1920-04 The Concrete Age 32, no. 1

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THE CONCRETE AGE

DALTON and Atlanta GEORGIA

VOL. XXXII. April, 1920. No. 1

PUBLISHED MONTHLY Devoted to Modern Permanent Construction.

CONCRETE AGE PUBLISHING CO.

SUBSCRIPTION RATES. In the United States and Possessions (Hawaii, Phillippine Islands and Canal Zone), Mexico and Cuba, $l.OO per year. Canada, $1.50. All other foreign countries, $2.00 per year.

Advertising rates given upon application. Entered as second-class matter October 18, 1905, at the Post-office at Atlanta, Ga., under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1879.

The Editor solicits correspondence from readers on matters pertaining to the concrete industry. Descriptions of concrete work done anywhere that is of general interest accompanied by clear, sharp photographs and going into details as to methods employed will be published and paid for if found acceptable.

TO OUR ADVERTISERS. Our advertisers are requested to have copy and cuts for changes for advertisements in this office not later than the 10th preceding the month for publication.

We cannot be responsible for changes not made, when copy and cuts are received later, or submit proof.

TABLE OF CONTENTS. Editorial 7-8 Report of National Committee 10 Builders Advised Not to Wait 15 An Old Ontario Hotel 18 Three-Day Conference in Chicago 19 Pennsylvania’s Good Roads 21 Federal Engineering Changes 25 Savannah Builders Meet 25 Street and Road Construction 26 Cement Walk for Seismograph 27 Concrete Oil Storage 27

How’s the Weather —and the Roads?

One would scarcely look for an editorial on roads in the daily Forecast Bulletin of the United States Weather Bureau, especially an editorial promoting permanent highways— yet you'll find one there from time to time just the same.

In the bulletin issued February 6 by the Lansing, Michigan, branch of the United States Weather Bureau, the condition of the highways as affected by the weather, formed the sum total of the report.

A portion of a paragraph from this report reads as follows:

‘ ‘OUT OF DETROIT : Roads in Wayne County are cleared and in good condition. ****’’

It will be remembered that Wayne County has nearly 200 miles of concrete roads.

Nnpaved roads vary with the weather—paved roads are constant. When the weather is good, dirt roads may be passable if they have been continuously dragged, but they are no roads for truck and outomobile traffic, so characteristic of the highways today.

The Highway Weather bulletin is an important and useful contribution from the Department of Agriculture, mads doubly so by recognition of the fact that the state of the roads is more important than the weather, and that you needn’t worry about the weather if the roads are paved.

War Trucks for Road Builders

One month ago the War Department had turned over to the United States Department of Agriculture approximately 24,000 motor vehicles, as provided in congressional legislation empowering the latter department to distribute this war material among the State highway commissioners for use in road building, allotments of the vehicles to be based on the amount of Federal aid for roads which the States receive. This is practically all the vehicles which the War Department has to release. If this total 12,000 have been delivered to the State. The remainder will be distributed as fast as railway cars can be secured for their transportation. Representatives of the Bureau of Public Roads, in charge of the matter, believe that within two or three months

8 THE CONCRETE AGE APRIL, 1920

all of the vehicles will have been delivered to the States. This equipment promises to be a great aid in. carrying out the large road building program for 1920.

The State highway commissioners are also interested in securing allotments of tractors, steam shovels, locomotive cranes, automotive cranes, industrial railway track, dump cars, and industrial locomotives which remain to be disposed of by the War Department. A measure known as the Kahn Bill, directing the Secretary of War to release this material for the State highway commissioners, has passed the Senate and has been reported out of committee in the House. Until the Secretary of War has been directed by Congress to turn over this equipment it is not likely that it will be available for State distribution.

Model Village for Asphalt Works

Plans have been completed by the New Trinidad Lake Asphalt Co. at Brighton, West Indies, for a model village for its own workmen and those of associated oil companies and construction work is to be started immediately.

The new village will be located on the company’s property near the asphalt lake, and will be laid out with all modern conveniences, including streets, waterworks, sanitary sewerage, and electric lighting. Houses for families will be located in one portion of the village, and each house will have a fenced yard where the family can have a kitchen garden. Separate houses with a parcel of land around each house will also be provided for the foremen. The barracks for single men will be built along sanitary linefc and will be equipped with showers. Separate apartments, with kitchens, will be built for small families or married men without children.

The houses first constructed will be occupied by the permanent employees of the company, but it is contemplated to construct quarters sufficient to house also casual workmen who may be given employment by the company.

The present system of allotting from one-half to one acre of land for a garden to those who desire to cultivate a plot of ground will be continued.

Concrete Tenement Houses for Milan, Italy.

Consul Winship reports from Milan, Italy, that in order to relieve the housing situation in that city plans for the construction of about 1,000 concrete tenement houses in addition to those under construction have been prepared. These will be built on a cottage type in separate buildings, accommodatingfour families each, in all about 5,000 persons, and occupying an area of about 400,000 square meters.

Engineering Feat 2,000 Years Old.

The Chengtu irrigation system is one of the most noteworthy examples of an early engineering feat and deserves to rank with the Pyramids. The head waters of the system are in the foothills of the Tibertan Mountains at the city of Kwan Hsien, where the Fu Kiang breaks through the northern part of the plain and makes its mad rush toward the sea. The river bed falls in level 1.200 feet during its seventymile trip along the edge of the plain. Some idea of the magnitude of the engineering task may be realized from the fact that the flow during a freshet is not far from 30.000,000 cubic feet of water a minute, approximately the flow of the Niagara River.

