Papers mainly concerning the construction and administration of bridges, roads, piers, railways, harbours, reservoirs and canals in Scotland, 1782-1841, including correspondence of Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville (1742-1811), Robert Saunders Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville (1771-1851), and Sir Thomas Dundas, 1st Baron Dundas (1741-1820). The collection comprises letters, petitions, memorials, plans, estimates, reports, financial accounts, legal papers, trustees minutes and circulars relating to bridges including the Dee, Don, Urie, Findhorn, Montrose, Nairn, Pease, and Spey; canals including the Borrowstone Canal Navigation, the Clarence Canal, the Forth and Clyde Navigation, and the Union Canal (Falkirk to Edinburgh); ferries such as the Dysart Ferry, Queensferry, and Tay Ferries; harbours and piers notably Burntisland Harbour and Pier, Kinghorn Harbour, Hartlepool Pier, and Newhaven Pier; the Gala Water Railroad; the North Esk Reservoirs; roads in Aberdeen, Inverness, Dalkeith, Edinburgh, Glenlaidnaig, Glenlichorn, Lanarkshire, Lauriston, Perth, and Stirling.

Records from the Lee Conservancy Board Engineer's Office at Enfield Lock. The engineer appears also to have been responsible to the Lee Conservancy Catchment Board (for example, see Acc 2423/062).

The collection consists of nineteenth and twentieth century plans, papers and volumes concerning the Lee Conservancy Board, the Lee Conservancy Catchment Board, and the British Waterways Board, covering many aspects of maintenance work on waterways and administration. The papers comprise:

• Plans 1760-1954 (ACC 2423/P/0001-3786) A large proportion of the collection consists of plans, many reused with annotations. Items relate to repair work on sewers and buildings, improvements to rivers and pumping stations, and the purchase of land for new projects.
  • Parliamentary Plans 1840-1965 (ACC 2423/PP/001-041) Plans produced for or submitted for Parliamentary Sessions to illustrate forthcoming work on waterways, for example, sewerage work, or waterways affected by the construction of railways.
  • Specific Plans 1867-1964 (ACC 2423/R/001-076) A set of plans illustrating large projects, which seems to have been kept as a set distinct and separate from the main ACC 2423/P plan series by the placing of the letter `R' before each original plan number.
  • General Plans 1828-1974 (ACC 2423/X/001-300) A collection of more general plans relating to projects focusing on improvements to the Lea River and Navigation, the Stort River and Navigation, the Bow Back Rivers and the Grand Union Canal.
  • Ordnance Survey Maps 1838-1955 (ACC 2423/05/001-139) Maps used to plan forthcoming work, with frequent annotations, particularly for the drafting of courses for sewers.
  • Engineers' Reports and Letter Books 1858-1961 (ACC 2423/001-136) Sets of volumes and files recording reports, contracts and specifications, and other maintenance records.
  • Administrative and Legal Documents 1829-1977 (ACC 2423/AL/001-119) Administrative files relating to accidents and damage, together with inventories of assets, minutes of meetings, and engineers' reports. Legal documents include material on agreements for sale and tenancy, the conveyance of property, and contracts.
  • Engineering and Maintenance Records 1892-1978 (ACC 2423/EM/001-097) Records relating to the maintenance and improvement of waterways, including development plans, moratorium surveys, pumping records, and related graphs and operation sheets.

Papers of the Parkes family, 1634-1865. The main part of the collection consists of letters to Joseph Parkes. In addition, there are a few letters to his elder brother Josiah, to their father John, and to other members of the family. There are also a few miscellaneous papers. The Parkes family deeds are also part of the collection, consisting of family deeds, subsidiary title deeds, grants of mineral rights, deeds held as Trustees, and miscellaneous. The deeds are dated 1634-1800 and the correspondence is dated 1801-1865.

Letter from S C Lakeman of 25 Place Vendôme, Paris to Monsieur Legrand, Sous Secretaire d'État aux Travaux Publics à Paris, 12 Jan 1847. Wishing to submit observations on the floating breakwater to La Ciotat, [Bouches-du-Rhône] and requests an audience for this purpose.

