426 



Anniversary Meeting. 



[Dec. J, 



on telegraphs is to diminisli speed of working, and on telephones 

 to render speaking impossible. Hughes has studied these effects in 

 his own peculiar way, and has shown how, when the number of wires 

 is limited and the working confined to one direction, they can be 

 entirely eliminated. 



2. Mr. Cowper has shown how, by producing the two rectangular 

 components of a plane curve at a distance, it is possible to reproduce 

 handwriting. His instrument works very effectively, but is still 

 perhaps in an early stage of its development 



3. The application of the Duplex system to long cables has been 

 practically and very efficiently carried out by Mr. Stearns on the 

 Atlantic Cable, and by Mr! Muirhead on the long cables of the Eastern 

 Telegraph Company in the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean. 



4. The Electric Light is still on its trial for general street illumina- 

 tion in Paris and London; but it has been recently very effectively 

 employed in surveying and sounding the Mediterranean by night, and 

 in the operation of laying and repairing cables by the steam-ship 

 " Dacia," belonging to the Silvertown Company. By its aid ninety-six 

 soundings, made with Sir William Thomson's steel wire apparatus, in 

 water averaging 1,500 fathoms depth, were taken in seven days and 

 nights, bottom in every case being brought up. 



5. Several improvements in Telephones have been brought out, 

 notably Gower's, in Paris, and Edison's loud-sounding arrangement, 

 and the instruments are gradually finding their way into practical 

 use. 



6. Experiments are being made both in England and in Prance in 

 .the transmission of mechanical power by electric currents ; and we 

 may hope for valuable results from this field of inquiry. 



The Iron and Steel Institute was founded in 1869 under the 

 presidency of the Duke of Devonshire. The Society consists of 

 proprietors and managers of iron and steel works, of metallurgical 

 chemists^ geologists, and engineers. The number of its members 

 has grown gradually from 140 at its commencement to its present 

 limit, 1,031, of whom 116 are foreigners residing abroad, and com- 

 prising the leading metallurgists of America as well as of the con- 

 tinent of Europe. The Association meets twice a year, once (during 

 the spring) in London, and once (in the autumn) by invitation at one 

 of the great industrial centres in England or abroad. In 1873 it met 

 at Liege, in 1878 at Paris, aud in 1880 it will meet at Dusseldorf. 

 Each meeting lasts from two to four days, which are spent partly in 

 reading and discussing papers, and partly in visiting works of 

 interest. 



The results of the Association have been of considerable utility: (1) 

 by bringing the scientific metallurgist into contact with the man of 

 practical experience, thereby extending the appreciation, and in many 



