Address / by Sir William G. Armstrong, C.B., LL.D., F.R.S., &c.

  • Armstrong, William G., Sir.
Date:
[between 1860 and 1869?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Address / by Sir William G. Armstrong, C.B., LL.D., F.R.S., &c. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1/16
    ADDRESS A— nr SIR WILLIAM G. ARMSTRONG, C.B., LL.D., F.R.S., &c. Gentlemen of the British Association,—I esteem it the greatest honour of my life that I am called upon to assume the office of your President. In that capacity, and as representing your body, I may be allowed to advert to the gratifying reception which the British Association met with on their former visit to this region of mining and manufacturing industry, and, as a member of the community which you have again honoured with a visit, I undertake to convey to you the assurance of a renewed and hearty welcome. A quarter of a century has elapsed since the Association assembled in this town, and in no former period of equal duration has so great a progress been made in physical knowledge. In mechanical science, and especially in those branches of it which are concerned in the application of steam power to effect interchange between distant communities, the progress made since 1838 has no parallel in history. The railway system was then in its infancy, and the great problem of trans-Atlantic steam navigation had only received its complete solution in the preceding year. Since that time railways have extended to every continent, and steamships have covered the ocean. These reflections claim our attention on this occasion, because the locality in which we hold our present meeting is the birthplace of railways, and because the coal-mines of this district have contributed more largely than any others to supply the motive power by which steam communication by land and water has been established on so gigantic a scale. The history of railways shows what grand results may have their origin in small beginnings. When coal was first conveyed in this neighbourhood from the pit to the shipping-place on the Tyne, the pack-horse, carrying a burden of 3 cwt., was the only mode of transport employed. As soon as roads suitable for wheeled carriages were formed, carts were introduced, and this first step in mechanical appliance to facilitate transport had the effect of increasing the load which the horse was enabled to convey from 3 cwt. to 17 cwt. The next improvement consisted in laying wooden bars or rails for the wheels of the carts to run upon, and this was followed by the substitution of the four-wheeled wagon for the two-wheeled cart. By this further appli¬ cation of mechanical principles the original horscload of 3 cwt. was aug¬ mented to 42 cwt. These were important results, and they were not obtained without the shipwreck of the fortunes of at least one adventurous man whose ideas were in advance of the times in which he lived. AVe read, in a record published in the year 1649, that “ one Master Beaumont, a gentleman of great ingenuity and rare parts, adventured into the mines of Northumberland with his ,£30,000, and brought with him many rare engines not then known