LADIES A:ND CTENTLEMEN: The order of lectures that has been announced for the season of 1883-1884, calls for one by me, noted as "Introductory on Mechanics," rather au indefinite title I admit, but I do not want you to expect a formal lecture on Mechanics ; [ desire to speak in the first place about the lecture course and about methods of instruction. Bear in nfind please, that about sixty years have passed since the first lecture was delivered before the Franklin Institute. It was Oil the 28th of April, 1824. At that time our Institute had no abiding place. Through the courtesy of the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, the old academy on south Fourth street was loaned to the Institute and many of its lectures were delivered there. The first course was a series on Mechanics, :Natural Philosophy and Chemistry, and Architecture, it was ~ttended mainly by members, sons of members and apprentices who desired information that could not be • obtained at that time in the public school. To these early lectures no women were admitted. It was not until the second course, when leotares on Natural History were added to the list, I presume by Dr. God,nan, that women were admitted to these lectures on Natural History; and fro.n that time to the present nearly all lectures have been honored by their presence. It is very pleasan~ to think that so many WHOT.E :No. VoL. CXVII.--(Tm~D Sm~Es, Vo]. lxxxvii.) 11 .3Ieehanics. [J our. Frank. Inst., of them desire the kind of instruction that has been given in this place. If we consider what was the state of the Arts at the time the Franklin Institute was organized, and what the state of tile Arts now is, we can ibrm a better idea of what lecture courses were best adapted to the wants of' the members in those days, and what is expected of the lectures of the present day.
in business, we may measure the success of meehanieal enterprise by the success of the railroads. When railroads are doing a paying business the mechanic arts are prosperous. I think it may be very well to take the railroad as the standard of the progress of the United States during the sixty years that have elapsed since the first Franklin Institute lecture was delivered. Let us glance backwards to the condition of the railroads sixty years ago. It was in 1824 George Stevenson one of many active workers in tile same direction, began his earnest work to induce the people of England to build the Liverpool and iX{anehester Railroad. In 1825 he was laughed at for his wild scheme. We can find in books in some libraries an account of the bubbles talked of in 1825, among which was a contemplated railroad from Liverpool to ?3{anehester. The term locomotive as the name is now applied to a machine was not then invented. It was not until 1829, within the lifetime of many who are now present, that the first railroad for fl'elght and passengers operated by steam was opened. Before that time, Oliver Evans, in 1804, it is true, carried through the streets of Philadelphia, a dredging seow and propelled it on land and water by stea,n. Oliver Evans died in 1819. And Hedley had proposed smooth wheels on a rail in 1813.
Oliver Evans said the time would come when we would start fi.om Washington, breakihst in Baltimore, dine in Philadelphia, and sup at New York, and attain a speed of forty-five miles an hour, as fast as the "speed a bird flies." In 1824 the world was not ready for steam on railroads. In 1825 they laughed at the proposition of travding fifteen miles an hour, They insisted that the trains be slowed down so as not to intert~re with the stage coaches, and so destroy an active industry.
From that time to the present, what has been done? Our continent is crossed from ocean to ocean by this iron rail, and the railroads of the present represent a vast accumulation of concrete flmught. They may, in the gambling saloons of Wall sta'eet~ represent only stock value, and there are people who fl~ink of