Semi-empirical Studies of a Timber Bridge Guardrail Under Static Transverse Loading

Foundations of buildings near trees The above topic, raised in our column for 21 November last year and aired again in January and March this year, has attracted further comment from Mr Z. Przygoda, in Don Mills, Ontario, Canada: I have read with interest the many comments about trees and how they affect the foundations of buildings. This is an important part of structural design. Verulam

The Institution’s History Group has made two study visits to Paris, one in the summer of 1986 and one last summer. To record all the structures visited, the archives inspected, and the lectures given for us, would take many pages. However, as a foil to the Group’s current exhibition at the RIBA Heinz Gallery on the impact of structural iron on architecture in Britain, it may be interesting to look at iron in the same context in France during the same period, essentially in relation to what we saw. Nearly all the iron structures which we studied in Paris-mostly buildings rather than bridges-date from the same period as those in the exhibition, i.e. 1780-1880. R.J.M. Sutherland

Mr A. N. Beal (M) (Thomason Partnership) There is a strong need to develop buckling analyses for columns of non-linear materials - not only for the hot-rolled stainless steel considered in the paper but also for reinforced concrete, plain concrete, timber, and masonry.