Dr. John Percy, 343; W. C. Bennett, 346; A. R. W. Fulton, 350; R. T. Hall, 351; H. Lee-Smith, 352; J. Robertson, 355; G. W. Stevenson, 364; W. Stroudley, 365; R. Vawser, 372; W. M. Crosland, 373; J. R. George, 374; W. James, 376; T. S. Pollard, 377; J. Rhind, 377; T. Summers, 379; A. H. Wood, 380; E. W. N. Wood, 381; Sir J. Falshaw, Bart., 382; J. Grierson, 390; J. Hancox, 397; Sir H. A. Hunt, 398; Sir Examination of a Volcanic Sand as a material for Mortar. Dr. BÖHME 407 New Apparatus for Testing Materials in Tension and Compression. H. The Sibley Bridge. O. CHANUTE, J. F. WALLACE, and W. H. BREITHAUPT 414 Partial Destruction of the Jeetzel Bridge by Flood, and its Restoration. The Canals, Roads, and Railways of Finland. M. STRUKEL Historical Considerations on the North Sea Canal of Amsterdam and its Capacity for Navigation by Ships of Large Dimensions. A. HUET - New Timber Dry-Dock at the Brooklyn (New York) Navy Yard Measures adopted for the Safety and Service of Reservoir-Dams. Dr. Statistical Review of the Results of the Irrigation-Works of India in On the Theory of Disinfection by means of Steam. Dr. H. ROHRBECK Cost of Maintenance of Trial Lengths of Line laid with Metal Sleepers on the Netherlands State Railways On the Rusting of Permanent-Way in Tunnels. W. THÖRNER Increasing the Weight of Rails in Long Tunnels on the St. Gothard Railway Workshops: their Design and Construction. J. DAVIS BARNETT. The Nogent Tramways Worked with Compressed Air. DEMOULIN . Compound Locomotive on the Northern Railway of France. A. PULIN 474 A new kind of Auxiliary Cylinder applied to Link-Motion Reversing- Experiments made at New York to determine the Relative Economic Efficiency of three different kinds of Water-Pumps. B. F. ISHERWOOD. 476 Notes on new Types of Hydraulic Lifts: Samain's System. G. CERBELAND 480 Experiments with a Compound Winding-Engine at the Skalley Shaft I On Hand-Power Diamond-Boring Machines. G. NORDENSTRÖM Geothermometric Measurements in the Borcholes at Schladebach and New Mercury-Furnaces. J. M. MADARIAGA Mining and Metallurgy in Australia. H. A. GORDON Gold-mining in Transylvania. E. THILO A Regenerative Annealing-Furnace. J. VON EHRENWERTH Report upon Questions relating to the Employment of Explosives in The Electric Lighting of the Townships of Dieulefit and Valreas CORRIGENDA. Vol. xcvii., p. 445, line 9, for "vol. xiv. 1888, p. 316" read "vol. xv. 1888, p. 816." p. 411, Hall, Richard Thomas, for " died July 1889 "read" died 21 August „ xcix., p. 130, line 6 from bottom, in the second member of the equation, THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. SESSION 1889-90.-PART I. SECT. I.-MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS. 12 November, 1889. SIR JOHN COODE, K.C.M.G., President, Sir JOHN COODE addressed the Meeting in the following terms, on taking the Chair at the first Ordinary Meeting after his election as President: At the time when I first became a member of this Institution, joining it in the year 1849 at the instance of my old and esteemed master, one of your former presidents, the late James Meadows Rendel, the idea of occupying the Presidential Chair certainly never occurred to me; that being the case when the total number upon the register of the Institution was about six hundred, how much greater must I esteem the honour you have now conferred upon me, when the number upon the Institution roll is within a measurable distance of five thousand! Regarding the position of President of this Institution as the greatest honour to which any Civil Engineer can attain, I have accepted that honour with no light sense of the duties and responsibilities which it involves, and of apprehension as to my own shortcomings in the fulfilment of the various and important duties appertaining to it; but I am not a little encouraged by a confident hope and belief that I shall receive from my colleagues on the Council the aid and support, and from the members generally, the same indulgence they have extended to my predecessors in the Chair. It rarely happens, between the presentation of the Annual Report of your Council, at the close of one session, and the commencement of another, that events occur in connection with the Institution of sufficient importance to call for any special remark from the President in his opening address. To omit, on this occasion, all reference to the exceptional and gratifying episode which occurred. almost immediately after the close of our last sessional meetings, [THE INST. C.E. VOL. XCIX.] B would be to lay myself open to the charge of ignoring an important event, any reference to which, to use a colloquial expression, would be "conspicuous by its absence." It need scarcely be said that I refer to the visit with which we have this year been favoured by an important detachment of our professional brethren from the United States of America. For the first time in our history we have enjoyed the privilege and the pleasure of receiving, in a body, some two hundred and fifty members of the several American engineering societies, and it was, and is, a matter of no slight congratulation that every one of the engineering and allied bodies in the United Kingdom most cordially co-operated with us when, in accordance with our duty as the parent Institution, it was arranged that we should take the leading part in receiving and entertaining our American brethren. Gratifying to ourselves as was this visit, it is certainly not less so to feel that their reception was highly appreciated by our friends from the other side of the Atlantic. In confirmation of this, let me quote from a letter written, early in August, by one of the foremost men of the party, announcing their safe arrival home. He said, inter alia: "The hospitality which we received at your hands was simply boundless; but what touched us still more deeply was the evidence of cordiality and friendship which was so apparent in all of the intercourse between the members of our party and our English friends from first to last. The memory will always be cherished and remembered." Another of the leading members of the American party in writing quite recently says, "The day of the great Guildhall Dinner1 is a famous date with us now: like every other member of our craft who came to see you last summer, I feel that you and your colleagues have placed me under such personal obligations as I shall probably never be able to repay, and that your grand old Institution has done for us what we shall not be prepared fully to parallel in a hundred years, even though the world does move so rapidly on this side." When considering the question of a topic for this Address, it appeared to me that the experience gained during three lengthened professional visits to several distant and important parts of the British Empire might not unsuitably be drawn upon. These visits, involving, as they have done, journeyings of more than 75,000 miles, and a close examination of some of the most important ports, harbours, and navigable rivers within many of our colonial possessions, have afforded me exceptional opportunities for 1 13th June, 1889. |