XL. DISCUSSION, 
ing deformation which would injure them for continued service, 
being the real “ultimate loads” for all practical purposes. It 
marked therefore, the most valuable and important property of 
all engineering materials. It was thus the most essential charac- 
teristic point on the stress diagram. After this last opinion surely 
the author of the paper would make an alteration where he put 
the value of the yield point in priority to that of the elastic limit 
as regards essentiality of determination. It may be very interest- 
ing to know the so-called yield point of a certain material, or its 
percentage of elongation, but Mr. Haycroft was of opinion that 
definite information as regards the limit of elasticity alone, was 
of infinitely greater value to a professional man when designing, 
and marked its most valuable and important property. 
Members of the profession who took an interest in this subject 
could not do better than read Prof. Johnson’s book and the various 
' Continental and American reports, from which latter the paper 
and these remarks have been freely compiled. Tn conclusion he 
was of opinion that the use of the decimal system was more appro- 
priate for physical measurements, such for instance as those 
- mentioned in the paper, than the duodecimal or English method, 
and would be glad to see it more generally used in the future. In 
connection with this matter he might state that a paper on “The 
decimal system in engineering methods ” had been read before the 
Institution in London last May, and a bill was being put through 
the United States Senate making the use of the decimal system 
compulsory in the United States from the commencement of the 
Twentieth Century, in all transactions, except land measurements. 
It existed at present in their coinage and in measurements of the 
Coast and Geodetic Survey. 
Mr. Setman said he had carefully perused the recommendations 
of both the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the 
French Convention in regard to the testing of materials, from 
which sources the author had drawn so largely in compiling his 
paper, and to those interested in this matter he commended for 
study a recently issued American State paper dealing with the 