Autograph, with signature. An additional note gives the time and date of the audience as 11 am, Saturday 16 Jan [1847].

Records of the Lee Conservancy Catchment Board, including minutes of Board meetings; papers relating to staff including wages and superannuation; papers regarding the Sadler's Mill stream diversion; papers regarding flood relief and defences; correspondence and papers of the Association of River Authorities; papers relating to clearing the river; petitions; rainfall statistics; fishing rights; papers regarding members of the Board; drainage schemes; public relations files; papers regarding the Water Resources Act 1973; reports; papers regarding the acquisition of properties; and agreements for works, clearing, drainage, diversions, improvements, flood prevention, land sales and so on.

Papers, 1881-1891, of Donald James Mackay, 11th Baron Reay, as Governor of Bombay, comprising correspondence, memoranda, petitions and other papers, 1884-1889 and undated, on A'bkari administration (a system of licences for the distillation and sale of spirits in Bombay); correspondence, memoranda, minutes, reports and other papers, 1881-1891 and undated, relating to military and naval subjects; correspondence, memoranda, minutes and reports, 1885-1890 and undated, on education; correspondence and other papers, 1881-1891 and undated, on agriculture; correspondence and other papers, 1884-1889 and undated, on sanitation and water works; correspondence and papers, 1884-1891 and undated, on various other subjects including administration, hospitals, irrigation, railways and finance; addresses of welcome to Lord Reay, 1886-1890 and undated; a drawing of Bombay harbour and accompanying manuscript plan, undated; manuscript map of Karachi Harbour Board, 1887.

Records of the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Imperial College, 1904-1982, including a departmental history from 1884-1966; lecture notes, 1921-1957, including hydraulics, 1904-1917;
departmental correspondence, 1908-1981, including of Professor William Ernest Dalby, 1908-1930; Professor Cecil Howard Lander; donation from International Combustion Ltd, 1959-1967; Rectors' correspondence, 1955-1981; reseach grants, 1969-1972, finance for postgraduate courses, 1966-1970; Heat Transfer Section report on engine combustion, 1979; proposal for joint venture company for a Modal Testing Unit [1982] (KEM); papers of the Assistant Director, [1964-1972] (KEMA);
papers relating to the Biomechanics Section, comprising correspondence concerning future funding, and with the Rector, 1966-1977 (KEMB);
papers relating to the Railway Engineering course, comprising correspondence, 1908-1911; course posters, 1908-1914; lecture notes, 1920-1938, including railway administration (KEMR);
papers relating to the Total Technology Course, 1974-1981, comprising leaflets, guide for students, dinner menus and invitations (KEMT).

Letters patent appointing the commissioners; orders of court; minutes of various Committees including the General Purposes Committee, By-laws Committee, Committee on Claims, Disposal of Refuse Committee, Finance Committee, Trial Works Committee, Sewage Manure Committee and Ordnance Survey Committee; original contracts for the construction of new sewers, including plans, sections and elevations; registers of in-letters; letter books for out-letters; drainage applications; registers of applications to construct sewers and drains; registers of proposed drainage of buildings; registers of house drainage; register of complaints; applications for private works on sewers and drains; registers of streets showing existence or absence of sewers and drains; surveyor's report books; staff records; financial accounts; rate books; printed items bound into volumes, including reports (several written by Joseph Bazalgette), papers, resolutions, prospectuses, surveys and inspections on various subjects including sewers and drains, cesspools, sewage, manure, waterways, flushing operations, public health, industrial sites, public conveniences, subterranean surveys, tides and water supply; minutes of the Commissioners and plans and maps of sewers, drains and waterways.

Two letters, 1683-1684, one concerning the improvement of the county of Cornwall, the second concerning a new river-way.

Papers of Robert Mylne relating to the drainage of the Fens, 1791, comprising;

1. Report, dated 26 Oct 1791 at New River Head, London, to the 'Committee of Land Owners and Others, interested in the Improvement of the Outfall of the River Ouze [at King's Lynn]', annotated, corrected and signed by Mylne. This report differs slightly from that printed in 1792 (for a copy see Goldsmiths' Library G.L. Cat. 15332); it does not, however, contain the appendix which forms pp.39-52 of the printed report.
2. 'List of Writers on the Fens', dated Nov 1791, giving 83 entries, some in pencil, from 1100-1791, mentioning books, printed reports and Acts of parliament.

