JUBILEE DINNER OF THE SOCIETY. On the 2nd of November 1891, the Fellows celebrated the attainment of the Jubilee of the Incorporation of the Society by a dinner which took place in the banqueting-hall of the Waterloo Hotel, and at which upwards of 140 gentlemen attended. The Right Hon. Lord Kingsburgh, President of the Society, occupied the Chair, supported by Lord Provost Boyd and representatives from other scientific societies and public bodies; whilst Messrs R. K. Miller and W. B. Blaikie, Vice-Presidents, and Mr W. Allan Carter, Secretary, acted as Croupiers. After dinner, the toasts of the Queen and of the Royal Family were duly honoured. The Chairman then proposed "Prosperity to the Royal Scottish Society of Arts." It was now fifty years, he said, since Her Majesty had granted to the Society its charter of incorporation, and every one who knew the history of Edinburgh knew that the Society had taken a worthy place within its organisation, and had done much good in the encouragement of invention and of art; and their best hopes would be that in the coming fifty years it might do its duty as well as it had done in the past. The late Dr Edward Sang had been one of the members of the Society who, from its earliest start, had given his time and his energies to make it a success, and the Chairman paid a high tribute to the devotion which Dr Sang showed in furthering its interests. He also, on behalf of the Society, welcomed Mr Lawrence Hill, who was present at the jubilee celebration, and who was one of the few gentlemen still remaining who were members in 1841. He went on to speak of the special function of the Society, which was not one of those in which nothing but abstract science was allowed to enter. It was a practical Society, and its history showed plainly that it had been of the greatest possible benefit in bringing before the public many valuable discoveries, and had tended to promote progress in many ways. In looking over the Transactions many things had come under his notice which showed the changes which had taken place in the last fifty years. One thing which he had noted in the first volume of the Proceedings of the Society was a paper by the late Mr David Stevenson upon one of the railways of England, in which Mr. Stevenson recounted some things which at that time were thought very extraordinary. One of the things mentioned for the information of the Society was the extraordinary fact that the locomotive department of that railway spent the enormous sum of £28,000 in one year, and that the engines were driven by a driver with the aid of a fireman. "As a check on their regularity," the paper went on, "a fine of 2s. 6d. is imposed on the engineer for every fifteen minutes he arrives before his time." The Chairman said he thought we had made no progress in that particular matter since 1841. He went on to point out how, in looking over the Transactions, he had been struck with the fact that in this year, 1891, we were very much in the same position as regards the development of one branch of practical science as the Society stood in 1841 as regards another. In 1841 the Society was just in the very first blush of the enormous development of steam-power; and it appeared to him that at its jubilee celebration it was very much in the same position as regards the development of electrical science. It was very difficult for any mind, however instructed, to conceive what the progress was that might be made within the next ten or fifteen years in the development of electrical science; just as in 1841 none of them could have conceived the development of steam-power, and the extraordinary effect it would have upon communication between different parts of the world and upon the power of manufacture and interchange between different countries. It might be that they were just upon the verge of another development as extraordinary and perhaps as inconceivable, and it would be a proud thing for the Royal Scottish Society of Arts if it could lend its aid to the inventors of our time to help them forward in the development of what undoubtedly was one of the great things of the future. He had no doubt that the members of the Society would give their earnest help to all who were engaged in investigating that important matter. The gathering of that evening was the best proof that the Society had been prospering; and he asked all of them to devote themselves earnestly to promoting its best interests, being sure that in so doing they were promoting the best interests of science and enabling many struggling inventors to gain that recognition for their work which otherwise they might not be able to do. TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SCOTTISH SOCIETY OF ARTS. On Tynecastle Embossed Canvas. By W. SCOTT As a preface to a few notes about the Tynecastle Canvas, I might refer briefly to decorations in leather, because it happened that when the inventor was working at imitations of old leather, the idea of the modelled canvas suggested itself. In the early part of the fifteenth century, embossed and stamped leathers were used as carpets for floors; and, about the same time, "Cordovans," which were leather hangings, were produced at Cordova in Spain. These leathers were originally painted with some uniform pattern, and enriched with a design formed by pressure from a hot iron against a roller. They were made in squares for wall surfaces of different sizes, and were sewed or glued together, and narrow strips of leather were fixed over the joinings. Soon afterwards, picked-out colour effects were introduced, and very decorative and gorgeous displays of colour were obtained by the use of metal leaf gildings, which were commonly of silver. On the silver gildings golden tints were obtained by the use of varnishes. In the inventory of Catherine de Medicis there is given an idea of the richness of the leathers of her time. There are mentioned "gold and silver hangings on an orange ground with the Queen's cipher; others again sea-green, with mountings similar to the preceding; others with orange mountings, gilded or silvered, on a violet ground: or else red with gold * Read before the Society, 23rd November 1891. VOL. XIII. K |