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Report of the Annual General Meeting held October 2005

The AGM took place in Lecture Theatre A of the Civil Engineering building at the University of Leeds on Saturday, 29th October. Committee members present were Denis Weaire (chairman), Peter Ford (secretary/treasurer), Malcolm Cooper (Newsletter editor), Neil Brown, Christopher Green, Adrian Jackson, and Peter Rowlands; nine other members were also in attendance.

All the present members of the committee were re-elected. One additional member, Stuart Richardson a teacher from Sutton Coldfield, was also voted on to the committee.

Two important matters arose during the committee meeting. The first was the necessity to establish better links with the Education Group of the Institute of Physics. The second was closer interaction with the History group of the European Physical Society. It was agreed that these two matters should be vigorously pursued.

A lecture programme preceded the AGM. Dr John Lydon from the University of Leeds gave a brief introduction highlighting the important contributions made by the city both in science and technology, especially the beginnings of the industrial revolution.

Three lectures followed:

In addition, Dr. Peter Ford showed a short video (ten minutes) of W.H. Bragg lecturing at the Institution of Electrical Engineers around 1934.

Malcolm Cooper gave a brief address on the background to the special issue of the newsletter: 'Apologia pro Vita Mea' and 'Early Reminiscences of Barr and Stroud Rangefinders', originally due to Professor William Stroud. After the meeting copies of the booklet - which seems to have been well received - were distributed and it has subsequently been distributed to the members of the History of Physics Group.

Finally, it was tentatively agreed that the 2006 AGM should be held sometime in October in the city of Bath at the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution.


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Query Corner
I hope the 'Special Issue' of the newsletter on the writings of Prof. William Stroud has provided some interesting and amusing reading. In the 'Apologia pro Vita Mea' Prof. Stroud refers (rather cryptically) to the 'Quaker method of subtraction' and which apparently was the method as taught by Prof. Silvanus P Thompson at University College, Bristol. Despite considerable efforts to throw some light on this 'method' - it still remains a mystery. So I appeal to any of our readers who may know something about this to please contact me and any answers or even just comments may be included in future issues.

Malcolm Cooper
Editor


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