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OOMPLIMBW TS of the A UTHOF 
A RAHBLE IN THE 
COUNTRY 
Read to the Victoria Institute and Field 
Naturalists’ Club , 27th March, iQO~, 
By Mr. R. J. Lbchmere Guppy. 
As on account of the instability of my 
health I am shortly leaving the island and 
my absence will be of uncertain duration. Iam 
offering you this lecture as a sort of leave 
taking. I have chosen the title in order to 
admit of my lecture being of a very discur 
sive character aird decidedly untechnical. 
It permits me, in fact, to talk to you in a 
conversational manner and upon any sub¬ 
ject which may be suggested by the objects 
we encounter in our ramble. Leaving home 
by the tramcar our attention is called to the 
advantages of electricity as a means of trac¬ 
tion. Yet though part of the noise and dirt 
accompanying steam or animal traction 
is avoided it is not altogether abolished but 
merely lemoved to another place. Up to the 
present time we still have to use the waste¬ 
ful processes of the steam engine in order 
to obtain from coal or other fuel the energy 
stored therein. Could we easily obtain the 
whole energy stored in the fuel the woiking of 
machinery could lie conduc ted very much more 
economically than at present, but hitherto 
all attempts to do this have been failures 
Whether success in this direction will ever 
be achieved it is beyond me to say, but 1 see 
no rear,son why it should not be so. At 
present tibe steam engine is used for the con¬ 
version of heat derived from the combustion 
of mineral fuel into electricity. The most 
improved forms u>f steam engine utilize less 
than half the energ-.v stored in coal while the 
more wasteful forims, such as the locomo 
tive, scarcely use 'bnc-tenth of that power. 
Both heat and electricity are forms of force 
and energy convertible one into another. 
Force is never exhibited except in 
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