608 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION G. 
Section G.—ENGINEERING. 
PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION.—Professor Sitvanus P. THompson, 
B.A., D.Sc., F.R.S. 
THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 
The President delivered the following Address :— 
Ir would be impossible for any assembly of engineers to meet in annual gathering 
at the present time without some reference to the severe loss which the profession 
has so recently sustained by the death of Sir Benjamin Baker. Born in 1840, he 
had attained while still a comparatively young man to a position in the front rank 
of constructive engineers. His contributions to science cover a considerable range, 
but were chiefly concerned with the strength of materials, into which he made 
valuable investigations, and with engineering structures generally. His name 
will doubtless be chietly associated with the building of great bridges, to the 
theory of which he contributed an important memoir entitled ‘ A Theoretical 
Investigation into the Most Advantageous System of Constructing Bridges of 
Great Span.’ In this work he set forth the theory of the cantilever bridge. 
Upon the plan there laid down he built the Forth Bridge, besides many other large 
bridges in various parts of the world. With that memorable structure, completed 
in 1890, his name will ever be associated; but he will be remembered henceforth 
also as the engineer who was responsible for the great dam across the Nile at 
Assouan, a work which promises to have un influence for all time upon the fortunes 
of Egypt and upon the prosperity of its population. Sir Benjamin Baker was, 
moreover, closely associated with the internal railways of London, both in the 
early days of the Metropolitan Railway and in the later developments of the deep- 
level tubes. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1890, became 
President of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1895, and was a member of 
Council of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, besides being an active 
member of the Royal Institution and of the British Association. He was also a 
member of the Council of the Royal Society at the time of his death. 
He enjoyed many honorary distinctions, including degrees conferred by the 
Universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh. In 1890 there was conferred upon 
him the title of K.C.M.G., and in 1902 that of K.C.B. 
He had but just returned from Egypt, whither he had gone in connection with 
the project for raising the height of the Assouan dam, soas to increase its storage 
to more than double the present volume, when he died very suddenly on May 19, 
in his sixty-seventh year. 
The Development of Engineering and its Foundation on Science. 
We live in an age when the development of the material resources of civilisa- 
tion is progressing in a ratio without parallel. International commerce spreads 
apace. Ocean transport is demanding greater facilities. Steamships of vaster 
size and swifter speed than any heretofore in use are being built every year. Not 
