Morning journal and courier., 1883-06-26
aournaI alla Gourier.
EDITED AND pUBEasHED BY
Tuesday. June 26. 1883.
A NEW PLAN FOR BUILDING,


 NEW PLAN FOR BUILDING.
 Probably there is no country in the world where there is such an enormous destruction Of property in consequence of poor methods of building as in this. It is estimated that $1oo, 900 900 worth of property is annually destroyed in the United States by fire, and vast sums are spent for insurance and eff cient fire departments to protect buildings which if properly built would not need so much prokection.
 How to greatly improve the methods of building in this country is a hard question. As long as it is cheaper to build poor build ing than good one, and as long as poor building will sell or rent for about as much as good one, the inducement to build well will not be very powerful. But MT. ". E. Ward of New York thinks he has a plan which will help in the solution of the problem. He as- serts that he has devised freproof method of construction which is quite as economical in the matter of first cost as any first-oiass construction can be. Some years ago he was led into the investigation of using iron in connection with cement by noticing the diff culty which laborers had in removing some cement from their iron tools. Acting upon this hint, he devised combination known as betons which consists of 8 mixture of the sand and crushed bluestone-these used in combination with iron. The plan adopted is to surround and reinforce iron beams with the compound referred to, varying the proportions of the latter according to the character of the work to be performed. Thus, for heavy wall work, the proportion Is one part of ce- ment to four parts of sand and fine gravel while for reinforcing iron beams for floors and roof supports, one part of cement is used to two parts of sand and gravel The effect of reinforcing iron beams in this manner is not only to make them completely imperv1ous to heat, but also to greatly increase their ten- sile qualities. In dwelling house recently constructed by Mir. Ward, not only were the external and internal walls, the columns and towers of the building constructed of beten, but all of the beams, floors and roofs were made exclusively of this material, reinforced with light iron beams and rods; and further more, all of the closets, stairs, balconies, with their supporting columns, were moulded from the same material, so that the only woodwork in the en- tire structure were the window frames and doors and their frames, the mop boards and stair rails. In constructing this building walls three inches in thickness, with space of from six to ten inches between them, and reinforced cross connections, two or three feet apart, to unite the outef and inner walls firmly together, could be built up to thirty or forty feet in height .at cost not exceeding that of frEs-class brick work, while in strength and durability the beton wall would surpass the wall formed of brick. ..igess
 This is interesting and looks reasonable. It is high time that more stable building be- came the fashion in this country. The na- ton is likely to live for some time yet, and much trouble and expense could be saved by building durable and freproof buildings. If, as MT. Ward declares, his invention makes it just as cheap to build good fire proof building as it is to build one that is not freproof in the old way there Is no sx- cuse for not taking advantage of it