The History of Structural Testing

The Structurals Comforts Fund was established in 1940 to supply such comforts as it was possible to obtain to our serving members, so that they might be reminded that their colleagues in the Institution have them constantly in their thoughts.

THE subject I have chosen for my address is one that does not lend itself to concise definition in a title, so I am grateful for the privilege that a Presidential Address need not have any other label. I am going to ask you to consider with me some of the principles governing the relation of one science to another, using the word “relation” in its active, continuing sense-the process of relatiEg, and not the mere establishment of a relationship, which however desirable at some stage, tends to become static, and to that extent a drag on the close interweaving of the sciences which alone can ensure healthy development. G.B.R. Pimm

It is unfortunate that Mr. Gordon followed the statement at the top of page 376, that the Arithmetical Procedure of Prof. Newmark is accurate for M/I diagrams made up of straight lines or parabolic arcs with a detailed exposition of the procedure on page 378, which is only applicable to M/I diagrams which vary uniformly from one end of a span to the other, as it is liable to make readers think that the simple working of page 378 is applicable to all the cases covered by the original statement, which is far from the case. As a matter of fact the procedure outlined is not truly correct, as, for instance, the first and last ordinates of span AB line (a) page 378 should really be 1/36 and 35/36. The first introduices an error varying linearly from A to B, and the other is not used subsequently, so that the final linear correction of line (e) results in correct values in line (f). If the figures were used to compute slopes, as at the top of page 389, the error pould still be present.