Admiral Selwyn thought Mr. Reckenzaun was a little below the mark when he talked about the dream of getting 5 horse power for one pound--he would not say of coal, but of fuel. For some months he had seen ½ lb. of fuel produce 1 horse power, and he knew it could be done. That fuel was condensed concentrated fuel in the shape of oil. When this could be done, electrical energy also could be obtained much cheaper, but if it were extended to yachts, he thought that would be as far as any one now present could be expected to see it go. Still he thought there was a future for it, and that future would be best advanced by considering the question on which he had touched. First, the employment of a cheaper mode of getting the power in the steam engine; and, secondly, a cheaper and higher secondary battery. In a railway train weight was a formidable affair, but in a floating vessel it was still more important. He did not think, however, that a light secondary battery was by any means an impossibility. Mr. Loftus Perkins had actually produced by improvements in the boiler and steam engine two great things: first, one indicated horse power for a pound of fuel per hour, and next he had devised a steam engine of 100 horse power, of a weight of only 84 lb. per horse power, instead of 304 lb., which was about the average. Those were two enormous steps in advance, and under a still more improved patent law he had no doubt things would be brought forward which would show a still greater progress. Within the last fifteen days, nearly 2,000 patents had been taken out, as against 5,000 in the whole of the previous year, which showed how operative a very small and illusory inducement had been to encourage invention. He had long been known as an advocate of patent law reform, and, therefore, felt bound to lose no opportunity of calling attention to its importance. Invention was in the hands of the inventor, the creator of trade. If, without robbing anybody, one wished to produce property, it must be done by improving manufactures as a consequence of inventions. In one instance alone it bad been proved that a single invention had been the means of introducing twenty millions annually, upon which income tax was paid. Mr. Crampton said he did not think steam could ever compete with electricity, under certain circumstances; but, at the same time, it would be a long time before it was superseded. He should like very much to see the compressed oil, one-sixth of a pound of which would give 1 horse power per hour. Admiral Selwyn said he had seen a common Cornish boiler doing it years ago.