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258 ADDRESS by the PRESIDENT, GENTLEPEN,-The Institution 258 JULY 1537. ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT, E. WINDSOR RICHARDS, EBQ. GENTLEPEN,-The Institution of MechanicaI Engineers, which in 18-17’ commenced in this city its life of usefulness, today revisits its birtliplace to celebrate the Fiftieth year of its existence. Our first duty is to give expression to our high appreciation and grateful acknowledgrncnts of the immense influence for good that has been exercised by Her Most Gracious Majesty, the Queen-Empress, throughout the sixty years of her glorious and beneficent reign, during which our Institution has so greatly prospered. On behalf of the Members the following address has been presented to Her Majesty :- To Her Most Gracious Majesty THEQUEEN. Nay it please Your Majesty, We, the President and Council of The Institution of Mechanical Engineers, on behalf of ourselves and the Members gencrally of this Institution, humbly approach your Majesty to offer the assurance of our loyal and hearty congratulations upon the attainment of the Sixtieth year of your Majesty’s reign. We are deeply sensible of the wise and beneficent sway which your Majesty has throughout exercised over your Empire, and of the great advances consequently realised in Art and Science, particularly in Nechanical Engineering, to which this Institution, having been established ten years after your Majesty’s accession to the Throne, has now been devoted for half a century. We earnestly pray that your Majesty may still be spared to reign over a faithful and affectionate people. In token whereof the Seal of the Institution has becn here impressed, this 17th day of June 1897. E. WINDSOBRICHARDS, President. Downloaded from pme.sagepub.com at UNIV OF CINCINNATI on June 5, 2016 GEORGE STEPHENSON. 0 JUNE 1781-12 AUGUST1848. First Presitdsikt, 1847-48. Fckcximile of Sigiacitire to Mirkute8 of General ilnleeting, 27 October 1847. Downloaded from pme.sagepub.com at UNIV OF CINCINNATI on June 5, 2016 JULY 189;. PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 259 The following reply was received from the Home Secretary, the Right Honourable Sir Matthew White Eidley, Bart., N.P. :- Whitehall, 26 June 1897. T have had the honour to lay before the Queen the loyal and dutiful Address of The Institution of Mechanical Engineers on the occasion of Her Majesty attaining the Sixtieth year of her reign ; and I have to inform you that Her Majesty was pleased to receive the same very graciously. It may be useful, before referring to other matters, to recall to the Members the original objects of those who initiated our Institution, which were the following :- To promote the science and practice of Mechanical Engineering and all branches of mechanical construction, and to give an impulse to inventions likely to be useful to the members of the Institution and to the community at large ; and also to enable Mechanical Engineers to meet and to correspond, and to facilitate the interchange of ideas respecting improvements in the various branches of mechanical science, and the publication and communication of information upon such subjects. Have we attained the objects for which the Institution was formed ? To answer this vital question it will be necessary for me to review rapidly for your consideration some of the work done by the Institution during the times of tho several Presidents, and to give some brief notes on the origin and history of the Institution. 27 January 1847.-On Wednesday 27 January 1847 a general meeting was held at the Queen’s Hotel, Birmingham, for the purpose of forming the Institution. Mr. McConnell, of Wolverton, occupying the chair, read B list of gentlemen who had sent answers to a circular inviting their co-operation and their consent to become Members of tho Institution. On his proposal, seconded by Mr. Buckle, it was resolved ‘‘ That the Institution be established, and composed of the gentlemen whose names he had announced.” Downloaded from pme.sagepub.com at UNIV OF CINCINNATI on June 5, 2016 260 PRESIDENT'S ADDRE6S. JULY1837. Mr. Slate having read the Rules of the Institution, which had been prepared by a committee, their adoption was carried, on the motion of Mr. George Stephenson, seconded by Mr. Beyer. Mr. McConnell moved the election of George Stephenson, as President of the Institution; and the nomination, having becn seconded by Mr. Cowper, was carried with acclamation. On taking tho chair, the President gave an interesting account of his early days at Killingworth Colliery, where he began his career. On the motion of Mr. John Henderson, Smethwick, seconded by Mr. Richard Peacock, the following wero appointed to be the Vice-Presidents of the Institution :- JOSEPHMILLER, . London. CHARLESF. BEYER,. Manchester. JAMESE. MCCONNELL, . Wolvcrton. On the motion of Mr. Peter Rothwell Jackson, seconded by Nr. James Ward Hoby, the following were appointed to be the Council of the Institution :- EDWARDHUMPHRYS, . London. BENJAMINFOTHERGILL, . Manchester. JOSEPHRADBORD, . Manchester. WILLIAMBUCKLE, . Soho. EDWARDA. COWPER, . Smethwick. On the motion of Mr. Beycr, seconded by Mr. Henry Chapman, it was resolved that Mr. Slate be Secretary and Mr. Maher acting secretary to the Institution. Of the original Members who joined in constituting the Institution on 27 January 1847 the following two alone survive :- Mr. Peter Rothwell Jackson, and Mr. Richard Williams. 