The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1871-12-01
IncOmbuStible Houses.
From the New York Evening Post.

The fire at Chicago has shown the
great need there is of some incombusti.
BILE material of sufficient durability and
cheapness to be used generally for con-
structing buildings in cities. Isolated
fire-proof blocks, So called, cannot with
stand the tremendous heat Of great
fire when driven on by a strong wind.
We must have something which will not
burn, from which to make our ware
houses, stores, shops, and houses, or
every large city will be in continual
danger of fate like to that which has
has overtaken the great city of the
Northwest.
1t has been suggested that buildings
made Of concrete possess the desired
qualities. The artificial stone known as
concrete is generally made of six parts
of small gravel, broken bricks or fints,
one part of sand and one part of
cement. The first two ingredients are
to be found everywhere. The cement,
when made artifcially, consists of from
twenty TO twenty-five per cent. OF Silica
with eighty to seventy-five per cent. Of
lime or of chalk, pure clay and fine
sand. The United States is the only
country where nature has compounded
the materials herself, furnishing the
cement ready for use. 1t is found in
large quantities in New York, Massa-
chusetts, Connecticut, Kentucky, Vir-
ginia and Ohio.
The buildings proposed are to be of
concrete throughout. The floors are to
be an artificial stone, made of cement
and sand. Iron is to be used alone for
supporting the floors and roof, and for
bracing the building.
Concrete buildings already have had
their capabilities fully tested by use.
The public buildings at Cherbourg,
Marseilles, Toulon, Woolwich, Dover,
Alderney, and Eddystone, together with
several OH our own coast, are built of
concrete. 1t is frequently used in Eng
land for foundation walls. The inn
mense sheds of the Metropolitan Rail
way Company at West Brampton, the
College of Surgeons, and Wellington
Barracks, and many houses in Pail Mall,
Lincoln's Inn Field, st. James Park,
and elsewhere in London, are built of
it. In Spain and in the south Of France
1T is used in the construction Of COM
mon houses. In Sweden and Northern
Germany it is largely used for building
purposes, the dwelling houses built of it
having double walls, which protect the
inmates from vermin and produce a
more equable insid,, temperature.
Many advantages are claimed for con-
crete buildings over those made of brick
and stone. People who have lived in
them think them stronger, more even
in temperature and more quiet because
the concrete is a non-conductor Of heat
and of sound), and cheaper than ordi-
nary houses. Above all, they are IN
combustible-a fire which would dies.
troy the furniture in one room not
affecting the contents Of the next. A
concrete house, in short, is building
OF fire.proof compartments, which is
said to be fully equal in every other re.
spect to buildings made of ordinary
materials.
The time must come when the kind
of buildings now in vogue will give way
to something better. Especially from
the danger of fire better safeguards are
needed. A block of concrete houses in
Chicago, placed where the fire begun,
might have saved the city. A multi