754 REPORT— 1903. 



A few details of the work accomplished and in progress may be of interest. 

 After careful deliberation the Committee published their first series of British 

 standards sections, covering all rolled steel sections used in constructional work, 

 shiplKiildiDg and so forth. The Committee on Rails has just issued the standard 

 sections and specification for British girder tramway rails, and it is now actively 

 engaged in drawing up a series of standard sections of bull-headed and flat- 

 bottotned rails for railway work. 



Another committee of a thoroughly representative character is occupied in 

 drawing up a standard specification and standard tests for cement, and a standard 

 specification drawn up by so large a body of our leading engineers, contractors, 

 and manufacturers must be of great interest to all those who are called on to 

 specify tests for this material. 



The Government of India control to a very considerable extent the working of 

 rallwavs in India, and they have referred to the Standards Committee the im- 

 portant question of drawing up a series of standard types of locomotives for use 

 on the Indian railways. The Committee which investigated this difficult subject 

 has just forwarded its report to the Secretary of State for India. Other com- 

 mittees are preparing standard specifications for locomotive copper fire-box plates 

 and steel boiler plates, which it is hoped will be published at an early date. 



The subject of screw-threads is one which has occupied a Committee of the 

 British Association for some years past, and I am glad to learn that the Committee 

 of this Association has been co-operating with the Standards Committee and dis- 

 cussino- the question of screw-threads of both smaller and larger diameters, and 

 also considering the cognate subject of limit gauges so essential to all accurate 

 work in mechanical engineering. 



Another Committee is dealing with standard flange.'), and I understand it is 

 shortly proposed to consider the standardisation of cast-iron pipes. 



A very large and influential Committee is engaged on the subject of the 

 materials used in the construction of ships and their machinery, and most valuable 

 information is being collected with a view to the preparation of a standard specifi- 

 cation for steel and to the determination of forms for standard test-pieces to be 

 used when testing plates, forgings, castings, and so forth. 



There are about half a dozen committees engaged on various important 

 electrical subjects, but as their work will no doubt be referred to in another 

 Section of this Association, I do not propose to make further reference to it here. 



In my Presidential Address before the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1901, 

 I raised a note of warning in regard to the stereotyping of design and the conse- 

 quent cramping of originality. The constitution of the Standards Committee and 

 the professional standing of its members aflbrds a guarantee that its work will 

 accord with the best practice of this country, since those engaged in drawing up 

 the standards are not only in the forefront of engineering practice, but are alive to 

 the necessity for extending the number of standards if and when needed to meet 

 the requirements of the engineer. 



National Physical Laboratory. 



An outline scheme for a National Physical Laboratory was set forth in 1891, 

 by Sir (then Dr.) Oliver Lodge, F.R.S., in his Address <at Cardiff to Section A of the 

 British Association. In bis Presidential Address to this Association in 1895 at 

 Ipswich, the late Sir Douglas Galton, F.R.S., emphasised the importance of such an 

 Institution, a Committee of this Association reported in favour of it, and later, 

 when after forwarding a petition to the late Lord Salisbury, a Treasury Committee 

 with Lord Rayleigh, F.R.S., in the Chair was formed, Sir Douglas Galton gave 

 evidence to the effect tliat if Great Britain was to retain its industrial supremacy, 

 we must have accurate standards available to our research students and to our 

 manufacturers. 



In 1901 the National Physical Laboratory was inaugurated at Bushy House, 

 near Teddington, and an annual grant of 4,000^. towards its support was made by 

 Government. It is divided into three departments, of which the one dealing with 



