Some Critical Remarks on the New Edition of the British Standard Specification for Portland Cement

The Perfect Structure Lodge, No. 4579, which was founded by members of the Institution of Structural Engineers, was Consecrated at Freemason's Hall on Monday, October 12th, 1925. The Grand Secretary, Sir Colville Smith, C.V.O., presided at the Consecration, and was assisted by the Rt. Hon. Lord Gisborough (S.W.), Mr. A. Burnett Brown (J.W.), Rev. W. P. Besley, M.V.O. (Chaplain), Mr. Neville Dawson (D. of C.), and Mr. G. J. V. Rankin (I.G.). Mr. J. Ernest Franck (Past Vice-President), was Installed as first Worshipful Master of the Lodge; Mr. H. D. Searles-Wood (Past President) as the first Senior Warden; and Mr. W. H. Webber as the first Junior Warden. Major James Petrie, 0 .B .E. (Past President) is Treasurer, and another Past President, Mr. Etchells, is one of the Stewards. The President, Sir Charles Ruthen, was announced as a candidate for Joining Nembership. Well over 100 distinguished Freemasons and members of the Institution were present at the Ceremony. At the subsequent Banquet, the Toast of the Grand Officers was responded to by Mr. Stanley Machin, President of the London Chamber of Commerce; that of the Consecrating Officers by Sir Colville Smith and Lord Gisborough. The Toast of the Guests was proposed by Sir Frederick Rice, M.P. (one of the Lodge founders), and responded to by Mr. Inman. Other speakers included Rev. W. P. Besley, M.V.O., and Rev. Dr. J. A. Kairn, Headmaster of Merchant Taylors' School.

I was much impressed by a book I read when I was about 16: the life of Robert Houdin, a French prestidigitateur; he used to take his son past a shop window, say a toyshop or any other with a variety of articles on show, and tell him to look at the things displayed, rhen taking him away at once he would ask him to describe everything he saw. It seemed to me that this was an admirable way of forming what I call “ eye-memory,” and having adopted a similar mode of study I have found the result of great use in my professional career, of which I could give many striking examples. Francis Galton in his book Human Faculty calls it the power of visualization, and says one may test himself by trying to picture the breakfast table as it was this morning, &c. I heard Prof. Stokes, the “Memory Man,” with his wonderful boys, lecture with illustrations at the old Coliseum, Regent’s Park. His recommendation was “Observe, reflect, link thought with thought, and . . . ?” My memory fails me, but it was nearly 70 years ago. As a lad I used to go to all the conjuring entertainments I could and always offered myself when any of the audience were requested to step up. I wanted to see how it was done. I remember particularly Prof. Anderson, the so-called “Wizard of the North,” Dr. Lynn, who always made pretence of showing the spectators “how it was done,” Maskelyne and Cooke, the Davenport Brothers, and Pepper’s Ghost. I heard Prof. Pepper give a lecture once in a room where there was a temporary platform, when he made several striking experiments. Among other things, I saw him dip his hand in molten lead. In another experiment he had two glasses with different coloured liquids in, fie said that when he poured one into the other the colour would disappear. It did, and so did he, as the plank of the platform on which he was standing gave way at the same time. I always wanted to get to the bottom of any mystery, and when opportunity offered in 1868 I joined “The Dalston Association of Enquirers into Spiritualism.” I attended the meetings for some months but saw nothing that could not have been simulated. Florrie Cook, one of the party, afterwards became a celebrated medium. She is referred to in Florence Marryat’s book, There is no death. My failure to find any distinct proofs in spiritualism does not lead me to deny the possibility, or in face of Sir Oliver Lodge’s Raymond one should perhaps say the probability, of some occult phenomena taking place. I have had many proofs of telepathy, some of which may be explained by the analogy of wireless telephony, where the brains of the projector and recipient may be connected by etheric waves, but other cases that I have had of prevision cannot be so expiained, and the instances were too full and definite to admit of mere coincidence as an explanation. It is a great pity scientists do not take up the study systematically instead of pooh-poohing it as the majority do. When I started practice on my own account my first clie

IT is remarkable that much of the labour of engineers has been in connection with water. Some of the greatest works of engineering of the past were the giant aqueducts built by the Romans. To irrigate land and to bring water to cities for human use-these are surely the most beneficent of all the accomplishments which are set to the credit of engineers. In a previous chapter of this series it was described how Brindley exercised his talents in the making of canals. Myddelton, however, who worked at a period even earlier than that of Brindley, was set an even more difficult task, for it fell to him to create a water-way not for traffic by barges, but with the purpose of providing water for the ordinary use of the inhabitants of London, and his main title to fame is that he cut “The New River.” (See illustrations 1 and 2.) A. Trystan Edwards