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JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF ARTS,

AND OF THE

INSTITUTIONS IN UNION.

VOLUME V.

FROM NOVEMBER 21, 1856, TO NOVEMBER 13, 1857.

LONDON:

PUBLISHED FOR THE SOCIETY BY GEORGE BELL, 186, FLEET STREET.

1857,

LONDON:

PRINTED BY W. TROUNCE, CURSITOR STREET, CHANCERY LANE,

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accommodation and comfort of our members. It

Journal of the Society of Arts. will, no doubt, be in the recollection of very many

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nesday, the 19th inst., Col. W. H. Sykes, F.R.S.,

Chairman of the Council, in the Chair.

The following Candidates were balloted for, and duly elected :

Benham, Frederick.
Benham, John Lee.
Dudgeon, Patrick.

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Hill, Rev. James, B.D.

Masterman, Wm. Stanley.

Shaw, Bentley.

The following Institution has been taken into Union since the last announcement:423. Black Dike Mills, Literary and Scientific Institution. Colonel W. H. SYKES, F.R.S., as Chairman of the Council, delivered the following

ADDRESS.

members, that when it was necessary, ten years ago, to redecorate the Great Room, in which we are assembled, it was necessary to invite special subscriptions, and borrow on debenture £1,000, for the purposes of the Society. We have reason to congratulate ourselves on the contrast which our present position exhibits. It has not now been necessary to ask for subscriptions, or to borrow money for the costly work of redecoration for these objects, but the promise of the Council and repairs. Our means have not only sufficed in their last report has been fulfilled, and £500 of the debenture debt paid off. Increased

accommodation will be afforded. By re-arrangement the Council propose to devote to the members three apartments on the ground-floor as reading and reception rooms and library. The treasures of the library, which have hitherto been less prominently before the Society, and have been less available than they deserved, as the volumes mostly contain records of important facts, will have such a disposition as to invite members to their profitable use. The inconveniences of last year, arising from defective lightI find that the Bye-laws of the Society of ing and ventilation, it is to be hoped are now Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce demand from obviated, and it will be patent to the members the Chairman of the Council of the Society an that the necessity for an improvement in the apaddress upon the opening of the new session; and pearance of the Great Meeting Room has not in execution of the duty required from me, I pro- escaped the attention of the Council. While on ceed cheerfully to attempt the task, regretting the subject of your present location and home, it only that it has not fallen upon some other mem- is right to invite the members to a prudent foreber, whose knowledge and experience in the thought of their whereabouts hereafter. The working and objects of the Society would have Society of Arts and its domicile, which have bemade it more advantageous to the interests of the come venerable together by near a century of assoSociety, and certainly more acceptable to its ciation, are threatened with a rude disseverance inaugural meeting. My duty, I believe, is less by the termination of their legal tie to each to give a retrospect of the work of the past year, other; in short, in ten years the Society's lease than a foreshadowing, as it were, of our proposed expires, and, considering the magnitude of the operations and aspirations for the forthcoming Society, the magnitude of its association, the session. Properly it is the duty of the Council scale of its exhibitions, and its past, and, it is to in its Annual Report to review our byegone be hoped, increasing reputation, its domus or labours; nevertheless, the example of my prede- home should be in keeping not only with its cessors in this chair will justify me, in case I find present dignified position, but with its anticipated it desirable, momentarily to recall your attention future development. Considering that that marto any subject already disposed of. And first, vel of our times, the Great Exhibition of the with respect to that which is of immediate in- Industry of all Nations, had its germ in the terest to ourselves, in relation to the improved working of this Society, and that its successful

ples the inventive faculties of others, would be to trifle unjustifiably with your time and attention; and, by an advocacy or an argument, would im

results were chiefly owing to the personal interest taken in the Exhibition by our President, Prince Albert, and by the aid and advice of the Council and leading members of the Society-consider-ply a doubt, which can have no existence in the ing, I say, these facts, it appears to me that it would only have been in harmony with the common objects of the Exhibition and of the Society, that the Exhibition, from its accumulated wealth, should have testified to a grateful sense of its parentage by an assignment or contribution of funds for the erection of a domicile suitable to the Society's wants, upon the frieze of which the Prince would probably have desired to see in

scribed

Esto perpetua.

