The History of the Theory of Structures

PRELIMINARY REMARKS BY THE AUTHOR. In submitting this paper for your consideration I would like to explain for the benefit of those who do not know me that I am not a legal man but an engineer like yourselves, and, incidentally, a contractor, and if, as such, I am dealing with rather an unusual subject, I am doing so in the hope that a layman’s experience may be of interest. I do not propose to read the paper, which, no doubt,you have all had the opportunity of perusing, and which I trust will at least, have the effect of bringing to your notice some points of law of which previously you may not have been aware.

THE PRESIDENT (Professor J. Husband, F.R.C.Sc.I., M.Inst.C.E.) commented on the great interest of the subject of the paper, and said that probably the majority of the members had had to deal with underpinning in some form or another. He had had a good many underpinning jobs to look after, and Mr. Muirhead had put forward in the paper some exceptionally interesting examples of that class of engineering.