In addition to the modes of transmission I have already mentioned,
there is the transmission of power by means of gas. I think that there
is a very large future indeed for gas engines. I do not know whether
this may be the place to state it, but I believe the way in which we
shall utilize our fuel hereafter will, in all probability, not be by
the way of the steam-engine. Sir William Armstrong alluded to this
probability in his address, and I entirely agree, if he will allow me
to say so, that such a change in the production of power from fuel
appears to be impending, if not in the immediate future, at all events
in a time not very far remote; and however much the Mechanical Section
of the British Association may to-day contemplate with regret, even
the mere distant prospect of the steam-engine being a thing of the
past, I very much doubt whether those who meet here fifty years hence
will then speak of it as anything more than a curiosity to be found in
a museum. With respect to the transmission of power electrically, I
won't venture to touch upon that; but will content myself by reminding
you that while Sir William Armstrong did say that there were
comparatively small streams which could be utilized, he did not inform
you of that which he himself had done in this direction; let me say
that Sir William Armstrong thus utilized a fall of water, situated
about a mile from his house, to work a turbine, which drives a dynamo
machine, generating electricity, for the illumination of the house.
When I was last at Crag Side, that illumination was being effected by
the arc light, but since then, as Sir William Armstrong has been good
enough to write to me, he has replaced the arc light by the
incandescent lamp (a form of electrical lighting far more applicable
than the arc light to domestic purposes), and with the greatest
possible success. Thus, in Sir William Armstrong's own case, a small
stream is made to afford light in a dwelling a mile away. Certainly
nothing could have seemed more improbable fifty years ago than that
the light of a house should be derived from a fall of water without
the employment of any kind or description of fuel.