Institution Notes

Finniston Report: proposed Engineering Authority The Department of Industry in mid-January, contrary to expectations, circulated to the CEI and its constituent chartered engineering Institutions a revised draft Charter which, it was suggested, would bring into existence the proposed Engineering Authority. In response to informal comments on that draft, a second was circulated a week later. The Presidents of the 16 constituent Institutions, with the Chairman of the CEI, met together, and the following letter was sent to Sir Keith Joseph, Secretary of State for Industry, on 28 January: ‘We, the Corporation Presidents and the Chairman of the CEI, whose signatures are appended, feel once again bound to represent to you personally our disquiet at the manner in which discussions of the Royal Charter for the new Engineering Council have developed.

Mr W. J. Searle (HM Inspectorate of Mines and Quarries): I should like to congratulate Mr Taylor on his comprehensive review of colliery surface structures and the problems associated with them.

Professor F. W. Williams (M) and Dr. J. R. Banerjee (Department of Civil Engineering and Building Technology, UWIST, Cardiff): It is vital that designers should be aware that the author’s method gives only some of the natural frequencies of structures, and that the second and other low natural frequencies are likely to be among those missed. This is illustrated by considering the rectangular grid of Fig 13, which consists of 1250 identical, rigidly jointed, inextensible members and is prevented from swaying.