Issue 12

AS I have the honour to be the British Vice- President of the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering, and as I attended the first Congress of the Association, held in Paris from 19th May to 25th May, as leader of the Official Delegates appointed by His Majesty’s Government, I thought it might be of some interest to the members of the Scottish Branch of the Institution if I gave a brief account of the work of the Congress and of my impressions of how far the Association is carrying out the work for which it was instituted. Professor Sir Thomas Hudson Beare

Sir,-The difficulties which certain engineers seem to be encountering in the proper interpretation of clauses mentioned by Mr. Cocking in his letter published in the November issue do not seem to be insuperable, if, indeed, they do exist.

On pages 532 and 533 we publish a chart of Ferro-Concrete Sections, by Mr. A. D. Turner, which shows in a compact form the principles of calculation of all ordinary ferro-concrete members, including the complexities of bending plus compression. A point in connection with this contribution is that in case VI, the author appears to ignore the movement of the neutral axis which takes place when steel is introduced for taking compression stresses. This is done in other authoritative methods of calculation, and the error introduced in most cases is small and may be ignored without substantial error. It should be noted, however, that in special cases it might require further investigation.

Major JAMES CALDWELL (Member) (who was the author of the first paper presented to the Institution on the subject of welding) proposed a vote of thanks to Mr. Helsby, and congratulated him upon his paper, which had been prepared and published with a view to showing people in this country and overseas what could be done in the way of welded construction.

The subject on which you have asked me to speak this evening is one that no individual could approach without severe qualms-knowing full well that nothing short of a comprehensive group of experts could do justice to it. Within the group room would have to be found for the architect, the town planner, the engineer, the political economists of different schools, the social reformer, the local administrator, the chief constable, the medical officer and the landscape gardener.The sense of one's insufficiency is increased by the reflection that history has shown the astonishing limitations of human foresight in matters affecting social welfare and civic life. Even the inspired writer who saw the New Jerusalem descending from heaven could only depict it as a glorified replica of one of those severely rectangular fortified towns which characterised the Roman Empire-"lying foursquare, with a wall great and high and having 12 gates." Fourteen hundred years later Sir Thomas More sets forth the glories of another ideal city in his Utopia. Again, we find that the City of Amaurote "standeth in fashion almost foursquare. The streets be appointed and set forth very commodious and handsome, both for carriage and also against the winds. The houses be of fair and gorgeous building and on the street side they stand joined together in a long row thro' the whole street without any partition or separation. The streets be twenty-foot broad." Thus, we find one of the most brilliant and advanced thinkers of Henry VIII's reign depicting as his ideal a city which to us would appear meanly monotonous, and insisting with some vigour on the charm of what we all now disparage as ribbon development. C.H. Bressey

MEMBERS of the Institution are undoubtedly keenly interested in the development of concrete construction. More general acceptance of concrete as a building material and a wider application of its use would be viewed by many as a desirable event. Some there may be who believe that world changes have already brought about conditions favourable to its early acceptance, not merely as a valuable contribution to all manner of construction, but as the chief medium of building. D.T. Lloyd Jones