Issue 1

The Chairman, in his opening remarks, said: "It is customary, on occasions such as this, for the Chairman to deal with some topical subject, or a subject he is specially interested in. The topical subject for some time past has been the problem of post-war planning and reconstruction. I remember some people, as recently as the beginning of this war, looking upon future planning or Town Planning as being in the field of the dreamer whose dreams, they said, were almost always impracticable and, more often than not, came to nothing. Be that as it may, but proper, sound Town Planning, or planning for any other purpose, is the only means by which future requirements can be visualised and provided for. I am one of those who believe in the dreamer as against the one who does not try to see beyond his nose, and who eventually gets stuck in the mud. T. Bryn Richard

In the Moment Balance method, the moments at the ends of the members of a structure are found by a series of successive approximations bad on preliminary estimates. Naturally, the result is obtained most quickly if the initial estimates are good, but in any case the theoretical accuracy of the answer can be made as great as desired. An important feature is that much of the arithmetical work is self-checking, and the tabular presentation helps towards the detection of mistakes. R.J. Cornish

A study of test results on concrete and other materials suggests the following generalizations:- A.C. Vivian