Papers and consultancy reports, 1961-1976, mainly relating to dams and disasters, including reports on the Tannur dam, Jordan, the Roxo dam, Portugal, and the proposed dam at Scammonden, Yorkshire; report on the Clarkston disaster, Glasgow, of 21 October 1971; numerous photographs of the Aberfan disaster, Glamorgan, 1966. Obituary of Nash in Quaker Work, 1985.

Papers of Sir William Drummond Macdonald Paton, 1930-1993, chiefly comprising papers relating to his main research interests, namely underwater physiology, histamine, synaptic transmission, drug dependence, anaesthetic mechanisms, allergy electron microscopy and the history of science, particularly medical science. The collection also includes correspondence, research papers and laboratory notebooks, and papers relating to the committee work that occupied his energies. Papers from Paton's time as both a Rhodes Trustee and a Wellcome Trustee provide further evidence of the extent of his commitments in committee.

Papers relating to Paton's Chairmanship of the Research Defence Committee (1972-77) are particularly extensive and reveal the social and political pressures of the period, the passionate challenges of the anti-vivisection lobby, as well as Paton's personal commitment to a socially responsible use of animals in scientific experimentation. Papers relating to Man and Mouse: Animals in Medical Research (1984), in which Paton set out his fundamental position on animal experimentation, provide further material on this topic.

Another field of interest in which Paton expended considerable energy was that of drug dependence, particularly the pharmacological action of cannabis. Through work in laboratory and committees, and through the media and many speaking engagements, he campaigned strenuously to warn of what he judged to be the deleterious effects of cannabis, and forged campaign alliances with American colleagues who shared his concerns.

Throughout his career, Paton maintained strong links with the Royal Navy, acting as scientific adviser and consultant on deep diving and underwater physiology. This strand of his work was of enduring interest: Paton's work on the physiological properties of gases at high pressure led directly to the development of the deep-diving breathing mixture known as 'Tri-Mix', in which nitrogen is added to helium and oxygen. Paton took great pleasure in the Royal Navy achieving, in 1980, the world's deepest dive (see D/2/14).

Papers, 1972-1981 (some undated), on the Philippines, including typescripts, correspondence, maps, legal documents, press cuttings and other published material, some of the material produced by the Catholic Church, dealing with affairs in the Philippines, including the work of the Panamin government agency, the Chico River Basin Project (Northern Luzon) to dam the Chico River and submerge tribal villages, attempts to 'modernise' and convert minority ethnic groups to Christianity, including alleged abuses of human rights, and the political situation, including the policies of Ferdinand Marcos.

This series consists of a collection of licences, concessions, agreements, treaties, conventions and conferences, correspondence and memoranda between foreign governments negotiating landing rights, maintenance and operation of submarine cable telegraphs; ocean survey reports as well as other reports by officers in the General Post Office and committee reports.

Papers, 1835-c1975, of and relating to the Rev Thomas Pyne, comprising correspondence and accounts, 1839-1845 and undated, documenting Pyne's guardianship of (John) Ossoo Ansah and (William) Quanti Massah in England (1840), associated expenses, and aspects of their trip including invitations to dinner, entrance permits to London Zoo and to George Heriot's Hospital [School], Edinburgh, undated plan of a breakwater, Falmouth(?), undated print of Brighton Pavilion and other ephemera relating to places visited, photographs of paintings of the princes, and various visiting cards; other correspondence and papers of Pyne, 1835-1873 and undated, including printed Thanksgiving sermon preached at St Peter's Church, New York, including anti-slavery sentiments, 1835, pamphlets by Pyne on peace, 1844 and undated, and astronomy, 1852, a letter from L'Institut d'Afrique to Pyne concerning honorary membership, 1843, miscellaneous pamphlets relating to African affairs, and a photograph of Pyne, 1870; correspondence, notes, transcripts from original documents, and other papers, 1950-1953, c1975 and undated, concerning Pyne and his papers, and the two princes, including their portraits.

