20 
Scientific Progress of the Past Year . [January, 
and the working confined to one diredtion, 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 effettively, but is still perhaps in an early stage of its 
development. 
3. The application of the Duplex system to long cables 
has been praaically 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 Medi- 
terranean and Indian Ocean. 
4. The EleCtric Light is still on its trial for general street 
illumination in Paris and London ; but it has been re- 
cently 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 sound- 
ings, made with Sir William Thomson’s steel wire apparatus, 
in water averaging 1500 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 then- 
way into praaical use. . 
6. Experiments are being made both m England and m 
France in the transmission of mechanical power by elearic 
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, 1031, of whom 116 aie 
foreigners residing abroad, and comprising the leading 
metallurgists of America as well as of the continent of 
Europe. The Association meets twice a year, once (during 
the spring) in London, and once (in the autumn) by invita- 
tion at one of the great industrial centres in England or 
abroad. In 1873 it met at Liege, in 1878 at Paris, and in 
1880 it will meet at Diisseldorf. Each meeting lasts from 
two to four days, which are spent partly in reading and dis- 
cussing 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 con- 
