Charter Counsel

Twentieth-century craftmanship based upon the traditional spirit of the ancient craft guilds, is displayed in the pair of candelabra and the cigarette box which have been made from the oak of structural timbers taken from the historic London buildings Westminster House, Staple Inn, and the Charterhouse, all of which date from the 14th to 17th centuries.

It is to be expected that the whole field of research work at the Building Research Station is of interest to the structural engineer, but in preparing a paper for this Institution it was clearly impracticable to cover this field. It is necessary therefore to explain that the author has chosen to describe a limited number of investigations now proceeding at the Station which were thought to be of particular interest to those concerned with structural engineering design. Two divisions of the Station are concerned primarily with engineering problems, namely the Engineering Division, headed by Dr. N. Davey, and the Soil Mechanics Division, headed by Mr. L. F. Cooling. The author is technically responsible for the structural aspects of the work in the Engineering Division and has therefore confined his remarks in the present paper to this limited field. F.G. Thomas

Robert Chapman It is with great regret that the Council have learnt of the deaths of two Past Chairmen of the Lancashire and Cheshire Branch, which occurred within a few weeks of each other. Mr. Robert Chapman, who died suddenly on the 25th September, had been a Member of the Institution since 1924. He was Chairman of the Branch and served as Delegate Member of the Council in 1945-1946. Mr. Chapman was fifty-five and was on the staff of Messrs. Banister, Walton and Company, Ltd., of Trafford Park.