216 



SCIENCE, 



[Vol. IV., No. 83. 



tions. It may be, as the members of section G might 

 retort, that it is possible to attend so much to pure 

 science as to get into the unchecked region of scien- 

 tific speculation, and that, had the members of section 

 G been debarred from the application of science, the 

 speculation of Dr. Lardner might to the present day- 

 have been accepted as fact. 



The speaker thought all men, even though they 

 be followers of science in its purest and most ab- 

 stract form, must concur in the propriety of section 

 G dealing with engineering subjects generally, as 

 well as with abstract mechanical science. This ad- 

 mitted he would ask — certain what the answer must 

 be — whether there is any body of men who more ap- 

 preciate and make greater use of the applications of 

 pure science than do the members of this section. 

 Surely every one must agree that the engineers are 

 those who make the greatest practical use, not only 

 of the science of mechanics, but of the researches 

 and discoveries of the members of the other sections 

 of this association. 



It would be the purpose of his address to establish 

 the proposition, that not only is section G the sec- 

 tion of mechanical science, but it is emphatically the 

 section, of all others, that applies in engineering, to 

 the uses of man, the sciences appertaining to the oth- 

 er sections of the association, — an application most 

 important in the progress of the world, and an ap- 

 plication not to be lightly regarded even by the strict- 

 est votaries of pure science; for it would be in vain 

 to hope that pure science would continue to be pur- 

 sued, if from time to time its discoveries were not 

 brought into practical use. The connection between 

 this section and that of mathematical and physical 

 science (A) is most intimate. Without a knowledge 

 of thermal laws, the engineer engaged in the con- 

 struction of heat-motors will find himself groping in 

 the dark. He anticipated, from the application of 

 thermal science to practical engineering, that great 

 results are before us in those heat-motors, such as 

 the gas-engine, where the heat is developed in the 

 engine itself. Passing from heat-motors, and con- 

 sidering heat as applied to metallurgy: from the time 

 of the hot blast to the regenerative furnace, it is due 

 to the application of science by the engineer that the 

 economy of the hot blast was originated, and that it 

 has been developed by the labors of Lowthian, Bell, 

 Cowper, and Cochrane. Equally due to this applica- 

 tion are the results obtained in the regenerative fur- 

 nace, in the dust-furnace of Crampton, and in the 

 employment of liquid fuel, and also in operations 

 connected with the rarer metals, the oxygen-furnace 

 and the atmospheric gas-furnace, and, in its incipient 

 stage, the electrical furnace. To a right knowledge 

 of the laws of heat, and to their application by the 

 engineer, must be attributed the success that has 

 attended the air-refrigerating machines, by the aid 

 of which fresh meat is at the end of a long voyage 

 delivered in a perfect condition ; and to this applica- 

 tion we owe the economic distillation of sea-water 

 by repeated ebullitions and condensations at success- 

 ively decreasing temperatures. 



Coming to the mathematical side of section A, 



whether we consider the naval architect preparing 

 his design of a vessel to cleave the waves with the 

 least resistance at the highest speed, or whether we 

 consider the unparalleled series of experiments of 

 that most able associate of naval architects, the late 

 William Froude, carried out as they were by means of 

 models which were admirable in their material, their 

 mode of manufacture with absolute accuracy to the 

 desired shape, and their mode of traction and of 

 record, we must see that both architect and experi- 

 menter should be able to apply mathematical science 

 to their work, and that it is in the highest degree de- 

 sirable that they should possess, as Froude did, those 

 most excellent gifts, science and practical knowledge. 



Passing from section A to section B (chemical 

 science), the preparation from the ore of the vari- 

 ous metals is, in truth, a branch of engineering; but 

 to enable this to be accomplished with certainty 

 and economy, it is essential that the engineer and 

 the chemist should either be combined in one and 

 the same person, or go hand in hand. 



Eeverting to the water-engineer, the chemist and 

 the microscopist have their sciences applied to ascer- 

 tain the purity of the intended source; and, as in the 

 case of Clarke's beautiful process, by the application 

 of chemistry, water, owing its hardness to that com- 

 mon cause, carbonate of lime, is rendered as soft as 

 the water from the mountain lake. 



With regard to the subjects treated by section C 

 (geology), the speaker instanced the Channel tunnel 

 as a case in which, without the aid of geology, the 

 engineer would not be able to give an opinion on 

 the feasibility of the enterprise. The engineers said 

 there is a material, the compact non-water bearing 

 gray chalk, which we have at a convenient depth 

 on the English side, and is of all materials the most 

 suitable. If that exist the whole way across, success 

 is certain. Then came geological science, and that 

 told the engineer that in France the same material 

 existed; that it existed in the same position in rela- 

 tion to other stratifications as it existed in England; 

 that the line of outcrop of the gault lying below it 

 had been checked across; and that, taken together, 

 these indications enabled a confident opinion to be 

 expressed that it was all but certain this gray chalk 

 stratification did prevail from side to side. 



To come to section D (biology), the botanical side 

 of it is interesting to the engineer as instructing him 

 in the locality and quality of the various woods that 

 he occasionally uses in his work. With regard to that 

 most important part of the work of D, which relates 

 to ' germs ' and their influence upon health, the en- 

 gineer deals with it thus far: he bears in mind that 

 the water-supply must be pure, and that the building 

 must be ventilated, and that excreta must be removed 

 without causing contamination. 



In conclusion, reference was made to the relations 

 of the engineer to the geographical explorer and the 

 student of economic science. The great works, the 

 results of engineering skill, enable the geographer 

 to reach his field of exploration the more readily, 

 and are called into existence by the dictates of the 

 economist. 



