Carl William Siemens

“ In telegraphy and in the new arts of applying electricity to lighting, to the transmission of power, and to metallurgical operations, problems arise at every turn, requiring for their solution not only an intimate acquaintance with, but a positive advance upon, electrical science, as established by purely theoretical research in the laboratory. In general engineering, the mere practical art of constructing a machine so designed and proportioned as to produce mechanically the desired effect would suffice no longer. ”

“ The advancement of the last fifty years has, I venture to submit, rendered theory and practice so interdependent, that an intimate union between them is a matter of absolute necessity for our future progress. 'Take, for instance, the art of dyeing, and we find that the discovery of new coloring matters derived from waste products, such as coal-tar, completely changes its practice, and renders an intimate knowledge of the science of chemistry a matter of absolute necessity to the practitioner. ”

“ A sad event casts a shadow over our gathering. While still mourning the irreparable loss science had sustained in the person of Charles Darwin, whose bold conceptions, patient labor, and genial mind made him almost a type of unsurpassed excellence, telegraphic news reached Cambridge, just a month ago, to the effect that our Honorary Secretary, Professor F. M. Balfour, had lost his life during an attempted ascent of the Aiguille Blanche de Penteret. Although only thirty years of age, few men have won distinction so rapidly and so deservedly. ”

“ If, then, electricity stands foremost among the exact sciences, it follows that its unit measures should be determined with the utmost accuracy. Yet, twenty years ago, very little advance had been made toward the adoption of a rational system. Ohm had, it is true, given us the fixed relations existing between electromotive force, resistance, and quantity of current; Joule had established the dynamical equivalent of heat and electricity; and Gauss and Weber had proposed their elaborate system of absolute magnetic measurement. ”

“ These considerations may serve to show that although we see the men of both abstract and applied science group themselves in minor bodies for the better prosecution of special objects, the points of contact between the different branches of knowledge are ever multiplying, all tending to form part of a mighty tree—the tree of modern science—under whose ample shadow its cultivators will find it both profitable and pleasant to meet, at least once a year ”

“ If the facilities brought home to our doors of acquiring scientific information have increased, the necessities for scientific inquiry have increased in a greater ratio. The time was when science was cultivated only by the few, who looked upon its application to the arts and manufactures as almost beneath their consideration; this they were content to leave in the hands of others, who, with only commercial aims in view, did not aspire to further the objects of science for its own sake, but thought only of benefiting by its teachings. ”

“ The largest and most extensive application of electric energy at the present time is to lighting, but, considering how much has of late been said and written for and against this new illuminant, I shall here confine myself to a few general remarks. Joule has shown that, if an electric current is passed through a conductor, the whole of the energy lost by the current is converted into heat; or, if the resistance be localized, into radiant energy comprising heat, light, and actinic rays. ”

“ The transmission of power by means of electric conductors possesses the further advantage over other means of transmission that, provided the resistance of the rails be not very great, the power communicated to the locomotive reaches its maximum when the motion is at its minimum—that is, in commencing to work, or when encountering an exceptional resistance—whereas the utmost economy is produced in the normal condition of working when the velocity of the power-absorbing nearly equals that of the current-producing machine. ”

“ It is such men that Archimedes must have desired when he refused to teach his disciples the art of constructing his powerful ballistic engines, exhorting them to give their attention to the principles involved in their construction, and that Telford, the founder of the Institution of Civil Engineers, must have had in his mind's eye when he defined civil engineering as "the art of directing the great sources of power in nature." ”

“ Before many years have elapsed we shall find in our factories and on board our ships engines with a fuel-consumption not exceeding one pound of coal per effective horse-power per hour, in which the gas producer takes the place of the somewhat complex and dangerous steam boiler. The advent of such an engine and of the dynamo-machine must mark a new era of material progress at least equal to that produced by the introduction of steam-power in the early part of our century. ”

“ Assuming the cost of electric light to be practically the same as gas, the preference for one or other will in each application be decided upon grounds of relative convenience, but I venture to think that gas-lighting will hold its own as the poor man's friend. ”

“ To agriculture, electric transmission of power seems well adapted for effecting the various operations of the farm and fields from one center. Having worked such a system myself in combination with electric lighting and horticulture for upward of two years, I can speak with confidence of its economy, and of the facility with which the work is accomplished in charge of untrained persons. ”

“ In the production of mechanical effect from heat, gaseous fuel also presents most striking advantages, as will appear from the following consideration. When we have to deal with the question of converting mechanical into electrical effect, or vice versa, by means of the dynamo-electrical machine, we have only to consider what are the equivalent values of the two forms of energy, and what precautions are necessary to avoid losses by the electrical resistance of conductors and by friction. ”

“ Progress could not be rapid under this condition of things, because the man of pure science rarely pursued his inquiry beyond the mere enunciation of a physical or chemical principle, while the simple practitioner was at a loss how to harmonize the new knowledge with the stock of information which formed his mental capital in trade. ”

