The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-01-04
A Proposed Revolution In Municipal
Architecture-A New Invention.

Architecture-A New Invention.
An important revolution in municipal archi-
lecture has recently been proposed by an
English architect of much talent and expert
ence. He announces, in a paper read before
the Liverpool Architectural Society, an inven-
ton which promises to be grand step
towards freproof construction. This inven-
tion-which has already been severely tested
and is commanding large share of confidence
in England-consists in the utilization of
earthenware and cement concrete with iron
and steel and metal wire in such combina-
tons as to resist the most glowing furnace
heat. The object of the inventor is to pro-
vide walls, partitions, floors and roofs light,
cheap, durable and thoroughly freproof.
The great fires at Chicago and Boston
proved the unreliability of iron Orders, which,
when exposed to great heat, are sure to snap
or twist and are turned about by the flames
like ribbons, falling without notice and
causing great loss of life among the fremen.
The iron columns are proved to be equally
dangerous, for, if not fused by the fiery glow,
are cracked and split asunder, or col
lapse the moment the fire engines play upon
them with cold water These facts are also
attested by French and English architects who
have exclusively studied the London and
Paris fires; and to obviate these dangers
the new invention, by Mr.. Hornblower (the
English inventor to whom we refer), has q
very simple and ingenious expedient. Walls,
partitions and roofs are constructed of sheet
iron or steel, so formed as to represent one
half Of an octagonal honeycomb cell in trans
verse section, reversed and placed as fitches
parallel to each other, with o space of six
inches intervening. In this space are pipes
of hollow earthenware, in two feet lengths,
and the iron flitches are bolted to and through
the pipes, thus forming composite girder,
which is light and strong and capable of re-
sisting the fame. Partitions are constructed
cells, with metal wire stretched across Cnstead
of inflammable laths) to receive the cement
concrete or plaster, the wire serving to tie the
iron and steel lengths and to give strength to
the concrete. One great excellence of the in
vention is that through the hollow earthen-
structure can be secured, and, if desired, hot
air may be conveyed from the basement fur
nace
1t is we'll known that Portland cement, with
which the floors are laid by Mr.. Hornblower
is more intractable to fire than granite or any
of the stones, and, while its tensile strength is
very great after it has had fortnight to
harden, it continues to increase for years
The cheapness, however, is not less desirable
feature in the proposed new architecture
than the solidity afforded The Portland
cement may be amalgamated with old bricks
crushed small, well washed gravel, sand and
furnace Stag. Such material, besides being
more freproof than granite or solid iron, is so
inexpensive as to put freproof houses within
the reach of the thrifty poor and all house
builders.
The system of imbedding or encasing the
metal uprights and Orders in concrete and
passing the metal rods in concrete or freproof
pipes is certainly, of ITSELF one OF the greatest
contributions to domestic and municipal safety
yet made by the architectural genius of the
age. The tensile strength of the flooring thus
made, after it had been given eighteen days to
crystalline, was safely loaded with thirty-one
tons of dead weight, showing a carrying power
greater than any other kind of material would
afford.
There is scarcely any invention possible to
inventive genius more urgently demanded
than such one as that now announced, and
which appears to stand the crucial tests of
non-inAammability, strength and cheapness
in the highest degree. Nearly sixty houses
have been constructed by the inventor on his
plan, and it will, we doubt not, be further i'm
proved and largely adopted in cities and
towns where there is so much to dread from the
conAagration.
The Attitude Of the Wealthy Cubans
Towards the Army Fighting In the
Field.
We publish elsewhere short, pithy letter
from the Well-knoWn commander of the Edgar