The following is a short account of the felling of the large chimney at Wallsend on January 14th, 1899.

This chimney was built in 1879, and being no longer required, the present owners of the ground (The Parson Steam-turbine Company, Limited) decided upon its removal.

The chimney was 266 feet high, at the ground-level the outside diameter was 21 feet, and the inside 14 feet ; and at the top the outside diameter was 14 feet, and inside 12½ feet ; making the brickwork 3½ feet thick at the bottom and 9 inches at the top.

On examination, the writer came to the conclusion that he could fell the chimney in a nearly due south direction, where the ground was clear of all buildings.

On January 9th, 1899, the workmen commenced cutting out the walls on both sides of the chimney, about 3 feet from the ground, working towards the point of direction of the fall, and as the brickwork was removed it was replaced with large wooden blocks 18 inches high, 15 inches wide, and 12 inches long, carefully wedged up with thin hardwood wedges. The wooden blocks consisted of three deal boards, each 18 inches long, 3 inches thick, and 12 inches wide, and each board was separated by two pieces of deal 7 inches by 3 inches by 12 inches, in order that tar and sawdust might be filled into the interstices and afford a larger burning surface (Fig. I.). About 40 feet was cut out, and the chimney being at this point 66 feet in circumference, about 26 feet was left at the back.

The blocks being saturated with tar and paraffin, wood was then built for a fire all round the circumference of the chimney where the brickwork had been removed, the firing-material being much larger at the point of direction of the fall of the chimney. For about 1 minute after the fire was lit, workmen were employed throwing paraffin on the portion where the blocks were required to burn most rapidly, and 6 minutes after the lighting of the fire, the chimney fell exactly on the line marked out for on the ground.

The cost of felling the chimney was only half of that involved in its removal by ladders and throwing the material down, working from the top and moreover many thousands of the bricks were recovered for further use.

The President moved a vote of thanks to Mr. Reid for his interesting paper, and it was cordially approved.