TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION G. — PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



693 



Section G.— ENGINEERING. 

 President of the Section. — Professor W. E. Dalby, M.A., M.Inst.C.E. 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1. 

 The President delivered the following Addrese : — 



British Railways : Some Facts and a Few Problems. 



It is remarkable how few among us really realise the large part that railways 

 play in our national life. How many of us realise that the capital invested in 

 the railway companies of the United Kingdom is nearly twice the amount of the 

 national debt ; that the gross income of the railway companies is within measurable 

 distance of the national income ; that to produce this income every inhabitant of 

 the British Islands would have to pay annually 31. per head ; that they employ 



1400 



United Kingdom. 



70 BO 



Year 



Fig. 1. 



over six hundred thousand people ; and that about eight million tons of coal are 

 burnt annually in the fire-boxes of their locomotives ? I hope to place before you 

 in the short time which can be devoted to a presidential address a few facts 

 concerning this great asset of our national life and some probleme connected 

 with the recent developments of railway working — problems brought into exist- 

 ence by the steady progress of scientific discovery and the endeavour to apply the 

 new discoveries to improve the service and to increase the comfort of the travel- 

 ling public. 



