The President, 1957-58

THE President introduced the Authors who then presented their paper. Mr. Janhunen also exhibited a film illustrating the progress of thc work of construction and some of the details.

It is not intended at the present stage of the dam construction to anticipate a possible main paper on the permanent works, consequently this paper deals entirely with certain sections of the contractor’s own temporary works and the construction under his control. The contractor’s crushing and concreting plant operations will also be fully covered in any paper dealing with the construction of the dam. W. J. Shirley

THE CHAIRMAN, who opened the discussion, said that he had never before fully appreciated the modern development in the handling and stacking of materials. It was a rather frightening thought that, when going to the grocer and buying some sugar or l lb. packet of margarine, one was setting in train a vast mass of movement in palletisation, ending up in an enormous store of the commodity. Long before the war, the grocers seemed to manage without all these elaborate depots; but people were now probably becoming the slaves of mass production, mass storage, mass advertising and mass buying. In fact, judging from the film which had been shown, in about fifty years’ time the housewife would drive down to the grocer’s shop with a little fork lift truck instead of a shopping basket. That was the way things appeared to be going.