Abstract
II. AFTER the Congress one of the most remarkable events during the present year has undoubtedly been the Electrical Exhibition in Paris. I do not of course purpose to describe it, as many of our Fellows visited it; and full descriptions have reached us through various channels. One point, however, must have struck those who examined any considerable number of the objects; and this I mention, not as in any way disparaging them, but rather as illustrating the stage to which electrical science has attained; namely, that while the assemblage of in struments and appliances was in every way remarkable, and while very great ingenuity and skill had been expended on their contrivance and construction, yet the amount of novelty in the principles involved was comparatively small. Of new combinations, improved methods, and adaptations in detail there was abundance. Some of them even removed former inventions from the category of curiosities to that of instruments for practical employment; or enlarged their sphere of utility from that of the laboratory to that of every-day use. But such is the mass of fruitful matter which science has furnished to the mechanician and constructor, that we might almost wish, from the point of view of the latter, that they may have time to work out more fully than has yet been done, the results of science, before they are called upon to elaborate any fresh materials.
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The Royal Society—Address of the President . Nature 25, 138–142 (1881). https://doi.org/10.1038/025138a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/025138a0