The 16 in. E.R.W. Tube Plant, Shotton

In the village of Alpnach in Switzerland there are two suspension footbridges known as the Grunder bridge and the Schwand bridge, over thc Little and the Great Schlieren rivers respectively. The wooden stiffening girdcrs of these bridges were found to rot after five or six years and in 1956 it became necessary to replace them for the third time since the bridges were built. K. Sutter and A. M. Mackie

GENTLEMEN, Thc Presidency of our great Institution, to which office you have elected me, has, in the past, been held by many distinguished engineers who, being dedicated men, have all assisted in increasing the stature of our body corporate. To say that I feel honoured in being allowed to join these august ranks would be a gross understatement, and yet those very sensations of honour and pleasure make me feel very humble.

A method of analysing frames with knee braces is discussed. The analysis consists of first restraining the joints of the frame from deflecting under the action of applied loads by means of a system of fixed G support forces. The latter are subsequently removed by the relaxation method. Typical expressions for the fixed support forces and the stiffness influence coefficients are given, and the procedure of analysis is illustrated by means of numerical examples. S.L. Lee and R.E. Ball