which law had been frequently construed, by Verdet (Theorie Mecanique de la Chaleur) and others, to mean that one-half was the maximum theoretical efficiency obtainable in electric transmission of power, and that one half of the current must be necessarily wasted or turned into heat. The lecturer could never be reconciled to a law necessitating such a waste of energy, and had maintained, without disputing the accuracy of Jacobi's law, that it had reference really to the condition of maximum work accomplished with a given machine, whereas its efficiency must be governed by the equation:

e / E = w / W = nearly 1

From this it followed that the maximum yield was obtained when two dynamo machines (of similar construction) rotated nearly at the same speed, but that under these conditions the amount of force transmitted was a minimum. Practically the best condition of working consisted in giving to the primary machine such proportions as to produce a current of the same magnitude, but of 50 per cent, greater electromotive force than the secondary; by adopting such an arrangement, as much as 50 per cent, of the power imparted to the primary could be practically received from the secondary machine at a distance of several miles. Professor Silvanus Thompson, in his recent Cantor Lectures, had shown an ingenious graphical method of proving these important fundamental laws.

The possibility of transmitting power electrically was so obvious that suggestions to that effect had been frequently made since the days of Volta, by Ritchie, Jacobi, Henry, Page, Hjorth, and others; but it was only in recent years that such transmission had been rendered practically feasible.

Just six years ago, when delivering his presidential address to the Iron and Steel Institute, the lecturer had ventured to suggest that "time will probably reveal to us effectual means of carrying power to great distances, but I cannot refrain from alluding to one which is, in my opinion, worthy of consideration, namely, the electrical conductor. Suppose water power to be employed to give motion to a dynamo-electrical machine, a very powerful electrical current will be the result, which may be carried to a great distance, through a large metallic conductor, and then be made to impart motion to electromagnetic engines, to ignite the carbon points of electric lamps, or to effect the separation of metals from their combinations. A copper rod 3 in. in diameter would be capable of transmitting 1,000 horse power a distance of say thirty miles, an amount sufficient to supply one-quarter of a million candle power, which would suffice to illuminate a moderately-sized town." This suggestion had been much criticised at the time, when it was still thought that electricity was incapable of being massed so as to deal with many horse power of effect, and the size of conductor he had proposed was also considered wholly inadequate.

It would be interesting to test this early calculation by recent experience. Mr. Marcel Deprez had, it was well known, lately succeeded in transmitting as much as three horse power to a distance of 40 kilometers (25 miles) through a pair of ordinary telegraph wires of 4 millimeters in diameter. The results so obtained had been carefully noted by Mr. Tresca, and had been communicated a fortnight ago to the French Academy of Sciences. Taking the relative conductivity of iron wire employed by Deprez, and the 3 in. rod proposed by the lecturer, the amount of power that could be transmitted through the latter would be about 4,000 horse power. But Deprez had employed a motor-dynamo of 2,000 volts, and was contented with a yield of 32 per cent. only of the energy imparted to the primary machine, whereas he had calculated at the time upon an electromotive force of 200 volts, and upon a return of at least 40 per cent. of the energy imparted. In March, 1878, when delivering one of the Science Lectures at Glasgow, he said that a 2 in. rod could be made to accomplish the object proposed, because he had by that time conceived the possibility of employing a current of at least 500 volts.

Sir William Thomson had at once accepted these views, and with the conceptive ingenuity peculiar to himself, had gone far beyond him, in showing before the Parliamentary Electric Light Committee of 1879, that through a copper wire of only ½ in. diameter, 21,000 horse power might be conveyed to a distance of 300 miles with a current of an intensity of 80,000 volts. The time might come when such a current could be dealt with, having a striking distance of about 12 ft. in air, but then, probably, a very practical law enunciated by Sir William Thomson would be infringed. This was to the effect that electricity was conveyed at the cheapest rate through a conductor, the cost of which was such that the annual interest upon the money expended equaled the annual expenditure for lost effect in the conductor in producing the power to be conveyed. It appeared that Mr. Deprez had not followed this law in making his recent installations.

Sir William Armstrong was probably first to take practical, advantage of these suggestions in lighting his house at Cragside during night time, and working his lathe and saw bench during the day, by power transmitted through a wire from a waterfall nearly a mile distant from his mansion. The lecturer had also accomplished the several objects of pumping water, cutting wood, hay, and swedes, of lighting his house, and of carrying on experiments in electro-horticulture from a common center of steam power. The results had been most satisfactory; the whole of the management had been in the hands of a gardener and of laborers, who were without previous knowledge of electricity, and the only repairs that had been found necessary were one renewal of the commutators and an occasional change of metallic contact brushes.

An interesting application of electric transmission to cranes, by Dr. Hopkinson, was shown in operation.