Building Regulations (London)

On the 15th January, 1934, the Building Acts Committee of the London County Council made the following recommendation:-

WHEN a structural engineer designs a foundation, he requires to know the capacity of his subsoil, not only on the surface, or at the date of erection of the superstructure, but throughout its depth and throughout the period of time during which his structure is expected to last. The properties of the materials he uses above ground and for his footings are so well known and so standardised both in manufacture and use that few erectors and designers realise the amount of observation, experiment, and control of characteristics on which depends the knowledge that enables them to calculate the amount of steel needed for a floor beam or a bridge member, or the amount of concrete needed for a column. H.H. Leys

Members of the Institution will be grieved to learn that Dr. Walter Rosenhain, F.R.S., died on the 17th March, at the age of 58. Dr. Rosenhain was a brilliant metallurgist, and for twenty-five years held the post of Superintendent to the Department of Metallurgy and Metallurgical Chemistry at the National Physical Laboratory, Dr Rosenhain was President of the International Association for Testing Materials, and was a member of many scientific and technical societies, including the Institution of Structural Engineers, of which he was elected a Member in 1932. He published a large number of papers and addresses, and was to have presented a paper on “Metallic Materials of Construction” to the Institution in February. When the meeting was cancelled owing to his illness, he very kindly offered to prepare the paper for next session. His illness however proved to be fatal, and the Institution now mourns the loss of one of its most distinguished Members.