Concrete roads are now so common a feature of arterial and suburban road schemes that almost every motorist is more or less acquainted with the various designs and expedients adopted by engineers to secure good running surfaces and to guard against the formation of cracks and defective joints. J.H. Walker
SIR,-On reading through the article in your last issue of The Structural Engineer, I find that perhaps the good work done by Messrs. John Mowlem & Co., Ltd., on the substructure was not sufficiently brought out in the paper. I should, therefore, be glad if you could incorporate, say, in the discussion, the following:- “It is noteworthy to observe the excellent work executed by Messrs. John Mowlem & Co., Ltd., on the substructure portion of the building. In spite of very difficult conditions existing on the site, it being subject to tidal reaction, such good progress was made by the Contractors that the retaining wall was sufficiently completed, and the concrete foundations for the stanchions far enough advanced, to enable the erection of the steel frame to commence four months after the commencement of the work was made on the site.”
The CHAIRMAN said they were extremely obliged to Mr. Travers Morgan for his very excellent lecture and the excellent slides he had shown. He would ask those present to express their thanks to the lecturer in the usual way.
The modern building has developed from the small domestic building in which engineering considerations were so unimportant as compared with the architectural ones that a person with very little understanding of structural mechanics could quite successfully carry the work through to a successful conclusion without engineering collaboration. Oscar Faber
IV.-CONSTRUCTION OF PERMANENT BRlDGES. (1) Bores nad trial pits Several vexatious experiences, to be described later,have impressed upon the author the imperative necessity at whatever cost in time and trouble, of making quite sure before beginning a bridge as to the depth and character of the founds that will be necessary. The policy of starting to sink wells with the intention of simply carrying on until a hard bottom is reached is never justified. Intended sites for foundations must be explored either by bores sunk at the precise spot in question-it may prove badly deceptive to attempt to interpolate between bores sunk at different places, however close-or, preferably,timbering and anyhow it; is usually cheaper to batter the sides of the hole instead. John Edwin Holmstrom
The object of the series of tests described in the following report was to obtain the value of the adhesion between mortar and brick. The results existing at the present date are fairly ancient and are given in Table No. 1.
By the sudden death of Colonel Moncrieff, on the 10th January, the Institution of Structural Engineers has lost a very good friend, and members of the engineering profession in general have lost a brilliant colleague.