Excerpt from Commemorative Exercises at the Celebration of the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of the Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts: Held on the Evenings of October 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, 1899 in the Convention Hall of the National Export Exposition Were the Franklin Institute to pass out of existence it would certainly be considered a public calamity, which would be regretted throughout the world. There is, for tunately, no immediate danger of such a calamity, but you are each asked to consider what you would be willing to do to prevent this, and devote your energy in that spirit to its immediate advancement. It is far better to cheer a friend in life than to be willing to shed tears and wear crape at his funeral. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.