Notes on engineering progress in Britain

Last September I went to London to represent the Standards Committee at a conference with the British Engineering Standards Committee. This constituted the third of a series of Anglo-American Conferences on Standards for Electrical Machinery. The first occasion was in February, 1915, when the Institute in response to the British Committee´s invitation, sent as its delegates to a London Conference, Mr. C. E. Skinner and myself. The second conference was in the spring of 1916, when the British Committee accepted an invitation from the American Committee by sending to New York as its delegate, Mr. C. le Maistre, with whom many of you have become well acquainted. At the time of le Maistre´s departure from London in May, 1916, he was the Electrical Secretary of the Engineering Standards Committee, the General Secretary being Mr. Leslie Robertson. But in June, while le Maistre was in America, Mr. Leslie Robertson was appointed to accompany Kitchener to Russia and, as you know, the ship either struck a mine or was torpedoed and none survived. On le Maistre´s return to England a few weeks after this occurrence, he was offered and accepted the position of General Secretary of the Engineering Standards Committee.