Sept. 2i, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



321 



(2) By air compressed or rarified at one end of a pipe 

 operating an air motor at the other end. 



(3) By water forced through a pipe working a water 

 motor. 



(4) By electricity. 



We have an example of the transmission of power 

 through a short distance by an endless belt or rope in 

 the machines geared together by belts on this platform, 

 and in the rotatory hair brushes at Mr. Hatt's establish- 

 ment in the Corridor, Bath. At Schafthausen, and else- 

 where in Switzerland, the principle is employed on a 

 large scale. Spain and other countries use it in con- 

 nection with the mining operations, and lastly wire ropes 

 replace horses on many hilly tramways. Do not look, 

 however, for the wire rope of the Bath Cable Tramways, 

 for cable is only to be found painted on the sides of the 

 cars. 



For short distances of a mile or so there is no system 

 of transmitting power in a straight line along the open 

 country, so cheap to erect, and so economical of power 

 as a rapidly moving endless rope ; but the other systems 

 give much greater facilities for distributing the power 

 along the line of route, are much less noisy, and far 

 surpass wire rope transmission in economy when the 

 rope must move somewhat slowly, as in tramway traction, 

 or when the distance is considerable over which the 

 power is transmitted, or when the line of route has many 

 bends. 



In the same sense that an ordinary house bell may 

 be considered as a crude example of the transmission 

 of power by a moving rope, the pneumatic bell at the 

 other end of the hall, which I now ring by sending a 

 puff of air through the tube is a crude example of the 

 transmission of power by compressed air. Compressed 

 air is employed to work from a distance the boring 

 machines used in tunnelling ; the continuous vacuum 

 brakes used on many of the railways are also probably 

 familiar to you ; and the pneumatic system of transmitting 

 power to workshops is shortly to be tried on a fairly 

 large scale at Birmingham. 



But distribution of power by water pressure is the 

 plan that has hitherto found most favour in this country. 

 That little water motor at the other end of the platform 

 rapidly revolves when I work this garden syringe, and 

 serves as a puny illustration of the transmission by water 

 pressure. Pressure water has been employed for years 

 on a large scale at Hull, for distributing power ; also by 

 Mr. Tweddle as a means of communicating a very large 

 amount of power through a flexible tube to tools that 

 have to be moved abDuf, but the grandest illustration of 

 this principle is the vast system of high-pressure mains 

 that has been laid throughout London. 



The economy of this system is so marked, and the suc- 

 cess that has attended its use so great that, did I not feel 

 sure that electricity offers a grander system still, it would 

 be with fear and trembling that I should approach the 

 subject of this evening, the " Electric Transmission of 

 Power." Punch drew six years ago the giant steam and 

 the giant coal looking aghast at the suckling babe elec- 

 tricity in its cradle. That babe is a strong boy now, let 

 the giant water look to its laurels ere that boy becomes 

 a man. For the electric transmission of power even 

 now bids fair to suppass all other methods in 



(1) Economy in consumption of fuel. 



(2) More perfect control over each individual machine, 

 for see how easily I can start this electric motor, and 

 how easily I can vary its speed. 



(3) Ability to bring the tool to the work instead of the 

 work to the tool. This rapidly rotating polishing 

 brush, with its thin flexible wires conveying the power, 

 I can handle as easily as if it were a simple nail- 

 brush. 



(4) In greater cleanliness, no small benefit in this dirty, 

 smoky age. 



(5) And lastly, there is still one more advantage 

 possessed by this electric method of transmitting power 

 that no other method can lay claim to — the power which 

 during the daytime may be mainly used for driving 

 machinery, can, in the easiest possible way, be used 

 during the night for giving light. I turn this handle one 

 way and the electric current coming by one of these 

 wires and returning by the other, works this electric 

 motor ; now I turn the handle the other way, and the 

 current which comes and returns by the same wires as 

 before keeps this electric lamp glowing. It might be said 

 that the transmission of power by coal gas which I have 

 excluded from my test fulfils that condition, but so also 

 does the transmission of power by a loaded coal wagon. 

 In both these cases, however, it is fuel itself that is 

 transmitted, and not the power obtained by burning the 

 fuel at a distant place. 



{To be continued.) 



->->t2s\^<£^ 



The final meeting of the General Committee was held on 

 the afternoon of the 12th inst. It was reported by Profes- 

 sor Williamson, as treasurer, that 1,984 tickets had been 

 issued at this meeting to members and associates ; there 

 were 266 old life members who had attended the meeting. 

 There was an accession of 36 new life members. Three 

 hundred and ninety nine old annual members had 

 attended, and 100 new annual members; 639 associates, 

 509 ladies, and 35 foreign members. The sum received 

 for the tickets was ^2,107. Professor Williamson added 

 that the attendance of old life members and of old annual 

 members had been decidedly above the average, and 

 that showed that there was an increasing number who 

 took a continuous interest in the work of the Association. 

 One evidence of that continuous work is the number of 

 committees that are appointed to investigate special 

 questions and continue researches. To a large number 

 of these committees, but not to all, grants of money are 

 made, and all make reports to the annual meeting. Most 

 of these are formally presented to the section concerned 

 and thus do not come under general observation, but in 

 the aggregate they bear testimony to an enormous amount 

 of voluntary labour, and embody a mass of scientific 

 information bearing upon problems in process of solution. 

 The following money grants were now submitted to the 

 General Committee by the Committee of Recommenda- 

 tion : — 



Mathematics and Physics. 



Ben Nevis Observatory £$0 



Electrical Standards 100 



Electrolysis... ... ... ... ... ... ... 20 



Solar Radiation 10 



Differential Gravity Meter 10 



Nomenclature of Mechanics .... ... ... ... 10 



Calculating Tables of certain Mathematical Functions 10 

 Seasonal Variations in the Temperature of Lakes, 



Rivers, and Estuaries , 30 