The irrigating water is taken from the main river just before a gap in the hills is reached and is conducted by an artificial river through a gorge cut in the mountain side. After passing the mountain barrier the artificial river is divided into three main branches which in turn are subdivided again until an irrigation ditch serves every acre of the plain. The regulation of the flow of water into the irrigation ditches is one of the most ingenious parts of the plan. First, the cut in the hill was made just wide enough so that the volume of water entering when the gauge stood at a predetermined level would fill without overflowing the ditches everywhere over the plain. A flood due to overflowing of the ditches is a rare occurrence. Second, to prevent the water from rising higher than the gauge, the artificial river is provided with by-passes before it reaches the gorge. These by-passes allow all the excess water that cannot enter the gorge to flow back into the main river. This entire section of the artificial river has banks flanked with bamboo, filled with stones— masonry and various permanent banks have been tried but given up in favor of the bamboo baskets, replaced every year during the dry season. —H. K. Richardson, in Asia.

Publisher’s Statement.

Of the ownership, management, etc., of The Concrete Age. published monthly at Dalton, Ga., Editorial office at Dalton, Ga., Business office at Atlanta, Ga., required by Act of August 24, 1912.

B. H. Watts, Editor and Managing Editor. Dalton, Ga. H. E. Harman, Publisher, Atlanta, Ga. H. E. Harman, Manager, Atlanta, Ga. (Signed) H. E. HARMAN, Manager.

Sworn to and subscribed before me this 6th day of April, 1920.

FRED McSWAIN, Notary Public Georgia, State at Large. (My commission expires February 1, 1922.) (O. J. Houser in P hiladelphia Press.) (O. J. Houser in P hiladelphia Press.)

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Report of Committee on Resolutions National Conference on Concrete House Construction

The United States and Canada are now confronted with an unprecedented housing famine, so universally recognized as to need no emphasis. This originated in governmental allocation of labor, materials and capital to war needs, and has been confined and accentuated by the diversion of labor, materials and capital to the production of nonessentials. To such an extent is this true that the public demand for these non-essentials and even for luxuries, is raising the cost of housing, while the people are bidding against each other for the houses which exist.

The effect of this housing shortage is not merely to inflict hardships on the people, but to excite to higher pitch those feelings of discontent so widespread in the country since the war.

We deem it our plain duty as citizens to offer to our countrymen such advice as our professional and trade experiences qualify us to give, as to the best methods by which the problems may be solved and normal conditions restored. Only by an analysis of the factors entering into house building can we hope to arrive at an understanding of either the problem or its remedy.

Before entering on this analysis, reference must be made to the effect of the depreciation of the dollar which hangs like a cloud over the whole business horizon. To the mass of people this is still a mysterious phenomenon. It began before the war, due to great increase in gold production, and has, of course, been intensified by the inflation of the currency. While the people at large are thinking in terms of high prices they would be nearer the truth if they were thinking of lowered standards of value. The public view of this matter cannot soon be altered and we must, therefore, treat it for the present as an established fact.

The main factors with which we have to deal are more numerous than is the general belief; they involve among others, Land, Materials, Labor Finance, Transportation, Design, Legislation and Building Ordinances. Clearly relief can come only through the construction of mere houses of the right type. All building is for a profit in some form. Unless profit can be reasonably assured in residence construction the building of homes will be limited to prospective owners who are but a small fraction of the population of large communities. Houses must be provided for the great mass who can only afford to rent or to buy on long term installments.

If, as will be generally conceded, after food sup ply, houses are the most fundamental need of the people, housing supply should take precedence over all other use to which capital can be put, and that we are justified in urging that all possible steps be taken to make investment of private capital in house construction more attractive than any other form of investment. Investment can be encouraged but cannot be forced.

Private initiative has in the past always been found competent to solve the problems of the country, and with proper encouragement and incentive can be relied upon to successfully grapple with the present emergency. Federal governmental methods, even with the utmost efficiency of direction and handling, are slow, cumbersome and costly. Experience seems to show that every dollar which government puts into a competitive business, drives out $10 of private capital.

In most of the States constitutional obstacles defer the possibility of help from these sources for, at least two years. Prudence, therefore, dictates that the hope of such aid even were it desirable must be discarded from our calculations. What State governments can do, however, is to remove the obstacles which, in the form of taxation, they now place in the way of constructing new buildings.

Since the housing scarcity is the result of governmental restrictions and taxation, preferential allocation of materials and cars and governmental exemptions must be enlisted to restore normal conditions.

Land.

Taking up the related factors, we may say in general that price and availability of land at present are such as held at low figures because of the difficulty which its owners find in putting it to profitable use. This condition in reality should act as a stimulus to building.

Materials.

The widest latitude in the use of approved materials should be encouraged. Especially should this be emphasized for the purpose of relieving transportation congestion and the lowering of building costs. Because numerous sources of supply can generally be drawn upon, concrete is one of the most readily procurable building materials.

There is now a famine of houses. There is also a heavy demand for building maerials for other and less important uses. Materials needed for home construction shou'd be given preferred consideration in manufacture and distribution. Manufacturers of such materials should give priority in shipment when intended for this purpose, as opposed to other uses less