28 April 1847.-It was at the next meeting, held at the Queen'a Hotel on Wednesday 28 April 1847, that the real work of the Institution was commenced by the reading and discussion of Papers, after the announcement of a donation of $100 from the President, and the reading of a concise list of subjects for papers, which even after Downloaded from pme.sagepub.com at UNIV OF CINCINNATI on June 5, 2016 JULY i8U7. PRESSDENT’S ADDRESS. 261 the lapse of half a century still retains its interest and suggestiveness. It ran as follows :-(1) the best form of railway axles and wheels ; (2) the best description of engine and mill for manufacturing iron ; (3) the best form of Barker mill or turbine; (4) the best form of luggage engine for narrow gauge; (5) the most economical stationary steam-engine with coal at 6s., 12s., and 24s. per ton, taken in a commercial point of view; (6) the best form of air-pump valves; (7) the best high-pressure marine boiler- ’8) the best description of pumping engine for the thick-coal district of Staffordshire; (9) the flow of water through straight mains and curves. 17 May 1847.-The first paper published in the Proceedings, on experiments relative to the fan blast, by Mr. William Buckle, was read at a meeting at the Queen’s Hotel on Nonday 17 May 1847 ; and was followed by another upon the same subject by Mr. Edward Jones, of Bridgwater Foundry, Bridgwater. 27 October 1847.-The next meeting, held in the rooms of the Institution in Temple Buildings, New Street, Birmingham, on Wednesday 27 October 1847, is notable for the reading and discussion of three communications from the President, Nr. George Stephenson, who occupied the chair. The first was a description of a safety break invented by himself for railway carriages, of which he exhibited a model and drawing. The second was on the practicability of effecting a mechanical communication between the guards and engine-drivers of railway trains, The third paper from the President waa on a steam indicator for marine and other boilers, invented by Mr. Sjdney Smith, of Nottingham. Mr. Kintres was appointed Secretary in 1847 ; but he resigned in October 1848, when Mr. W. P. Marshall was appointed Secretary, and remained in that position for twenty-nine years. 1848.-During 1848 and 1849 the meetings of the Institution were held in the PhilosophicalInstitution,Cannon Street,Birmingham; and it was there that the President occupied the chair for the last Downloaded from pme.sagepub.com at UNIV OF CINCINNATI on June 5, 2016 262 PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. JULY 1897. time on Wednesday 26 July 1848, when his paper on the fallacies of the rotary engine was read and discussed. His death took place only seventeen days later, on 12 August 1848, at his residence, Tapton House, near Chesterfield, at the age of sixty-seven ; and a notice of his life and character, prepared for the Council by Scott Russell, was read from the chair at the following meeting on 25 October 1848. 1850.-In 1850 a house was taken in Newhall Street, where for fourteen years afterwards the meetings were mostly held. At the first meeting held there, on 24 July 1850, the President, Mr. Robert Stephenson, M.P., was prevented from attending, in consequence of being engaged at the floating of the last tube of the Britannia Bridge. Mr. W. P. Marshall informs me that at this first period of the Institution it was very uphill work to maintain its existence ; but thanks to the energetic support of the active members, including Beger, Cochrane, Cowper, Fenton, Lloyd, May, McConnell, Ramsbottom, and Slate, none of whom are now left, steady though slow progress was made for a considerable time, and the Institution advanced every year. After 1864 the meetings were held in the Midland Institute, until the removal of the Institution head-quarters to London in 1877. 1856.-The proposal of holding the Summer Meeting of the Institution in the leading centres of engineering throughout the kingdom originated in 1856 with Mr. James Fenton, who was consulting engineer to the Low Moor Iron Co. from 1851 to 1863, and was at that time a member of the Council; and through his energetic exertions the proposal was realised in September of the same year, by a meeting held for the first time in Glasgow, under the presidency of Mr. Joseph Whitworth. As one result of this new step, the number of Members in the Institution, which for the seven preceding years had remained at almost a dead level of just over two hundred, now began at once to increase at a rate of growth which has since continued to progress steadily up to the present date, 8s shown by the annexed table and plotted in the diagrams, Plates 46 and 47.
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