Verulam

With the expected emergence of a new Engineering Council, and in the knowledge of competing claims among the various Institutions, the Council have authorised the publication of the following statement. Based on a draft prepared by Professor Sir Alan Harris, CBE (Past President), it sets out to inform the uninformed of the way in which the Institution serves and supports its members in the practice of their particular skills as structural engineers.

Mr T. N. W. Akroyd, MScTech, LLB(Hons), CEng, FIStructE, Member of the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn, Barrister, is unique in the sense of being the first lawyer-and a barrister to boot-to be President of the Institution. He is, by education and training, an engineer and a lawyer and, by occupation, a consulting engineer and farmer. Taking office on 8 October next, Mr Akroyd will deliver his Presidential Address ‘Progressive collapse revisited (the problem of structural failure)’ at 6.00 pm that evening at the Institution, 11 Upper Belgrave Street, London SWlX 8BH.

The paper compares the economics of various seyice reservoir designs and deals with the technical and financial advantages of the simply supported wall over the more conventional cantilever or propped cantilever solution. Rectangular reservoirs with capacities up to 31 800 m3 and circular tanks to 4500 m3 are included in the exercise. J. Walmsley