Annual Meeting, Wilkes-Barre

THE Institute assembled in the Court-House, on Tuesday evening, May 22d, and was called to order by Vice-President E. B. Coxe. After announcement by the Local Committee of the programme for excursions, the Secretary read the following annual report of the Council The Council, in presenting to the Institute its annual report, has to record a most eventful year in the history of the Institute. Three meetings, as usual, have been held, two in Philadelphia and one in New York. At the Philadelphia meetings in June and October, there were present many distinguished foreign engineers, some of whom contributed communications to the Institute, and took part in its discussions. Sixty-seven papers have, in all, been presented to the Institute, which will be published in the fifth volume of Transactions. There has been an accession to the membership of 1 honorary member, 11 foreign members, and 162 members and associates; -8 have resigned, 6 have died, and 30 have been dropped from the roll, after due notification, for non-payment of dues. The membership now comprises 5 honorary members, 60 foreign members, and 644 members and associates, in all 699. As worthy of especial mention in the work of the year are the Discussions on Technical Education in connection with the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the report of the-International Committee appointed by the Institute to consider the nomenclature of iron and steel. The Discussions on Technical Education have been published in a separate volume, and comprise a valuable and suggestive collection of the views of practical engineers and educators. The report of the International Committee, composed of Messrs. Akerman, of Sweden; Bell, of England; Tunner, of Austria; Gruner, of France; Wedding, of Prussia; and Holley and Egleston, of the United States, has received the careful attention of engineers and metallurgists of all countries, and has met . with very general acceptance. Of the work of the Centennial Committee in Philadelphia the members are generally familiar, from personal experience, and from the detailed report of the committee at the last meeting of the Institute. But the record of the service rendered by this committee would he incomplete without mention of the numerous letters of thanks and formal expressions of obligations received by the Institute from individuals, societies, and governments abroad. The wise and generous spirit in which the work of the committee was planned, and the laborious and self-sacrificing manner in which it was carried out, call for emphatic expressions of thanks from the Institute. The gifts of Centennial exhibits to the Institute, largely as testimonials for services rendered, has necessitated the appointment of a Museum Committee for