IIW History 1948-1958

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societies. These had been generally equipped to carry our research and stan– dardization work, to inspect welded constructions and to give specialised instruction to welding operators and technicians, and even to engineers. Thus much progress had already been made at a national level. The establishment of an international body met a Dutch-inspired suggestion put forward at the symposium held at Utrecht in 1947· A first meeting, convened by the (British) Institute of Welding, of which Mr. J. L. ADAM was President, took place the same year in London. A provisional committee was then set up to draft the constitution of the proposed institute and to define its structure. The committee was able to complete quickly its difficult task , meetings being held successively in Paris on the invitation of the (French) « Institut de Soudure »and in Bale on that of the « Societe Suisse de !'Acetylene ». On 9 June 1948, at the end of a t wo-day international meeting convened by the « Institut Belge de la Soudure » and held in Brussels under the auspices of the Belgian Minister of Economic Affairs, the International Institute of ·welding was founded at the offices of the« Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique » by the representatives of the following thirteen countries : - Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States; such was the original nucleus which, through the work of the General Secretariat, so many more mem– bers were later to join. Immediately afterwards, on II June 1948, the first Governing Council meeting was held at the offices of the« Institut Belge de la Soudure )). Composed of delegates previously nominated by the member societies, it then appointed the first officers, electing a President, three Vice-Presidents, a Treasurer and a Secretary General ; it drew up the annual budget and organised the initial series of technical commissions. These newly set up Commissions were placed under the direction of the emi– nent persons who were appointed their Chairmen. A detailed study having been made of the ground to be covered, the Commissions were made responsible for dealing with, respectively, the technology of the various welding and allied processes, standardization, the concordance between the relevant t erms in the different languages, testing and measurement and with metallurgical and con– structional problems. As regards documentation, on which a Commission was also set up, the Council was able then and there, thanks to the valuable support of the French delegation, to establish a quarterly bulletin of references to works published in all countries. Finally, the Governing Council made a series of arrangements to enable the International Institute to tackle immediately the activities defined in its Constitution. The experience acquired in the national institutions made it possible to lay dovvn precisely the objectives which might usefully be aimed at, and the means of attaining them. In article z of the Constitution it is stated that an objective of the Institute shall be, either by itself or in collaboration with other bodies, « to promote the development of welding by all processes ». To this end, it is first laid down that the Institute shall promote and encou– rage the development of welding, both as regards equipment and raw materials and the application of welding and provide for the exchange of scientific and technical information relating to welding research and education. This implies the three requirements which the scientist distinguishes as necessary for the development of a discipline : knowledge, explanation, anticipation; but these requirements are explicitly linked with a concrete policy for meeting them, a