New-York tribune., 1873-01-03
FfRE-PROOF BUILDINGS.
xHE FRENCH AND AMERICAN SYSTEMS CON
TRASTED.
ARTHUR GILMAN ON WHAT WE NEED IN NEW



20 me Edttor OF The Trfbune.
SIR: WHY is il that America alone, of all the civil
s,ed countries of the earth, is fast establishing
reputation for confagratous. in the very heart of
her richest cities of acres in extent, and OF hundreds
Of millions of dollars in value of the property de
stroyedi Some ntelligiblo answer to this question
must surely be possible to those whose business and
profession it is TO deal with matters of this kind
f the fact which il includes there can be no longer
any possible question. We have all seen and known
within a year or two. Of the attempts of the Com
nune and it's pfroeuses TO destroy the City of tars
by fire. which proved unavaing to any extent, al
Though carried on peTsistently for couple oi
months. Individual buildings, on which spe-
sia efforts were made, were indeed con-
sumed but the fire was, in nearly every
instance. confined TO the particular buldlhg IN
which it had it's origin. We have too read within
few days past in all journals the sensible ana
excellent letter Of Mr. Powers the sculptor written
from Florence. in which he states that during ms
residence Of over thirty years IN that beautiful CITY,
not y single fire of consequence enough to attract
more han the slightest passing notice has ever oc-
ourred. personal friend of my own, who spent
several years in the same city informs me that, on
.be occasion Of q slight alarm of fire in the base
ment Of a house opposite to the one in which he was
living the whole fire department of Florence turned
ont In force consisting Of four men, each with q
pailful of water and each carrying an enormous
syringe under his arm, like an umbrella. The
effect ludlerous at first to accustomed
TO the hre-Spitting steam-engines, enormous
bose-carts formidableN hook and ladder machines,
and all the multtudinOus paraphernalia, clan
5amfry and Tacketty-bang Of our American fire de-
partments, was changed afterward into feeling OF
profound admiration at system Of secure building
which made these simple and elementary methods
t1a 0lia oplfa
antly reasonable and sufficient These facts ought to
teach us this important lesson, viz. that our sys
TEN Of building, as at present praotioed in all our
American cities which not only permits but invites
such frequent and destructive confagrations as we
have lately witnessed is and always has been nor
maly radically, vitality wrong and deficient 1t has
been well observed by recent writer that cit is not
4he extinguishment of fires that ought to occupy
attention. so much as the prevention of them"
There is no architect of caDdor and sound judg-
snent among us who will say that it is possible to
construct a building that shall be perfectly indie
stu.cdbe when raging fire on all sides-acres per
haps in exteut-is beating against it, and overlap
ping its walls and roofs with its fierce and hungry
fury building of one entire and perfect chryso-
lite must be consumed-calcined, even-when ex-
posed in the focus of a flame of blast furnace,
driven by almost the power Of a hurricane. The
hardest stecl-the most solid flint, the diamond it
self the hardest of all known substances-must under
such circumstances be reduced to heap of ruin
and devastation; and the most that could be said
of any ire-prOOf building, however constructed i'll
such fearful crisis would be that at least it would
not add IN itself, to the mtousity of the fire which
consumed it.
The only way, then. in which any one mans build
Ing. however carefully constructed. would be
tirely safe is obviously to have the buildings OF all
II 1
ably freproof as his own; IN other words that the
buding laws of our American cities should compel,
in every case and under the strictest professional
end official supervision. mode of building every
5ndvdual structure permitted to be erected within
dhe fire limits, on the same principles.
and with the same materials, as the
perience Of the French architects, for instance,
have gradually led them TO devise, and the govern
rnent Of French municipalities to adopt and enforce,
That such a method Of building is impracticabe, or
DnreasOnably expensive, is profound mistake At
any time within the last 500 years the buildings of
Paris have been vastly secure from fire than
)are those generally Of NewYorl1 to-day About the
middle Of the last century, however. from the in
creased overcrowding for commercial purposes and
for the needs Of people of smaller means the atten-
hon Of the French authorities and of their architects
became more actively directed to the questions of
secure construction. At that time although the
nse of wooden foOr-beams, roofs and partition
walls was quite general, they filed IN and
around them with solid plaster, and the
masonTy both of their exterior and party
walls was laid in much more solid and care
full manner than our own. The government also
maintained even at that early day, a very careful
supervision over the buildings of the metropolis, the
city being divided into districts under the constant
watchfulness OF trained architects, civilians OF
speculative builders being allowed any voice or in
Auence in the matter At the present day there are
probably more than a hundred first class scientific
architects in the constant employ of the City of
Paris-uot mere skillfu constructors only, but men
of trained taste. and abundanty qualified 10 mpart
their knowledge to others 1t was not until about
the year 1880 that attention began to be paid to the
subject of iron beams and incombustible filling for
6oors and roofs. and from 1850 to $780, more than
dozen different systems of fre-proOf construction
for these features Of building, were invented and
used in Paris alone. The experiments and inven-
tions OF Leveque. Vaux and Others, were constantly
bringing new light to bear upon the subject and the
French Government appears to have taken con
ttant and solcitous interest in the matter An i'm
portant cOmmi sion appointed by Government
about the year lS4O recOllect directed its aten
ton particularly 10 the minimum Of iron which
could be safely and practically employed. The con
clusions Of that Commission were that rolled iron
beams $40 inches in hight. and distant, on cen
ters. about f. in. when used, in connection with
their system Of gypsum arched foorngs, were
absolutely safe for all general domes-
tic purposes, over a span Of a to 16
feet. All the systems alluded to aimed at
making as light and inexpensive network of iron
as possible in order TO carry flling-in Of gypsum
of greater OF less width and thickness but all cacu
lated to present a non-combustible, compact solid
mass, in place of the hollow. dry, tindeTbox fue