Such reasonable anticipations not having been realised, it is a matter for grave thought with the members of the Society to devise such means and take such early precautions as shall secure to the Society, when the period for the vacation of the present house arrives, a larger and better abode, and whose internal accommodation shall be better suited than the present to the wants of the Society, involved in which, it must be borne in mind, is space for the exhibition, and, indeed, permanent display, of specimens of the most recent improvements in the several departments of manufacturing industry, many of which prove their worth and practical usefulness by winning the Society's medals and prizes; but with the Society's present accommodation, the labours for the accumulation of objects are scarcely completed, than the pressure for the admission of the inventions of newer candidates for popular favour compels substitutions which destroy or disarrange the instructive sequence of the whole. A larger building than the present, with more accommodation, is, therefore, evidently necessary, and as houses already built are little likely to be adapted to the necessities of the Society, it might be right for the Society to inquire whether, in the vast area which the Government is about to clear in Westminster, a site might not be obtained from the Government upon which a building could be erected for the Society, to harmonise in architectural character with the blocks of buildings which it is understood the Government is about to erect. I have dwelt at some length upon this subject, for it is one, be assured, involving the future interests of the Society.

mind of any one I have the honour to address. Assuredly great caution should be exercised in the adjudication of distinctions which give to the selected the advantages of public confidence and respect, to the possible detriment and damage of confiding individuals, and certainly to the discredit of the Society, in case the medals and prizes were adjudged upon insufficient ground, and more particularly in case the inventions themselves were destitute of a palpable practical character. I have every reason to believe, that the adjudications of the Society have been at all times regulated by the intrinsic merit of the inventions and the importance of their application, and to have been equally free from favour or affection.

To show the important nature of the inventions and subjects which have been under the review of the Society, is beyond my purpose, and it will suffice to enumerate those of the present year :— Silver Medals.-To Messrs. J. Kenyon Blackwell, Hum

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phrey Chamberlain, John Bailey Denton, William Felkin, Chandos Wren Hoskyns, for their Papers read at the Society's evening meetings. Silver Medal.-To Professor Clark, M.D., for his "Application of Lime to the Softening and Purifying of Water for the Supply of Towns." Silver Medal.-To Herr Paul Pretsch, for his " plication of Photography and the Electrotype to the Production of Engraved Copper Plates for Printing." Silver Medal.-To Mr. James King, for the "Importation of Wine, the Growth of Vineyards in New South Wales."

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Special Prizes, of a Gold Medal.-To Mr. Charles Wye

Williams, for his Essay "On the Smoke Nuisance;" And of a Silver Medal.-To Mr. Charles Hood, F.R.S., for his Essay on the same subject.

But a special prize amongst the members demands a special notice. The Society's gold medal was adjudged to Mr. Charles Wye Williams, for his essay "On the Smoke Nuisance;" a nuisance which has been suffered so long to exist, equally to the discredit of the government and the people, since it has been known for years that it was remediable; a nuisance, also, which will not be wholly abolished, even with the aid of the recent Act of Parliament applicable to that object, unless vigilant attention be paid by the public of London to the constantly recurring inIn proximate association with this subject of fractions of the law; or the quiet and recurthe House, is the immediate and pleasing duty ring neglect of the personal labours necessary to which will devolve upon me, at the termination of secure the efficient working of the smoke conthe address, of distributing the medals and prizes suming furnaces. Every man who sees the adjudged by the Society during the last year. chimney of a manufactory in London vomiting To offer any remarks upon the policy or public forth a cloud of unconsumed carbon, should, advantage of a usage which has characterised the from a sense of duty to his fellow-citizens, unSociety from early times, and in which many hesitatingly act the "informer," and denounce thousands of pounds have been spent to reward the offending chimney, with the satisfactory conthe inventive faculties of praiseworthy and en-viction that he is doing a public good. viable individuals, and to stimulate by such exam- deed it might be matter for consideration whether

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systematic attempts might not be made to induce | carried through, it is to be hoped, to a successful private families to adopt Dr. Arnott's smokeless result. fire grates, which it is understood is not only efficient but economical; it would save us from the alarms and dangers of "chimney a fire," and the gradual and certain destruction of our costly furniture and gilded decorations.