“ Few men could have borne without hurt such a stream of honorable distinctions, but in young Balfour genius and independence of thought were happily blended with industry and personal modesty; these won for him the friendship, esteem, and admiration of all who knew him. ”

“ The greater efficiency of gas as a fuel results chiefly from the circumstance that a pound of gas yields in combustion twenty-two thousand heat-units, or exactly double the heat produced in the combustion of a pound of ordinary coal. This extra heating power is due partly to the freedom of the gas from earthy constituents, but chiefly to the heat imparted to it in effecting its distillation. ”

“ Adding to these the losses by friction and radiation in the engine, we find that the best steam-engine yet constructed does not yield in mechanical effect more than one seventh part of the heat-energy residing in the fuel consumed. In the gas engine we have also to make reductions from the theoretical efficiency, on account of the rather serious loss of heat by absorption into the working cylinder, which has to be cooled artificially in order to keep its temperature down to a point at which lubrication is possible ”

“ Thus friction in the working parts of a machine represents a loss of mechanical effect, but is a gain of heat, and in like manner the loss sustained in transferring electrical energy from one point to another is accounted for by heat generated in the conductor. It sometimes suits our purpose to augment the transformation of electrical into heat energy at certain points of the circuit when the heat-rays become visible, and we have the incandescent electric light. ”

“ It can no longer be a matter of reasonable doubt, therefore, that electric lighting will take its place as a public illuminant, and that, even though its cost should be found greater than that of gas, it will be preferred for the lighting of drawing-rooms and dining-rooms, theatres and concert-rooms, museums, churches, warehouses, show-rooms, printing establishments, and factories, and also the cabins and engine rooms of passenger-steamers. ”

“ The gas being supplied by meter, it has been seemingly to the advantage of the companies to give merely the prescribed illuminating power, and to discourage the invention of economical burners, in order that the consumption might reach a maximum. The application of gas for heating purposes has not been encouraged, and is still made difficult, in consequence of the objectionable practice of reducing the pressure in the mains during day-time to the lowest possible point consistent with prevention of atmospheric indraught. ”

“ The tensile strength of steel, as is well known, is the result of an admixture of carbon with the iron, varying between one tenth and two per cent, and the nature of this combination of carbon with iron is a matter of great interest both from a theoretical and practical point of view. ”

“ Our increased knowledge of the nature of the mutual relations between the different forms of energy makes us see clearly what are the theoretical limits of effect; these, although beyond our absolute reach, may be looked upon as the asymptotes to be approached indefinitely by the hyperbolic course oft practical progress, of which we should never lose sight. ”

“ The amount of light given out by a gas-flame depends upon the temperature to which the particles of solid carbon in the flame are raised, and Dr. Tyndall has shown that, of the radiant energy set up in such a flame, only the 125 part is luminous; the hot products of combustion carry off at least four times as much energy as is radiated, so that not more than one hundredth part of the heat evolved in combustion is converted into light. ”

“ We shall thus find that, in the great workshop of Nature, there are no lines of demarkation to be drawn between the most exalted speculation and commonplace practice, and that all knowledge must lead up to one great result, that of an intelligent recognition of the Creator through his works. ”

“ In effecting a complete severance of the conductor for a short distance, after the current has been established, a very great local resistance is occasioned, giving rise to the electric arc, the highest development of heat ever attained. Vibration is another form of lost energy in mechanism, but who would call it a loss if it proceeded from the violin of a Joachim or a Norman-Neruda?
Electricity is the form of energy best suited for transmitting an effect from one place to another ”

“ The advantages of the electric light and of the distribution of power by electricity have lately been recognized by the British Government, who have just passed a bill through Parliament to facilitate the establishment of electrical conductors in towns, subject to certain regulating clauses to protect the interests of the public and of local authorities. ”

“ Electric energy may also be employed for heating purposes, but in this case it would obviously be impossible for it to compete in point of economy with the direct combustion of fuel for the attainment of ordinary degrees of heat. ”

“ Weber has shown how, in electromagnetic theory, the resistance, or the reciprocal of the conducting power of a conductor, is properly measured by a velocity. The critical velocity, which measures the conducting power in electrostatic reckoning and the resistance in electromagnetic, of one and the same conductor, measures the number of electrostatic units in the electromagnetic unit of electric quantity. ”

“ In using raw coal for heating purposes these valuable products are not only absolutely lost to us, but in their stead we are favored with those semi-gaseous by-products in the atmosphere too well known to the denizens of London and other large towns as smoke. Professor Roberts has calculated that the soot in the pall hanging over London on a winter's clay amounts to fifty tons, and that the carbonic oxide, a poisonous compound, resulting from the imperfect combustion of coal, may be taken as at least five times that amount. ”

“ The electric railway possesses great advantages over horse or steam power for towns, in tunnels, and in all cases where natural sources of energy, such as water-falls, are available; but it would not be reasonable to suppose that it will in its present condition compete with steam propulsion upon ordinary railways. ”