The following investigations were made primarily in order to determine the manner of transmission of concentrated loads from the frames to the skin of a circular fuselage. The usual assumption, that the shear distribution in the skin adjacent to the frame is given by the simple “ beam theory,” was considered to be of doubtful validity, and for some time past the writer had suspected that a critical examination of the problem would show a very considerable variation from the ordinary theory in the immediate vicinity of the loaded frame. The writer's attention was first drawn to the problem by the work of Wignot, Combs and Ensrud in N.A.C.A. Technical Note No. 929, and the present investigations were made because a more fundamental approach to the subject was considered to be desirable.