The CHAIRMAN thought he was doing an almost needless duty in asking the members to pass a very hearty vote of thanks to Colonel Crompton for his lecture. He believed the suggestion was made by Mr. Forrest some time ago that a series of these lectures should bear on Unsolved Problems in Engineering, and the introductory lecture of this series was given by Mr. W. H. Maw. He thought they could not have wished for a happier advance in that direction than was afforded by the lecture which Colonel Crompton had just delivered. There were two points in the lecture which had particularly struck him; one was that it at once removed any reproach that ever could be brought against the engineering profession that some at least of its members were not men of imagination, because it was quite clear that the lecturer's ideas went far beyond steel and iron, even beyond insulating materials, and carried his hearers away into the regions of fancy which were to be the domain of their sons and grandsons. The other point was that the lecturer had brought engineers to their senses in reference to their position in history. People were a little too apt to think that they had arrived at the end of all things. His friend Mr. Jebb, only a few days ago, showed him an engine which was built by James Watt in 1776, and which was no doubt the very latest thing at the time it was first started. He himself, although not a very venerable person, remembered drawing about 35 years ago the first marine compound engine ever made on the Tyne. Only 15 years ago the lecturer himself would have considered a 200- or 300-kilowatt dynamo a formidable piece of apparatus to undertake at short notice. And now, in 1905, it was said that no self-respecting engineer would think of putting anything short of a 10,000-kilowatt dynamo into a central station! But it had to be remembered that, after all, this was only the year 1905, and that there were a few more years to come. In course of time there might be an internal-combustion turbine, or that sort of domestic light which the lecturer had suggested would enable people to see through walls into their neighbours' houses, or any one of a thousand other things which were as different from the things of 1905 as the engineering of to-day was different from that of even a single generation ago. He was sure the members had spent a most interesting hour in listening to the lecturer's fascinating suggestions as to what their successors might be doing.

Sir JOHN WOLFE BARRY, K.C.B., Past-President, said he had very great pleasure in seconding the motion, which he felt certain would meet with the approval of every one present. The short

Meeting.

time they had spent under Colonel Crompton's guidance had been most instructive, and all present felt they had listened to words of peculiar weight, both in the record of what had been done, and in the fascinating anticipations of the future. Unsolved problems would remain unsolved until they were attacked by men like the lecturer, and those who were working in the same fields; but it was a great pleasure to think that so much had been done within the short history of what might be called electrical development. What the end of the twentieth century would be it was impossible to foresee, but one thing was certain, namely, the intimate relation that existed between the different branches of engineering. It was a great pleasure to those who, like himself, were occupied with constructional work, to realize how intimately that and the mechanical and electrical lines of thought were interdependent, and how much one must be the handmaid of the others. It seemed as if one could not exist without the others, and that it was to the development of all that must be looked for that great future which would add so much to the pleasure of life, and would solve so many social problems which were pressing upon the rising generation.

The resolution was then put and carried with acclamation.

Colonel CROMPTON, after acknowledging the vote of thanks which had been accorded to him, said it had been as great a pleasure to him to give the lecture as it was possible for any man to have; he never had a prouder moment in his life than when he was informed that he was to be called upon to prepare the "James Forrest " Lecture.

The preceding lectures of this, the second, series of these discourses, have been :

G. F. VOLLMER.

57

11⁄2" round Iron.

Papers.]

SECT. II.-OTHER SELECTED PAPERS.

(Paper No. 3553.)

"An Example of Irrigation in the Arid Regions of the United States."

By GEORGE FREDERICK VOLLMER, M.Sc., Assoc. M. Inst. C.E. THE irrigation of the arid land in the Far West, more especially in the Rocky Mountain States, presents a problem of such importance that the Government of the United States has taken the matter into its own hands, and has appointed engineers to report on various sites for reservoirs for regulating and controlling the flood-waters caused by the melting of the snow on the mountains in the spring. In the following Paper the Author presents a description of a typical irrigation-scheme which has been carried out by a private company, called the Wyoming Development Company.

Location. The land included in this scheme surrounds and is tributary to the town of Wheatland, a handsome little town of about 1,000 inhabitants, situated on the Cheyenne and Northern Railroad, at an elevation of 4,700 feet above sea-level, and about 90 miles north of Cheyenne, an important station on the main line of the Union Pacific Railroad. The area of land which is expected ultimately to be reclaimed is about 60,000 acres, or nearly 100 square miles (Fig. 1, Plate 6).

The soil in the district is of excellent quality, being in most places several feet in thickness and comparatively free from that western nuisance, alkali. The herbage is comparatively abundant, being composed principally of range-grass, on which western cattle-herds feed. The country around is known as Wheatland Flats, and consists of a gently undulating tableland, generally sloping to the east and north, and at an average elevation of 5,000 feet above sea-level. The Laramie range of mountains, extending north and south along the western side of the land, forms a barrier against the cold weather which is experienced in most other parts of the State, and tends to render the climate more equable.

Gen ral Scheme.-Referring to Fig. 1, the general scheme is to tap the waters of the Laramie River at the point marked B,