the 23rd August, 1898, only ten days after the death of his wife, to whom he had been married nearly fifty years. He was a sound and able engineer, gifted with considerable foresight, and the city of Bristol is in no small degree indebted to him for the way in which he carried out the duties of his office. Mr. Ashmead was President of the Incorporated Association of Municipal Engineers in 1877. In manner he was retiring and modest, courteous and straightforward, and he gained the respect of those who sometimes differed from him in opinion.

Mr. Ashmead was elected a Member of the Institution on the 4th April, 1865.

WILLIAM BELK, son of the late Mr. Thomas Belk, Recorder of Hartlepool, was born on the 6th February, 1849. After being educated at the Royal Grammar School, Lancaster, he served an apprenticeship of five years to Messrs. Thomas Richardson & Sons, mechanical engineers, of Hartlepool. He was subsequently employed by that firm in their marine-engine department, and in erecting machinery abroad.

In October, 1874, Mr. Belk was appointed assistant to Mr. John Howkins, then Engineer to the Hartlepool Port and Harbour Commissioners, and on the resignation of that gentleman in July, 1877, he succeeded to the post, which he held until his death. Among the works which Mr. Belk carried out as Engineer to the Commissioners may be mentioned the construction of a breakwater at the Heugh, the deepening by means of dredging of the approach to the harbour and docks, the improvement of the lighthouse, and the erection of sea-walls and groins. Mr. Belk died on the 16th July, 1898, at the comparatively early age of 49. He was elected a Member on the 9th January, 1883.

FRANCISCO JAVIER CISNEROS was born on the 28th

December, 1836, at Santiago de Cuba. After having passed through the School of Engineering in Havana, he obtained employment on the Cuban railways. In 1857-58 he was engaged on the construction of the Sagua la Grande Railway; at the end of the latter year he took charge of a branch of the Matanzas Railway; and in 1859 he added to that work the charge of the Trinidad and Sancti Spiritu Railway which he retained until

1862. He was then for 6 years connected with the Eastern Railway of Cuba, and in 1868 he acted as Chief Engineer of the Caibarien Railway. The latter post he was obliged to resign at the end of that year, as he had to leave Havana, having been implicated in the insurrection of the Cubans against the Spanish Government.

In 1872 Mr. Cisneros became an American citizen, and was for a time in partnership in New York with Mr. A. G. Menocal. In the following year he went to the United States of Colombia, where he at once engaged in railway work. The Antioquia Railway from Puerto-Berrio on the Magdalena River to Paras, the Cauca Railway, the Girardot Railway from Girardot to Juntas de Apulo, and the La Dorada Railway connecting the Upper and the Lower Magdalena, were constructed by Mr. Cisneros. He also organised an enterprise of steamboats on the Magdalena River and regulated the mail service between the sea-ports and the interior of the country. In 1893 a pier at Barranquilla, over 4,000 feet long, which had been carried out under his direction, was opened for the service of the railway and steamers.

Mr. Cisneros was a strong advocate of the policy of the annexation of Cuba to the United States, and he contributed largely from his means to the support of the insurrection in that island which led to the recent war between Spain and the United States. He was a man of great intelligence and resource, and was distinguished by innate courtesy, tact and generosity. Mr. Cisneros died at New York on the 7th July, 1898, in his sixty-second year. Several of his reports may be found in the Library of the Institution, of which he was elected a Member on the 5th. February, 1884.

Sir JOHN FOWLER, Bart., K.C.M.G., LL.D., who died at Bournemouth on the 20th November, 1898, at the age of eightyone, was one of the most eminent of the engineers whose names are associated with the great material progress effected during the Victorian era. By his death is snapped one of the few remaining links which connect the present generation to the Railway Mania and to the stirring times which preceded it. It

'This Notice is, with some additions relative to Sir John Fowler's association with the Institution, reprinted, by permission of the Editors, from Engineering of the 25th November, 1898.

may be truly said "There were giants in those days," men not only of immense intellect and of great force of character, but also endowed with the physical strength to carry. them unharmed through arduous days and toil-laden nights to live far beyond the allotted span. The opening of the Manchester and Liverpool Railway in 1830 was the commencement of an epoch rich in opportunities, and equally rich in men capable of turning them to full advantage. A new department of engineering had to be created without aid from precedent, and it rapidly attained such magnitude that it provided abundant work for all who had the necessary talent. Among these none was more conspicuous than Sir John (then Mr.) Fowler. He immediately attained a commanding position, which he kept until the close of his life. An independent professional career, commencing before the Railway Mania, and extending some years beyond the completion of the Forth Bridge, is indeed a notable record, and it is scarcely possible that one quite like it will ever occur again. It lifts its author out of the ordinary category of engineers, and puts him among the few who have written their names in broad characters across the face of the nineteenth century. During the whole of the period he was in the forefront of the struggle in subduing the great powers of Nature to the service of man, and wherever the difficulties were greatest he was certain to be found.

