Impact Allowances in Bridge Design

Mr. EWART S. ANDREWS, BSc., M.Inst.C.E. (a Vice-president of the Institution, and the Chairman of the Institution’s Science Committee), said that in connection with the preparation of the Report he had persuaded the Committee to follow a practice which he favoured more and more as the years passed, i.e. to make its statements as brief as possible. In his experience the tendency of technical bodies was exactly opposite to that. The successive publications by our American friends became more and more wordy, and when they were compared with the documents from which they had originated his belief was that they became less and less useful. The desire to be allembracing in a general document of this kind was, in his opinion, entirely wrong; simplicity should be the aim. There had been the same tendency towards wordiness in connection with reinforced concrete regulations.

In a recent papert an attempt was made to discuss in general terms the methods of development open to an industry such as building. Only in passing was it possible to mention the types of difficulties now encountered, as time and space were required for the discussion of the urgent need for higher scientific education. R.E. Stradling

The PRESIDENT, proposing a hearty vote of thanks to the author for the great trouble he had taken to prepare and deliver the lecture, said it had been cxtremely interesting, such as one would expect from Dr. Stradling. The manner in which he had shown the movement of moisture through bricks and stones was extroadinarily clever.