difference, because it is only the relative time of contact which ■counts. If the vibrations are twice as fast, there will be twice as many contacts. The only thing counting is the relative time of contact.

The President :—I see a distinguished honorary member here. I would like to ask Mr. Preece to take a seat on the platform.

Gentlemen, you see there was wisdom in my having Mr. Moore's paper come in the beginning, for I felt quite sure that it would cause considerable discussion, which it has done and I wanted to ensure full time for such discussion.

I will now give you a brief inaugural on the International Electrical Congress and World's Fair of 1893.

ninth Meeting of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, New Yorky September

20, /SQj.

TILE INTERNATIONAL ELECTRICAL CONGRESS

AND

WORLD'S FAIR, OF 1893.

BY EDWIN J. HOUSTON.

Gentlemen:—During the past few months a mighty human stream, daily increasing in volume, has continually flowed towards a single centre of population in the North American continent. This stream, fed from all parts of the earth, is formed by the many millions who are journeying toward the World's Fair, to do honor to those four hundred years' growth of the greatest Republic the world has ever seen.

Many of us have but recently left this mighty stream. Like others we visited Chicago to become eye-witnesses of the nation's growth. But not for this alone; perhaps the principal incentive to most of us has been a desire to take part in the International Electrical Congress of 1893, not only because we are especially interested in the progress of electrical science, but also because we are members of the American Institute Of Electrical Engineers, with whom the first conception of this Electrical Congress originated.

It has occured to me that in a brief inaugural address to the Institute, I could not select a better topic than the International Electrical Congress and World's Fair of 1S93. I will, therefore, give you a few thoughts on this subject.

As in our journey we crossed the mighty continent, we saw on every side evidences of its vast mineral and agricultural wealth. As we passed through its populous cities and at last reached Chicago we wandered through its streets and examined with admiration the long rows of stately buildings. In all these things we rejoiced at the growth of a nation that has achieved so much in so short a time. But was it not in that extra-mural, younger, but potentially greater Chicago, yclep'd " The Great White City," that we were most impressed? Its grandly proportioned buildings that arose as if by magic would have rendered a distant journey profitable, as a mere architectural display But when we crossed their portals and examined the ricb exhibits, collected from all parts of the world, we rejoiced in these proofs both of the nation's and of the world's progress.

But the growth of the American Republic during the four hundred years that have passed since its discovery by the Genoese Navigator, marvellous as it has been, is less astonishing to us as electricians than the extraordinary development in that vigorous science, electricity, to which many of us have devoted the energies of our lives. Contrasting the World's Fair of Chicago, of 1893, which embraces exhibits in all departments of man's skill and industry, with the Philadelphia International Exhibition, of 1884, which, as you remember, was devoted wholly to electricity, I think you will agree with me that we have ample reason to rejoice at the progress made in the electrical field during the past nine years.

I have no sympathy with the unthinking critic who expresses disappointment with what he chooses to style the meagerness of the electrical display of the Chicago Exhibition. He probably estimates the value of an exhibit by the number of square feet of floor space it covers, rather than by its inherent possibilities. To my mind many exhibits whose actual demand for floor space are limited to less than one hundred square feet, would, were they estimated from the standpoint of their true value, demand more than the entire area of the exhibition grounds for their display.

Such critics fail to appreciate the fact that not in the Electricity Building alone, but throughout the entire exhibition as well, there is to be seen a grand display of the wonder working force of electricity. Almost countless arc and incandescent lights turn night into day, both in the buildings and over the extended areas outside them. Powerful search lights flash their bright beams far and wide beyond the gates of "The White City." Electric launches on the lagoons, and electric cars on the Intramural Railway show by actual practice the power electricity possesses in systems of transportation. Systems of telegraphic and telephonic communication vie with systems of time transmission, annunciator, fire, burglar and temperature alarms, both in Electricity Building and elsewhere, not only as exhibits pure and simple, but also in that shape which we, as practical men, so delight to see as representing the highest type of scientific achievement; viz., in every day practice.

I think no one will question the completeness of the electric motor exhibit. Both in Electricity Building and elsewhere, electric motors in many forms are to be seen performing work, varying in amount from that required to move the most delicate machinery, to that capable of driving a full size locomotive. Nor is the exhibit of dynamos incomplete. An excellent display is made in Electricity Building, while a fair proportion of the entire floor space of the Palace of Mechanic Arts is occupied by working dynamos, not so much as an exhibition, as a great central lighting station established for the illumination of the buildings and grounds.

Perhaps the most striking proof of the advance that has been made in electricity since the time of the International Electrical Exhibition of 18S+ in Philadelphia, a period less than a single decade, is that many of the achievements of electricity have proved such boons to the world, and have so thoroughly come into every day use that they have ceased to be regarded as wonders. It therefore, no more enters into the minds of those who are operating electrical apparatus embodying such achievements, that they form proper objects for exhibition, than it would for them to exhibit any other universally good thing, such as sunshine, air or water.

Even we, who know better, are apt to follow the lead of the unreflecting and are often too ready to relegate some nine-days wonder of electricity to the domain of the common and prosaic. AVe speak through a conducting wire, and the world wonders that the potentiality of the intricate waves of articulate speech can be so transmitted. AVe examine the mechanism of the apparatus, understand its operation and promptly cease to wonder, since we see that such mechanism must be operative. AVe extend the distance through which we can thus carry on intelligible speech, until it reaches to over a thousand miles. Again a ninedays wonder, and the world freely gives its plaudits to the brainy men who have contributed to this success; but in a short time <>ven this achievement is tacitly relegated to the ordinary and the common, and it therefore ceases to be regarded as a thing worthy of special exhibition.

When, through the courtesy of the American Bell Telephone Company, 1 was permitted, as were doubtless many of you, to carry on an extended conversation between Chicago and New York, or even between Chicago and Boston, by the long-distance telephone, the apparatus must have seemed to you, as it did to me, a great achievement, and one which particularly accentuated the wonderful recent growth of electrical science.

But these inventions do not stand alone. There are many others. Take, for example, the telautograph, of Gray; the radiophone, of Bell; the Cuttriss syphon-recorder, of the Commercial Cable Company, the practical welding process of Elihu Thomson ; or consider some of the many brilliant discoveries which Tesla gave to the world but a few years ago, but which are even now almost regarded as old; or consider some of the possibilities at which the same investigator hinted in his recent lecture in Chicago on mechanical and electrical oscillators; or look at the almost innumerable improvements in the details of apparatus, or of systems of distribution, little things in themselves, but such little things as determine the difference between success and failure; or consider the thousand and one other novelties with which yon are acquainted, and which doubtless called from you much admiration for the ability of their ingenious inventors.

But I will go no further in this direction. I will content myself to submit to your judgment, being sure of a favorable verdict, the correctness of the belief above expressed, that electrical science has made wonderful progress since 1884, and that such progress has not failed to receive proper and extended exhibition at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893.

The Chicago Exhibition still exists. It may yet be visited and compelled still further to yield its intellectual benefits.

But the Chicago International Electrical Congress of 1S93 has come and gone. That it has accomplished much lasting good, I think there can be no reasonable doubt. That it might have accomplished more under a more liberal leading there can, I think, be equally no doubt. But, taking all in all, I feci that the electrical fraternity throughout the world are to be sincerely congratulated on the results of its work.

I shall not speak of the excellent papers read before the differ