Issue 4

A Member who advertised for draughtsmen to work in n Competition sends us the following genuine copy of an answer received from a Chinaman applying for the job. We have seen the original. It may afford a little amusement in an otherwise serious publication:-

The PRESIDENT (Mr. H. J. Deane, B.Eng., M.Inst.C.E.) called on Profeseor J. Husband, M.Eng., M.Inst.C.E. (Chairman of the Yorkshire Branch) to propose a vote of thanks to Mr. White, adding that Professor Husband had some lantern slides to show the audience.

No building material nor method of construction should ever be allowed to dictate the forms of building. Such a statement may sound arbitrary, but yet a far greater arbitrariness results as soon as engineers or others would make architecture the servant of construction. The proper effects of construction on architecture are purely negative. The dogma that what you cannot construct you must not construct is supererogatory. But the reverse of the proposition, the statement that methods of construction which can be used must be used is more seriously at fault, for in the form in which the admonition is framed it is a direct incitement to architectural malpractices. An analogy from social life may here help us to envisage the true relationship between architecture and construction. A man can perform innumerable physical actions which he is not permitted to perform on all occasions. Yet the significance of the human figure, the range of its possible actions would be unduly restricted if men were forbidden to set themselves physical tasks which strain the capacity of their limbs to the very utmost. Because men can jump and perform other acrobatic exercises it is desirable that they should do so under certain prescribed conditions. These conditions are determined by a reference to the dominant characteristics of human nature in general, and the art of jumping is only encouraged among certain individuals at certain places and on certain occasions. The dignity of the human figure would not find expression if it were decreed that all men, willy nilly, must jump. Similarly, the dignity which is appropriate to ferro-concrete would not be manifested if this material were on all occasions to perform such acrobatic feats as are within its power. A. Trystan Edwards

The Author makes no apology for submitting a paper on Concrete, for this Institution was first formed in 1908 for the purpose of studying and encouraging the use of this material; and he hopes that this study will be continued from time to time, bearing in mind more recent experiments and improvements in materials and labour-saving machines which are now avaidable for the production of good concrete. G. McLean Gibson

1. Introduction. The storage of coal, &C., has become an important branch of engineering due to the necessity for economic handling. V.H. Adams and G.P. Bridges

There is an increasing demand everywhere for electrical energy at low cost. The cost of producing, and more particularly of transporting fuel, has increased to such an extent that the generation of electricity at many places where it is to be used makes its supply impossible at commercial rates. This has led to generation at economic points, and its distribution over long distances to its market by means of high tension transmission lines. The term " High Tension " is, of course, an electrical and not a mechanical one in this case. The location of the generating station may be at a point where fuel is cheap, or more generally where water power is available either by harnessing an existing Fall such as Niagara, or by building a dam across a river valley where land can be had at a reasonable price. The transmission line, therefore, becomes an essential part of most hydro-electric schemes. H.R. White