a well- 

 arranged series of experiments which were very succes- 

 ful. In the course of his remarks he stated that it was 

 well known that large steam engines could be worked 

 more economically than small ones, and from this he 



