The Institution had organised summer meeting visits to cities other than London, and to other countries, for many years. In the archive at One Birdcage Walk the Institution retains all the old programmes from these visits. In 1914 it was decided that members would visit Paris; and the meeting took place 6-10 July.
The programme details a fascinating picture of the excursions – containing everything from the factories and the restaurants visited, to the price of a horse cab.
Every year, a badge was designed for members to wear on a summer visit. The badge acted like a ‘ticket’ serving as a pass in order to visit various clubs, works, etc. and identified the wearers as members of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
For Paris 1914, the badge was made by an A. Chobillon, who was a private manufacturer of badges and medals in the city. They are noted in the council minutes as costing members 1 franc 35 centimes to purchase. The design shows the flag of the United Kingdom and the flag of France with the Institution’s logo in the centre. The badge also appears on the front page of the detailed programme for the Paris meeting.
Members travelled by train to Paris via special return railway tickets, which could be “dated to suit members’ convenience”. As an example, from Charing Cross via Lille or Valenciennes, the first class fare was £2 1s. 8d; second class £1 19s. 11d. According to the timetable printed in the meeting programme, the journey would have taken around seven or eight hours.
The papers given by French members ranged from Signalling on the French Railways, to Internal Combustion Engines, and Improvements in Motor Lorries. They were curated by the committee months before, and carefully selected.
Mornings during the summer meeting began with the delivery of such papers, or presentations, and then the group traversed to a scheduled programme of visits, via lunch.
Visits were made to places of great relevance to modern engineering of the time. For example, the Summer Meeting visited Compagnie Electro-Mécanique just outside Paris, in Le Bouquet. Established in 1892, this company had recently been constructing Parsons steam turbines. The programme states:
“The steam turbines were then little known in France, cylinder engines and De Laval turbines having held the field alone. The firm’s output from that date amounts to a combined motive force of over 850,000 horse-power in these turbines”.
Tours were often led by a combination of those who worked in the factories and institutions, and French members of the Institution or Société des Ingenieurs Civils. During the visit the group often travelled by wagonette – which was a small horsecar with springs, and a wooden bench-type seat – or by motor omnibus, an early version of the modern day bus.
The Paris visit was declared a great success, but a little over two weeks after returning home, the First World War broke out. Many members of the Institution went to serve; their engineering expertise deployed in the government department of munitions, or as soldiers at the Front.
Many engineers lost their lives at the Front, which the Institution commemorated in its honour roll. Indeed, the President at the time of the Paris visit, Sir Hay Frederick Donaldson, was on the HMS Hampshire with Lord Kitchener when it hit a mine and sank off the Orkney Islands in 1916.
There were no summer visits whilst the war was on, as the Institution channelled its engineering skills and expertise into the war effort.
The Institution is commemorating the centenary of the First World War through a joint exhibition and honour roll, as well as articles of research, showing the contribution and sacrifices of contemporary mechanical engineers. The joint exhibition, with the Institution of Electrical Engineers and Institution of Civil Engineers, will launch on 11th November 2014, looking at some of the key engineering feats of the conflict.
All the membership records for the war period are
available online.
Keep up with the Institution’s
Archive and Library blog, where stories commemorating members’ wartime experiences will be posted.