The New York herald., 1872-12-26

Britain, BY his mot being able to recognize .
monarch while engaged in executing the
honest duty of serving potatoes. fnr
The Tfnder-bex BuiIdfngs In New
York-A Grand Oppertunity Sor An
American Hausssmsnn. M
The burning of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, and
Of the circus ON Fourteenth street, in this city,
both of which were covered with corrugated
iron. has attracted general attention to the use
of that article for building purposes, and the
conclusion has not been in its favor. 1t was
found in both instances that the iron, covering
as it did wooden structures, only served two
purposes first, by intensifyingth the heat, toadd
to the more rapid spread of the flames, and
next, to prevent the water from the engines
reaching the seat of the fire. Corrugated iron
has great strength. but it will heat through
quicker than fat sheet iron, and will not 80
readily burn out and shrivel up, as much OF
the iron did ON the Boston buildings. Hence
the impression prevails that it is fire-trap
rather than protection to building, and it
has suddenly got into as bad repute as have
the Mansard roofs, which, like lumber yards
in the air, carried the flames from house
to house during the confagration in the mod
ern Athens. We have already insisted that
the Onslaught made on Nansard roofs,
q few weeks ago, was hasty and in
considerate, and have shown that Man
sard roof has only to be made really fire.
proof to render it unobjectionable as hand
some finish to building. The fault lay, not
in the shape of the roof, but in the fact that it
was built as if designed to feed fire. If q
house, should be constructed of wood covered
with slate or thin coating of iron, it would be
simply tinder-box, utterly unsafe, and certain
in great conaagration to aid the spread. of
the flames If Mansard roof is made actually
freproof- IF it is built without wood or other
combustible material-it will prove safe
guard against fire, and is less likely than any
other style Of roof to catch and hold
the showers cast from burning build
ing. The difficulty is that builders
put up tinder-box shells from basement to
roof, and because they use little iron in
their construction. or put on thinly covered
Mansard roof, they advertise them as s.Are-
proof" when they are nothing more than fire.
traps. 1t is system Of obtaining public con-
fidence under false pretences, which is almost
certain, sooner or later, to meet with exposure
Corrugated iron is no doubt valuable ma
terial for building purposes if properly used
A firm interested in its manufacture protest
against the general condemnation it is just
now receiving, and declare that the abuse
and not the use, of the article should bear the
blame. Although they are interested parties
there is much truth in their remarks. They
charge that corrugated iron is ''unscrupu-
lously used, in season and out of season, by
parties knowing little of its true merit;''
that certain churches in Brooklyn 'have
been built partially OF corrugated iron,''
but that ''no one but the architect
and builder ever considered or called
them freproof," and that no one s.ls .ef looked
at those buildings without seeing that they
were perfect fire-traps, and almost certain to
burn on slight provocation. DR.. Talmage's
church is described to have been heavy wood
frame, partially. and only partially covered
with iron. All the points most likely to
readily catch the fire were of wood. Door and
window castings, TRAININGS, mouldings, COR
nices, inside and out and ornamentation of
many kinds, were all of wood. The building
was full Of wooden pillars to support the great
roof. The outside was ornamented with huge
wooden columns. The iron used was only
sufficient to fill the panels made by the orna-
mental woodwork. The iron, then, merely
served as guide for the flames, and had no
opportunity to show itself as protector It
is therefore claimed that to charge the de-
struction of the Tabernacle to the corrugated
iron used in its construction is to transfer to
the iron the blame that properly attaches to
the architect and builder. The firm inter-
ested in the sale of the material assert that
no claim has ever been made that wooden
building covered with corrugated iron is fire.
proof, although they pretend to believe that
such o structure is safer than an ordinary
brick building. This is, of course the opinion
of prejudiced witness, and the proof is that
o building thus covered is about the most dam
gerous in case of fire of any that can be con-
ceived other than mere wooden frame. But
there is, no doubt, reason in the protest against
condemning the use of iron, because it has
proved a conductor of fire, as partially used in
such shells as those recently destroyed in
Brooklyn and New York. The company claim
that they can construct buildings wholly Of
corrugated iron-that is to say, with brick
walls sufficiently thick to withstand heat
thin iron floors, with roofs, stairways, shutters
and inside finish all of iron. .E
The menagerie building on Fourteenth
street was probably one Of the most danger
GUS ever allowed to be put up in the city Of
New York for the past ten or twelve years.
Rev. Mr.. Cramer, the rector Of the Church of
the Redeemer, furnishes an interesting state-