ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT, JAMES BICHENO FRANCIS, AT THE THIRTEENTH
ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE SOCIETY AT MONTREAL, JUNE 15, 1881.
You have assembled in convention for the first time outside the limits
of the United States, and I congratulate you on the selection of this
beautiful city, in which and its immediate neighborhood there are so
many interesting engineering works, constructed with the skill and
solidity characteristic of the British school of engineering. Nine of
our members are Canadian engineers, which must be the excuse of the
other members for invading foreign territory.
The society was organized November 3, 1852, and actively maintained up
to March 2, 1855. Eleven only of the present members date from this
period. October 2, 1867, the society was reorganized on a wider basis,
and from that time to the present it has been constantly increasing in
interest and usefulness.
The membership of the society is now as follows:
Honorary members........ 11
Corresponding members... 3
Members................. 491
Associates.............. 21
Juniors................. 57
Fellows................. 53
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Total................... 636
During the last year we have lost six members by death and five by
resignation, and fifty-six new members have been elected and qualified.
The most interesting event to the society since the last convention has
been the purchase of a house in the City of New York, as a permanent
home, at a cost of $30,000. This has been accomplished, so far, without
taxing the resources of the society, the required payments having been
met by subscription. The sum of $11,900 had been subscribed to the
building fund up to the 25th ult., by seventy members and twenty-nine
friends of the society who are not members. The subscription is still
open, and it is expected that large additions will be made to it by
members and their friends to enable the society to make the remaining
payments without embarrassment.
Meetings of the society are held twice in each month during ten months
in the year, for the reading and discussion of papers and other
purposes. The new house affords much better accommodations for these
purposes than we have ever had before, and also for the library, which
now contains 8,850 books and pamphlets, and is constantly increasing. A
catalogue of the library is being prepared. Part I., embracing railroads
and the transactions of scientific societies, has been printed and
furnished to members.