Ewing Matheson

Shortly after he joint the Andrew Handyside and Company, an iron founder from Derby, where he was appointed to manage the London and export business of the firm.

The qualities of material, the classification of different systems, the incidents of transport, and the methods of erection, are stated from a manufacturer's point of view, with a special reference to comparative cost.

[9] According to Hugo Diemer (1904): This work is of great value in demonstrating the principles involved in the scientific handling of problems of inventorying and appraising.

Some examples follow, and also a very complete table showing the effects of depreciation at different rates for different periods of time a valuable aid in appraisal work.

[10]More specifically J.R. Edwards (2013) explained: Matheson was one of the first writers to distinguish properly between depreciation (from shortening of the working life of an asset, through physical deterioration), obsolescence (from external causes, such as supersession by improved machines), and fluctuation in value (through changes in market prices).

He regarded depreciation much as modern accountants do —- as a measure of consumption of capital, rather than as a revaluation of the asset, and hence as a cost of production, not a voluntary appropriation of profits for replacement.