PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 15 



the tram and motor car to expel altogether the more costly 

 horse, which is slow and dirty. In crowded London, the 

 omnibus and its horses scarcely utilize half the space they 

 occupy, and it takes 50 minutes to crawl from the nearest 

 residential parts, to the city. By combined extra speed 

 and economy of space, the same business could be done by 

 electric tram cars and motor cars, at much less cost and 

 crowding if the streets were suitable. The horses in our 

 streets are a continual offence to sanitation, and cause 

 great expense in street maintenance, which would largely 

 disappear if traffic were mechanical only, altogether inde- 

 pendently of the great reduction in the cost of traction, for 

 the same results. It is to be hoped that, in fixing the site 

 for the Commonwealth city, within the Federal area, due 

 attention will be given to the importance of level ground, 

 which bears so much on this matter. 



In an earlier part of this address, allusion was made to 

 a proposal, that a million of money should be an endowment 

 of research, as regards increased economy in dealing with 

 tlie application of heat to mechanical power. It is humili- 

 ating to reflect on what a small percentage of the energy 

 of fuel reaches its ultimate work, or what is called the 

 Brake Horse Power. The turbine, and various forms of 

 internal combustion engines, show better results than the 

 ordinary reciprocating steam engines, and, as it is never 

 too late to mend, and always too soon to despair, we may 

 look to the science of the future, to save our rapidly dimin- 

 ishing fuel supply, in this matter. 



It may be thought that the application of the various 

 means of mechanical power to such an apparently insig- 

 nificant matter as domestic service, is beneath the dignity 

 of science or engineering, but when we consider how many 

 families keep, at least, one servant, who might be doing 

 useful work elsewhere, the question becomes more impor- 



