Additions to membership since last report, I. The Chairman announced that the business of the meeting would be the annual presentation of the Franklin Medal, the Institute's highest award, in recognition of distinguished scientific and technical achievements, and called upon Dr. Harry F. Keller, who gave an account of the work of Signor Guglielmo Marconi, of Bologna, Italy, recently recommended by the Institute's Committee on Science and the Arts for the Franklin Medal in recognition of " His brilliant inception and successful development of the applica' tion of magneto-electric waves to the transmission of signals and telegrams without the use of metallic conductors."
Doctor Keller then presented His Excellency, Count V. Macchi de Cellere, Ambassador of the Royal Italian Government to the United States, who received the medal for Signor Marconi, and conveyed the thanks of his Government and of the recipient for the honor conferred Upon him.
Doctor Keller then introduced Thomas Corwin Mendenhall, Sc. D., LL.D., of Ravenna, Ohio, who had also been recommended for the award of the Franklin Medal in recognition of "His fruitful and indefatigable labors in physical research, particularly his contributions to our knowledge of physical constants and electrical standards."
The Chairman presented the medal to Doctor Mendenhall, who expressed his thanks for the honor conferred upon him, and then read his paper, " Some Metrological Memories." He outlined the progress made in electricity during the last fifty years. Reference was also made to the International Electrical Exhibition of 1884, held under the auspices of The Franklin Institute, and the work accomplished by the International Electrical Conference held in Philadelphia in the same year. An account was given of the efforts to establish a system of electrical units, the adoption of the definitions for the principal practical units by the International Electrical Congress of 1893, and the legalization of these by Congress. The speaker expressed the opinion that metrology is the mother of science and of art, certainly of all the exact sciences and of nearly all of the arts, and that without it there could be no astronon~, no physics, no chemistry, no engineering, no architecture.
At the close of the address the thanks of the meeting were extended to the guests. : ~ Adjourned.