The salient feature in the character of Mr. Fowler was his intense self-reliance. When he had made up his mind that a course of conduct was practicable and desirable, he never felt any misgivings, but went straight on with it in spite of all difficulties. He was not content to take his opinions from others, or to act upon views with which he was not in complete harmony. He held that the whole duties of an engineer were not comprised in the mere accomplishment of the objects entertained by his employers. It was his duty, he considered, to advise those who consulted him whether the undertaking was one that would repay the expenditure that must be made upon it. The engineer was not merely a man of technical skill engaged to bridge the difficulties of capitalists, as a servant carries out the orders of his master. On the contrary, he was a member of an honourable and noble profession which could not lend itself to enterprises that did not give fair promise of being beneficent to the world and to the advancement of civilization. A notable example of the influence exerted by Mr. Fowler, and the confidence he was able to inspire in others, was afforded during the construction of the Metropolitan Railway. The first enthusiastic anticipations of its

success were soon followed in the public mind by a doubt as to the possibility of its being constructed. The directors were constantly being told that they had embarked their money and that of the shareholders in an impossible enterprise. Engineers of eminence assured them that they could never make the railway, that if they made they could not work it, and if they worked it nobody would travel by it. Such a catalogue of impossibilities was enough to appal anyone, and often faith in the enterprise fell to a low ebb. At such times the directors would say to Mr. Fowler, "We depend on you, and as long as you tell us you have confidence we shall go on." It was a heavy load to put on the shoulders of a man who had already sufficient to attend to in combating the physical difficulties of the affair. Yet Mr. Fowler never flinched. He had made up his mind that the railway could be constructed and that it would answer its purpose.

Mr. Fowler's self-reliance showed itself in the courage with which he tackled schemes of magnitude far beyond anything previously attempted. His mental gait was not that of the toddling child who fears to relinquish its hold on one object before it can grasp a second. Rather was it that of the athlete who will launch himself across a chasm, certain that his eye can measure the distance, and that his muscles will respond instantly and accurately to the command of his brain. Strong in his experience and in his grasp on principles, and confident in his mechanical instinct, he would put his professional reputation to the hazard in a way that men of equal skill, but wanting his courage, would have failed to do. The Forth Bridge affords a case in point. It was not only far larger than any railway bridge previously built, but it was of a very novel design. It was commenced with the full consciousness that its execution bristled with unknown difficulties, which would have to be met and conquered as they made themselves evident. Yet Sir John Fowler was satisfied that the project was feasible, and he did not doubt that he and his colleagues would be quite able to accomplish it. In this instance he was fortunate in having clients who had a perfect belief in his powers, and who could command the required capital. Many of Mr. Fowler's enterprises were too bold for the British investor, and could not be attempted for want of funds. He could convince the men with whom he came in personal contact, but, of course, the great body of the public was beyond his reach.

Mr. Fowler was born on the 15th July, 1817, at Wadsley Hall, Sheffield, the residence of his father, who also was called John Fowler. He received a good general education, and at the age of

seventeen became a pupil of Mr. J. T. Leather, the well-known hydraulic engineer, under whom he saw a good deal of practice, particularly in the water-supply of large towns. At that time the construction of railways in this country had fairly commenced. The Stockton and Darlington line was opened when Mr. Fowler was eight years of age, and the Manchester and Liverpool line when he was only thirteen. It was natural, therefore, that on leaving Mr. Leather's office, Mr. Fowler should turn to railway work. He entered the employment of Mr. J. U. Rastrick, where he was principally engaged on the design and superintendence of the railway from London to Brighton. After two years he returned to Mr. Leather, and became the responsible resident engineer for the Stockton and Hartlepool Railway. After it was completed he remained two years as engineer, general manager, and locomotive superintendent of that and the Clarence Railway. On the termination of this engagement Mr. Fowler visited, at the invitation of Sir John Macneill, several railways in the neighbourhood of Glasgow, and gave evidence before Parliamentary Committees respecting them. He was twenty-six years of age when he thus started an independent career. Several important railways were then being promoted from Sheffield, such as the Sheffield and Lincolnshire, the Great Grimsby, the New Holland, the East Lincolnshire, and others, and of these Mr. Fowler became the chief engineer, conducting them through Parliament, and carrying them out. It was in 1843 this work was commenced, and before it was completed, the Railway Mania attained its full proportions. How wild it was, a single incident in Mr. Fowler's career will show. One night when asleep in his father's house, a carriage and four drove up to the door, and the household was aroused by loud knocking. On descending, Mr. Fowler found that a prominent director of railways had called with the purpose of inducing him to undertake the engineering of a new railway from Leeds to Glasgow, and that he had brought £20,000 as a preliminary payment on account of survey expenses. It then only wanted a few weeks before the day for depositing the plans, and Mr. Fowler declined the offer, leaving the promotor to go away disappointed.

Mr. Fowler was in the thick of these stirring times, and took part in many a well-fought battle before Parliamentary Committees. Among the works about which he was consulted, or which he carried out at that and later times, may be mentioned the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton Railways; the Severn Valley Railway; the London, Tilbury, and Southend Railway (in connection with Mr. Bidder); the Liverpool Central Station;