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The Structural Engineer, Volume 16, Issue 11, 1938
The importance and urgent need of reliable information with regard to the welding of steel structures has been forcibly emphasised by the collapse of an important all-welded bridge in Belgium. H.E. Lance Martin
Mr. J. TAYLOR THOMPSON (L.N.E.R.) proposed a hearty vote of thanks to Mr. Bruff for his interesting paper, and particularly for the lantern slides by which he had illustrated it, some of which had disclosed steelwork in a condition which was almost startling. Another reason why Mr. Bruff merited the thanks of engineers was that he was the outstanding enthusiast in this country, if not in the world, for the application of welding to the repair of bridges.
THE PRESIDENT (Professor J. Husband, F.R.C.Sc.I., M.Inst.C.E.), following the presentation of the paper, said that Mr. Bowie had made out a very good and probably a very closely approximate case. All structural engineers knew that in dealing with reinforced concrete it was impossible to derive absolutely accurate mathematical theories. The amount of mathematical formuls which had accumulated during the last 30 or 40 years was simply colossal. Probably we approached a little nearer the truth in the course of time, but the assumptions that had to be made when dealing with so complicated a material rendered it impossible - and it would always be impossible -to make exact calculations in respect of reinforced concrete structures. That was true even for the simplest element of reinforced concrete construction. When we came to cases such as slabs and dropped slabs carried by variously shaped column caps, the exact theory, if it were accessible, would be staggering. The only way in which to approach problems of that kind was the way in which the author had approached them in the paper. Certain common-sense assumptions were made in the paper, just as it was necessary to make common-sense assumptions in a great many other engineering problems, and the assumptions made in the paper appealed to the President as being perfectly sound and rational. He urged that those who agreed with the author’s statements should say so, and that those who considered that any of the author’s conclusions were wide of the probable truth should also express their views. Having read the paper very carefully before the meeting, it seemed to him that the author had given his problem a very sound, closely approximate and sufficiently practical treatment. He congratulated the author on having dealt with a comparatively dry but very important practical subject in so satisfactory a manner.