﻿Annual Report of the Council. xlv 



commerce, and merchant, he gave valuable services to the com- 

 munity in which he lived, but his hours of relaxation were 

 devoted to the life-study of the cryptogams of his native land, 

 more particularly the seaweeds, hepatics and mosses of the 

 Departement in which he spent all his life. He was one of the 

 founders, more than fifty years ago, of the " Societe des sciences 

 naturelles et mathematiques de Cherbourg." 



His friend, Monsieur Ed. Bomet, has published an appreciative 

 obituary notice in the " Bulletin de la Societe Botanique de 

 Frayice" vol. 51, pp. 428 — 429. C. B. 



By the death of Mr. Beauchamp Tower, which occurred on 

 December 31st, 1904, the Society has lost one of its honorary 

 members, and one well known as an eminent engineer. Mr. 

 Tower was born on January, 13th, 1845, an d on completing 

 his school education became a pupil of Messrs. Sir W. G. 

 Armstrong & Co., from April, 1861, to April, 1866. He had 

 entire charge of the design and construction of several iron 

 steam boats, at the Tyne Iron Works, and was assistant to the 

 late Mr. W. Froude, F.R.S., M.InstC.E., in the design and 

 construction of his experimental works for the Admiralty, from 

 May, 1869, to June, 1872. Subsequently he was employed by 

 Messrs. Armstrong & Co., in conducting a series of experiments 

 on Torpedoes, and was engaged by Lord Raleigh, F.R.S., in 

 conducting a series of experiments on the Theory of Sound 

 during 1875 and 1876. 



Mr. Tower is, perhaps, best known to engineers in general 

 by his experiments on journal friction, carried out for the 

 Institution of Mechanical Engineers. The first of his reports 

 was published in November, 1883, and marked an epoch in our 

 knowledge of the subject. Up till that date it had been con- 

 sidered that General Morin's experiments had established certain 

 laws of friction which were of universal applicability. Practical 

 engineers had, however, found it difficult to bring into accord- 

 ance with these so-called laws their experience w r ith actual 

 journals; and it was this fact which led the Institution of 



