dealing with the situation the results would have been exceedingly serious. But the nation was fortunate enough to have at its head a man who had enjoyed the advantages of a thorough legal training, and who had successively filled the offices of sheriff, mayor and governor, before being called to the presidency. Cleveland's wide experience, coupled with his natural aptitude, enabled him to grasp quickly and surely the details of the situation and to find and apply the remedy with unerring accuracy. Without infringing any State, municipal or individual rights, by a timely exercise of normal executive authority, in a single day he changed the whole aspect of affairs.

At the very time of these threatened disorders an exhibition of quaint mediæval armor was being held in Chicago. What a whimsical spectacle might have been afforded if the mob had seized upon these curious relics and trooped through the streets of the ultra-modern city by the lake, armed with helms and halberds and brandishing the lances and claymores of the olden time! In selecting the President of the Hudson-Fulton Celebration we have one who as lawyer, soldier, diplomat, district attorney, has many qualifications to render him eminently fit for the office. I refer to the next speaker, General Stewart L. Woodford.*

It is scarcely necessary, in conclusion, to call attention to the fact that our Society, which has always been active in efforts to preserve the beauties of Niagara, Watkins Glen and Letchworth Park, has not forgotten our glorious Hudson river, and that it was, thanks to the activity of the Society, guided by its founder and first president, Andrew H. Greene, that the Palisades were at least partially rescued from destruction.

Prof. Frederick R. Hutton's Address.

Prof. Frederick R. Hutton, President of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering, at Columbia University, spoke as follows:

It is my particular duty and privilege to speak upon the significance of Robert Fulton's achievement in 1807, as it appeals to the mechanical engineer.

* General Woodford spoke extemporaneously and was unable to furnish a copy of his remarks for publication.

I speak as the one honored this year with the Presidency of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and as one in whose sphere of study the Fulton triumph was an epoch-marking

event.

In the limited time at my disposal I shall make but two points: The first is that the mechanical engineer is the open and unblushing worshipper of what he calls Efficiency. It is the ratio or relation existing between what we put into a device or apparatus or machine as driving energy and what we get back from it as the result of its operation. Expressed as the mathematicians would do it is a fraction whose denominator is the effort or energy put in as 100 per cent., and whose numerator is the effective output delivered. When the machine delivers everything put into it, its efficiency is 100 per cent., or it is a perfect service. As the efficiency falls off from 100 we become less and less interested in it.

Every financier worships the same idea. His capital is the denominator; his profits are the numerator. The ratio, which is the interest on his capital, is the measure of the efficiency of that particular piece of business.

Now, it is because Fulton's efficiency with the Clermont was higher than that of Rumsey and Stevens and Fitch and Oliver Evans in America, and than that of Miller of Dalswinton and Symington and Hulls and Taylor of England, that we meet to honor him to-day. Ingenious and capable as Fitch and Evans were, they did not attain the practical success of Fulton. Indebted as Fulton may have been to ideas of Miller and Symington in England, he yet made by combination a vessel to "get there," and the others had not done so at that time.

It is but the history of the railway locomotive, where Stephenson triumphs because by combination of ideas he makes a practical

success.

It was so with Morse and the telegraph, although Joseph Henry sent signals over a wire before him.

If we ever succeed in our struggle for the mastery of the air it will not be Maxim or Santos-Dumont or Langley, each of whom has contributed effectively to our practical knowledge and volume of data. It will be he who commercially, practically and effectively solves the problem whose name we shall blazon.

My second point is a derivative of the first: That the measure of the effectiveness of a machine or an apparatus, or an event, is the magnitude of the result which it produces.

A steam hammer, for instance, when it comes forcibly down upon the forging below it, shaping it to new forms, cutting it like so much cheese or jelly, we call an effective tool.

The scientist tells us that when we drop a stone in a pool the waves radiating from the area of displacement go unerringly in every direction to lose themselves only on the further shores. When, therefore, on the great ocean we see a tidal wave sweeping irresistibly against every shore, we know that some volcanic or seismic disturbance of enormous magnitude has set these mighty consequences in motion. So the presence here to-night of representatives of important interests is the full confirmation of what it meant to slip the hull of the Clermont into the quiet waters of the Hudson. We can follow the wave in many directions:

1. The steam ferry-boat is of all types the one which follows most closely the mechanical impress of Fulton. Side-wheel driven and with an overhead beam for the engine.