Continuing the subject of labour within our own walls, it may be as well to mention at this stage of my address, and before I proceed to external operations, that the Council has anxiously sought to provide profitable pabulum for the evening meetings of the Society during the ensuing session, and they are glad to announce that their valuable coadjutor Dr. Royle, has proposed a paper upon Indian fibres for cordage, clothing, and paper making material. Mr. Binks is good enough to contribute a paper on some new methods of dealing with linseed and other oils, in relation to their drying properties, for paints and varnishes; and he has promised another paper, at an early period after Christmas, upon some hitherto unrecognised phenomena occuring in the manufacture of steel and malleable iron, in which Bessemer's and the new Austrian steel process will come in for consideration and discussion. Mr. Fothergill Cooke is prepared to describe the Leicester Sewage works; and Professor Owen will favour us with one of his valuable and instructive contributions, the subject of which is the "Ivory and Teeth of Commerce."

The present state of the Patent Law also has engaged the attention of the Council, and will continue to do so during the ensuing session. The subject is an intricate one, and considerable diversity of opinion appears to prevail upon its policy and bearing; but there is a community of opinion that in its present state the Practice and Procedure of the Patent Law requires amendment.

Judging from the reply of the present Lord Chancellor, given to Lord Harrowby, as representing the Committee of the British Association, there is no indisposition whatever on his part, as the Chief Commissioner of Patents, to adopt any well considered plans for amendment which may be urged upon him.

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I would invite the attention of the Society to the remarkable fact that in this age, fertile in inventions and inquiry, the Council have deemed it right to publish a list of prizes for desiderata in improvements in inventions already existing, or for new inventions, or matters which our daily increasing wants call for. This list comprises no less than 216 subjects, and many of them are of the highest importance to almost every class engaged in manufactures, science, or commerce. If two or three of them are mentioned as typical of the whole, the practical good sense which dictated their selection, and the earnest desire of the Society to render their labours useful to the public, will, I trust, be manifest. For instance, a prize for the "Best methods of distilling coal or bituminous substances, and utilizing the residuum." For" The best means of preventing salt effloresence in walls." For The best method of economically deodorizing sewage and other waters, or of precipitating or otherwise extracting the matter held by them in suspension." For An Essay on the management and maintenance of public roads, with special reference to their altered position since the introduction of railways." For An Essay on the various branches of industry which are known to be unhealthy, pointing out the causes of their injurious effects, with suggestions for prevention or relief." For " The discovery of any simple and efficient apparatus for detecting and registering impure states of the The Society during the last year gave its at- atmosphere, either in mines or in overcrowded and tention to the present severe pressure upon Lite-ill-ventilated buildings." For " A means suitable rary and Scientific Institutions, by rates and for office use of writing, copying, or producing taxes; and, through the medium of its parlia- a single or several copies of a document at one mentary friends, caused a bill to be introduced time by electricity or otherwise." For "An Essay for the relief of Institutions. Although to some on the various concretes, cements, hydraulic morextent at first opposed by the government, the bill passed through some stages, but the session wore on, and the unusually early prorogation of Parliament left no time for its passing through the House of Lords; it was therefore dropped, but it will be re-introduced early next session, and

These arrangements provide for the meetings of the Society up to Christmas; after which period hopes are entertained that the resources of our numerous Colonies may be illustrated. Mr. Temple, the Chief Justice of Honduras, has undertaken to favour us with a paper upon Honduras. It is reasonable to expect that the overtures which we have already made to form a Union of Colonial Institutions, in which we have been successful to the extent of ten Institions, similar to our Home Unions, will insure us a cordial sympathy and aid from our associates abroad, which, we trust, we shall be enabled to reciprocate in a way to strengthen their interests and to invigorate their usefulness. It is unnecessary to enumerate here the terms and objects of these unions, as they are recorded at page 568, in the Journal of the Society.

tars, and lutings for pipes, tanks, &c." Need I furnish further illustrations of the utilitarian spirit and benevolent views with which the subjects for the prizes are selected.

Commercial International Law, Tribunals of Commerce, Chambers of Commerce, Manufac

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