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Proceedings of the Royal Society 
the Royal Mining Academy, Fribourg; and as a supplement added 
some original appendices “On the Strength of Materials,” “Tubular 
Bridges,” and the “ Rigidity of Cordage.” 
Even after being laid aside from active business he continued 
to take a lively interest in engineering, and never failed to answer, 
in carefully considered letters, whatever his friends in the profes- 
sion submitted for his friendly advice, which was always promptly 
and ungrudgingly given. 
In proof of what I may call the disinterested interest he took in 
his profession and his professional brethren, it is pleasant to know 
that the latest work in which Gordon was engaged was a labour of 
love and regard for the memory of a professional brother. 
About the close of 1875 it occurred to Mr James R. Napier of 
Glasgow and Gordon, that a memoir of the late Professor Rankine, 
and a republication of his contributions on scientific subjects to 
Societies and journals would be a task agreeable to his friends, use- 
ful to his former pupils, and acceptable to men of science. His 
last letter to Mr Napier on the subject is dated 24th February 
1876, just two months before his death. But his correspondence, 
which had been going on three months, then ceased, and his friendly 
desire — so like his nature — to give his time and strength as one of 
the editors of the works of his successor in the chair of engineering 
at Glasgow came to an end. He died at Poynters Grove, near 
London, on the 28th April 1876. He became a Fellow of the 
Society in 1845. 
Resignation to the will of God was the ruling principle of the 
last years of Gordon’s long illness, and this gave cheerfulness to his 
daily intercourse, which was the admiration, and indeed the envy, 
of the many friends who now lament his death. 
David Bryce was a native of Edinburgh, where he was born in 
1803, and where he received his early education, principally at the 
High School. The son of an architect he determined to follow his 
father’s profession, for which from an early age he had shown special 
aptitude. After serving an apprenticeship in his father's office, 
where he laid the foundation of his future eminence as a designer, 
and acquired that technical skill by which he was distinguished, he 
while yet young became assistant to Mr Burn, a well-known archi- 
