IV. NORMAN SELFE. 



pared with pure and common iron, when these metals are 

 subjected to atmospheric influences, or to complete immersion in 

 water. There is a prevailing opinion among many mechanical 

 Engineers that high grade irons or steels corrode much more 

 rapidly, and that cases occasionally occur where a greater weight 

 of an inferior material would be more economical than the use of 

 less metal with a greater tensile strength. I have strong reasons 

 for believing that iron is better than steel for wire cables under 

 certain conditions, and should be glad if in the course of the 

 session some authoritative information were given on the subject. 



Leaving such comparatively small subjects as have just been 

 referred to, and our little local world, to look abroad over the 

 universal Domain of Engineering at this fin de siecle period, we 

 are struck with the fact, that with the termination of the 

 century, now close at hand, we shall, from the indications 

 already apparent, enter upon a new era of Science and the Arts, 

 which bids fair to be markedly in advance of the last, when our 

 fathers used flint and steel to obtain light, when semaphores 

 were the only means of telegraphing, and the stage coach — sup- 

 planting the waggon and horses — reigned supreme as the means 

 of rapid transport on land. Every hour almost in the present 

 day brings us advances, some of them, perhaps, in a direction 

 where we think they have already gone far enough. Among the 

 latter may be placed the American architectural-engineering 

 structures, towering towards the clouds — " Sky-scrapers " I 

 believe they are called. It is not to such abnormal develop- 

 ments that I would refer, although even they have added largely to 

 our knowledge of combinations of steel and concrete for 

 foundations. 



Of all departments of modern science, those connected with 

 the application of electricity are, undoubtedly, surrounded with 

 the greatest halo of mystery and attractiveness, as they appeal 

 to scientists, to capitalists, and to the masses. Perhaps the 

 latest triumph in their developments is the practical application 

 of Hertzian waves by Signor Marconi, and their successful 

 utilisation for signalling without wires. The claim that a 



