Housing in the Netherlands

Mr. H.K.G. Bamber (Chairman), in opening the Congress, said that as Chairman of the Committee appointed by the Institution of Structural Engineers to arrange the affairs of the Congress, it devolved upon him to occupy the chair at this very important meeting, although he felt entirely at sea, and that the President of the Institution ought really to preside. However, it did him very great honour to take the chair, because he realised that, although the Institution of Structural Engineers might be described as rather a young Institution, it had shown very great boldness in calling together delegates from all parts of the world to a conference of this character to discuss some very valuable and important papers which had been presented to the Conference. Welcoming the delegates present at the Conference the Chairman said that the Institution was delighted, and felt highly honoured, at the admirable response which had been made to its invitation by delegates from all parts of the world, and from the various scientific institutions, who had been good enough to favour the members of the Institution with their presence. The papers which had been presented by the various delegates dealt with very important everyday subjects. They might not be full of abstruse arguments and calculations, but they dealt with subjects which were met, with day by day by the structural engineer, and he hoped that the discussion upon them would be even more valuable than the papers themselves. He asked every delegate present, whether he came with the intention of taliing part in the discussion or not, to do so, in order that the Conference might have the views on the various subjects of representatives of various Institutions, of the cement industry and the building industry, in all parts of the world. The Chairman again welcomed everyone present, and pointed out with what great pleasure the President of the Institution of Structural Engineers and himself, as Chairman of the Entertaining Committee, regarded the very hearty response to their invitation. They trusted that the visit to this country would be of extreme value and pleasure to those taking part in it.

In this concluding article we will pass briefly under review various appliances for testing and measuring deflection, and also some of the more simple apparatus useful in controlling certain kinds of reinforcement.

WHEN the water content of cement grout exceeds a certain percentage a sediment is rapidly formed. Grout begins to be formed at a mixture by weight of about 35 parts of water with 100 parts of cement. If the water content is increased above this point the cement tends to settle to the bottom. This is a disadvantage at all casting with cement grout; because the consistency of the grout cannot be varied to any extent by subsequent addition of water. When the method of pouring grout through a tube on a crushed stone bed is used for submarine concrete construction, it is consequently impossible to moderate the strength of the concrete, it will always require the same excessive quantity of cement. It is certainly true that it will also produce a very high class concrete, if the work has been well performed. Carl Forssell