2. The Still River Hudson, Ohio, Mississippi, Potomac, St. Lawrence: Here the growth in size of type, power and luxury is from the modest 133 by 18 up to the 380 by 43 of the Hendrik Hudson or the 410-420 by 50 of the evening service.

3. The Sound or land-surrounded sea-going type, exposed to ocean conditions for a short time or distance only: Here the growth is from 133 by 18 of the Clermont to the 440 by 52 of the Priscilla of the Fall River Line. In this same class are the Yale and Harvard in the turbine class from New York to Boston, although mechanically these belong to the class ahead in time of that on which Fulton made his impress. These are 386-foot boats.

4. Then come the classes of the Great Lake steamers and of the coastwise traffic and the transatlantic freighters exposed to ocean conditions and requiring both structure and propulsion adapted to their needs.

5. And the Ocean Greyhound or fast passenger service, culminating in our present day in the Lusitania and Mauretania, essentially of 700 feet in length.

6. And finally the application of steam power to the warship and military vessel of any class: a wave started certainly by Fulton first of all, whatever share others may have had in the idea of the commercial or pleasure vessel.

7. And the pleasure yacht class, although the first one was built by a successor of Fulton, but also a New Yorker, Mr. Chas. H. Haswell, who died only in May, 1907, in this city, yet had its first suggestion also from the Clermont and its achievement.

And in conclusion, what of the Future? Will the growth of the size of engines and of vessels of commerce, of warships and cruisers, dim the brightness of the glory we are ascribing to Fulton to-day? I think not, and for these reasons:

The conception of the boat hull was not original with Fulton: boats had been built for centuries. But by experiment and study he worked out some solutions of the problems of resistance and stability, and made a wise choice or selection of beam to length and of depth to beam.

The generator of power or the furnace and boiler were not original with Fulton. Smeaton, Newcomen, Savery and Watt had elaborated the boiler.

The steam engine was not originated by Fulton. He bought a Watt engine for a price; but the adaption of boiler and engine to its desired service and the selection of sizes were Fulton's.

The propelling apparatus of paddle-wheels was not original with Fulton. Evans and Fitch had the concept of paddles, and Bell and Symington of England; but Fulton adjusted the proportions and float areas to the engine and boiler and hull, and the result of his critical and selective effort was "success." Fulton and his friend Livingston were also men of affairs, and protected themselves by securing a State patent or monopoly for the proposed service for long enough to get back the capital investment which they sunk.

Now I submit that the oncoming of the turbine system of engines for propulsion in our day in no way reflects upon the greatness of Fulton's achievement in his. Nor the change which we shall also see from the steam-engine unit to the gasengine unit for marine work. On the contrary, the very scope and extent of the growth of the future to which we look forward

in circles ever wider and wider, mean only a greater and more distinguished significance for the achievement of 1807, and make for the fame and the greatness of him who conceived it and carried it through.

Address of Capt. George A. White.

Capt. George A. White, Assistant General Manager of the Hudson River Day Line, spoke as follows:

I am very glad to say from personal knowledge, after careful observation, that enthusiastic appreciation of the beauties of the Hudson is increasing year by year. I separate the idea of enthusiastic admiration from general run of traffic.

The love of out-of-door life is a constantly growing factor; the knowledge which is rapidly coming to our people that there is no river in the world more beautiful than the one at our doors is another prominent factor.

Other rivers may have their specialties, but the Hudson has a combination of specialties which is wonderfully satisfying. She combines tradition, history and romance with present-day commerce in its most interesting phases. She combines lowlands in the narrow reaches of the upper river with the graceful contour of the Catskills; a little further down, the splendid rolling country of Dutchess and Orange counties combines with the bewitching and unique waterway through the mountains of the Highlands; then the succession of broad bays below, with the promintories of Stony Point and of Hook Mountain dividing them; then the Palisades, of which this Society is so justly proud, and finally she flows past the great cluster of cities which complete the picture.

I have seen many of the other rivers and have enjoyed them, and comparison here would be useless, but if one were to construct a Hudson River, or one equally beautiful and interesting, in the valley of the Rhine, consider what he would have to do. Another thing that strengthens my faith in the pre-eminence of the Hudson is the expressions I have heard from world travelers, and especially travelers from Foreign Nations. These expressions are almost without exception words of surprised admiration