The morning call., 1895-02-15
ONE EXPERT IS
WILLING TO Wait.
THINKS THE CONCRETE IS MIXED
ALL RIGHT AND THE
CEMENT GOOD.
TIME WILL TEST THE JOB
A REMINIsCENCE OF Two EMINENT
ENGINEERs-HoW CALVIN
BROWN INSPECTED.

Calvin Brown, retired United States
Government engineer, is an acknowledged
expert on cement and concrete-acknowl-
edged even by Engineer Won Schmidt, who
is known to be on speaking terms with him
only by courtesy. But that's another
story.
Calvin Brown is one of the early users OF
Portland cement in this country-a pioneer
at it. He has manufactured cement, and
has translated into the Englis h the works
of French authors about cement and its
use. He has travelled, and has seen and
consulted over the most famous structures
wherein cement was used notably the
great thirty nine mile long aqueduct, which
carries water from the River Vanne to
Paris, which is built entirely of concrete
and is the greatest of works IN that ma
terial
Out of the controversy that has been
going on for SO long concerning the con-
struction of the concrete foundations of
the proposed ferry depot has arisen
desire to know what Calvin Brown thought
of it.
But he refuses to say. The question
was put to him at his house last night.
Il have followed the controversy in the
newspapers to be sure" he said, "but |
would be very careful about taking part in
it without a personal knowledge of the
work. 1t is all very easy to sit in ones
office and criticize. Most anybody can do
that. But unless l have some personal
knowledge to base criticisms on l shall not
offer them
But you can say what is the proper
| formula for making and mixing concrete?'
~ can say what it is for certain cement,
! yes. But there are different qualities and
kinds of cement. l know of cement that
| becomes strong the instant water touches
| it. 1t is not good for great works. The
! grades run through to the other extreme
| that takes too long to set. The French
| cement viii set in about seven hours-that
| is, it will adhere and become solid mass
| in seven hours. In two years 1t is perfect
stone, but when it reaches its ultimate CO.
hesion is not known"
The criticism as to the method of mixing
the concrete on the water front was ex-
planned to the old engineer; how the in
| gradients are mixed by being thrown into
! two chutes and allowed to come together
in one.
at is plan introduced at the navy
| yard-a plan l saw abroad, he said.
| And how they were shoVeled into bar
row dry and dumped into the caisson,
where the mixture is distributed while
water flows over it.
Il see no objection to the plan, - he said.
| ''Any,one who knows the chemical action
which takes place will understand that
only enough water is required as may be
absorbed by the mixture; any more is
| rather an injury; it is turned away at any
rate. If the cement is good cannot see
| that the method is wrong, and L under
stand that the State is furnishing the
cement, and it is presumably the best TO be
had. There are ways and ways of doing
| Il L f~1lr
plan different from some other before him
| it does not follow that it is wrong
! Calvin Brown was for many years the
engineer in charge at the Mare Island
| Navy-yard, and had charge for much of
the time during the building of the dry
dock there. He was out OF the Govern
ment service during an interval of a couple
of years, and in that interval Won Schmidt
was building the dock for the Califor-
mia Drydock Company at Hunters Point.
| 1t came about that Brown, on the strength
of his Government experience in drydocks,
was enlisted as consulting engineer IN the
affair at Hunters Point
That was nearly thirty years ago, and
both men were in the full pride of their
prime and their work. They had differed
about things often before that, and while
each respected, neither loved the other
in fact, the more they respected the less
| they liked.
So, when Won Schmidt-this is the other
| storY-heard that Brown had been engaged
| as consulting engineer he went directly to
the office of the drydock company, accord
ing to the stories told by pioneers with
| good memories, and declared that he
would not work with Brown and would
not permit him TO come about the place.
! The men themselves qualify the details,
| but as the story is now retailed Won
| Schmidt declared fatty that if Brown came
near the drydock he would resent it
| forcibly.
Jump, the old.time caricaturist, drew a
sketch hortraying Brown looking from a
housetcp with spyglass, while Won
! Schmidt was standing in his drydock try
! ing to get a shot at him with fowling-
piece.
The company, however, would not
abridge It's right to call in another doctor
in a case so important to them, although
they were perfectly satisfied with the plan
as proposed and the work so far as it had
gone. So they tried to smooth down Won
! Schmidts neck feathers and told him it
was all for the best and he mustn't mind,
and all that. But Won Schmidt, the pio-
neers say, simply replied:
every well, III get the shotgun, and if
that fellow comes monkeying round my
work l shall allow the gun to go off. You
had better tell him that, for / mean just
what l say
And he did get the shotgun and keep
| it in his office at the dryd0ck; the COM
pany had no notion of dispensing with Won
! Schmidt, neither did they intend to be
bluffed by him out of engaging a consult
| ing engineer, since they had announced
their intention TO engage him; neither did
! they want to see promising engineer like
Brown, who stood in well with the United
| States Government. killed off in the flush
Of his career.
1t was embarrassing, but there was but
one thing to do. They engaged Brown and
told him the circumstances and then
looked him in the eye, with quiet, steady
| gaze, that after bit shifted to the gas fix
| lures in the ceiling and remained there
long enough to permit Brown to under
stand that they did not expect him to risk
his life.
So Brown walked slowly round the block
once or twice thinking deeply. Then he
went away and bought-this is still the
other story, told as it is ordinarily told
| bought a long distance tield-glass and
| climbed with it to the buildings overlooking
| Hunters Point, from which coign of want
age he examined the work and reported
upon it favorably.
| Both the parties of this story laughed it
off when it was repeated to them yester-
| day.
i, H. ~