Records of the River Plate Trust Loan and Agency Company Ltd, 1876-1978, including minutes, ledgers, registers, accounts, annual reports, legal documents, insurance records, staff records, letters and files, some relating to subordinate companies (Ref: A); and records of the subsidiary companies it administered:
River Plate and General Investment Company Ltd, comprising minutes, 1888-1965, ledgers, 1888-1941, and annual reports, 1889-1983 (Ref: B);
Mortgage Company of the River Plate Ltd, comprising minutes, 1888-1965, ledgers, 1888-1953, and annual reports, 1888-1981 (Ref: C);
Compagnie Française des Chemins de Fer de la Province de Santa Fé, comprising circulars to bondholders, 1891-1947, and reports, 1936-1947 (Ref: D);
London Trust Company, comprising ledgers, 1889-1928, registers of stock, 1889-1958, and miscellaneous papers, 1819-1974 (Ref: E);
Entre Rios Railway Company, comprising reports, 1891-1900, and circulars and minutes, 1933-1947 (Ref: F);
Cucuta Railway Company, comprising Presidents' reports, 1926-1936 (Ref: G);
Montevideo Waterworks, comprising reports and accounts, 1880-1940, and notices and circulars, 1949-1953 (Ref: H);
Consolidated Waterworks of Rosario, comprising reports and accounts, 1897-1946, and notices and circulars, 1930-1955 (Ref: J);
Rosario Drainage Company, comprising reports and accounts, 1898-1947, and notices and circulars, 1955 (Ref: K);
Buenos Aires Central Railway, comprising minutes, 1916-1944 (Ref: L);
Buenos Aires and Lacroze Tramways, comprising minutes, 1932-1940, and reports and accounts, 1933-1941 (Ref: M).

The working drawings of John Smeaton, civil engineer. They illustrate his researches on waterwheels and applied mechanics, and the relative efficiency of overshot as opposed to undershot wheels. With supplementary engravings and manuscript notes.

Financial records of the Staines Reservoir Joint Committee, including half-yearly accounts; journal; cash book; ledgers; register of wills and papers relating to payments to solicitors.

Corporate records of the Staines Reservoir Joint Committee, including Committee meeting attendance books, proceedings books and minutes; legal papers relating to property, rating, water supply, stocks and shares, Parliamentary issues and contracts; correspondence and debenture stock volumes.

Records of the Staines Reservoir Joint Committee, comprising progress reports from the Engineer.

Six photographs showing the merchant ship 'Challenger' damaged with a puncture in the side of the vessel, and the Thames Forts.

Papers of Professor William Cawthorne Unwin, 1856-1952, comprising correspondence, principally concerning engineering matters, 1856-1931, 1950,1952, notably with Edward Dean Adams, including the Niagra Falls Scheme, 1890-1929, Sir Benjamin Baker, including the Forth Bridge, dam schemes, 1882-1898, Sir William Fairbairn, including experiments, appointments, 1856-1874, Thomas Hardy, concerning astronomy, 1881, Imperial College, 1910-1926 (as representative of the Institution of Civil Engineers);
research papers, 1859-1924, notably Fay and Newall brakes, 1859, observations on the Thames, 1882-1883, Nile Project Committee, 1919, dam schemes, 1899-1905;
speeches and addresses to various institutions, including presidential addresses to the Institution of Civil Engineers, 1912, and Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 1916; engineering drawings, 1875-1906, of apparatus, machinery, sections of the Thames, Telok Ayer key wall, Singapore; two portraits of Unwin, undated;
additional material, comprising papers relating to Windsor Water Works arbitration, 1884; reports on compression gauges, 1886-1887; Birmingham dams, 1895; notes on dam theory, 1905; papers relating to Stockport water supply and Kinder Dam, 1905; notes relating to schemes for Niagra and central London.

Photographs relating to his service in the Middle East, 1941-1943, and North West Europe, 1945, including official photographs and diagrams of the flak control tower at Nansum, Netherlands, 1945, and official photographs and report on the Möhne Dam and its defences, Germany, [1943]. Notebook relating to his work as a gunnery instructor, ND, including photographs, [1939-1945].