228 

 PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



By H. C. Mais, M.I.C.E., read at the Annual Meeting, 

 October 5, 1886. 



I peopose to touch upon various subjects with which most of 

 us are familiar, and to take a retrospect of the advancement 

 made during the past year. Confining myself more particularly 

 to engineering achievements, the magnitude of the progress 

 effected in engineering within recent times makes it impos- 

 sible to present even an abridgment of the subject to the 

 Society, involving as it would an exhaustive research into all 

 the records oE the various countries where the art is practised. 

 Engineering is, as Telford aptly describes it, " the art of 

 directing the great sources of power in nature for the use and con- 

 venience of man" and you will at once perceive the vastness of 

 the field in which the science of engineering is being practised. 

 Amongst the foremost of engineering works of the day bridges 

 and tunnels may be mentioned, and some very important bridges 

 are in course of construction in England, America, and else- 

 where. At the present time the most important structures 

 now in progress in England are the Eorth and Tay Bridges ; in 

 America, the Susquehanna Biver Bridge, the Henderson Bridge, 

 and the John's River Bridge ; in Canada, the Lachine Bridge ; 

 in India, the Sukkar Bridge across the Indus ; and last, but 

 not the least in magnitude, is the Hawkesbury Bridge in New 

 South "Wales. I do not propose to do more than briefly describe 

 these structures, which are among the largest yet erected. 



BRIDGES. 

 POETK BRIDGE. 



The Eorth Bridge crosses the Eorth at Queensferry, and was 

 designed by Messrs. Eowler & Baker, C.E.s. The work was 

 commenced by Messrs. Tancred & Arrol in January, 1883, and 

 consists of two spans of 1,700 feet each, two of 675 feet, four- 

 teen of 168 feet, and six of 50 feet. There is about a mile of 

 main spans and half a-mile of viaduct approach. The clear 

 headway is 150 feet above the water, and the top of the girder 

 of the great cantilevers is 350 feet above high water. There 

 will be 45,000 tons of steel used in superstructure, and 120,000 

 cubic yards of masonry in the piers. The contract price was 

 £1,600,000. One peculiar feature in the design is that the 

 bridge is constructed from its south abutment for a length of 

 eleven spans of 147-J- feet each as an ordinary double line of 

 railway. The two lines of rails then diverge gradually, one on 



