The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1895-02-07
ALIARDT'S FACTS AND THEORY At FAULT.


cover the piles at this great depth and
leave them free to the teredo. The fact IS
! that there is an eddy in all the slips along
the water front, where mud and sand are
deposited at the rate of one foot a month
The dredger is constantly at work provid-
| ing deep water for the ships there-another
| of Mr.. Allardt's facts which is entirely off
color.
'Now, I have covered the main argu-
ment," continued Mr.. Holmes. "In lust
run over the minor points of Mr.. Allardt's
criticism. He says our spliced 60-foot piles
are liable to have bagged at the knee, with
possible calamity as result. The fact is
the piles are all 80 feet long and none Of
them are spliced. So much for that. He
says that it is not known as yet what the
effect Of salt water is upon Portland cement.
Any encyclopedia or the Century Diction-
airy would have told him. 1t is well estab-
hshed.
GAS for his granite wall which he sug-
gests as stay for the whole foundation, l
would like to ask Mr.. Allardt why that
plan which was adopted for the seawal
was abandoned, and if the city did not getl
judgment in suit growing out of its fail
~
much per foot on the price?"
Harbor Commissioner Cole was present
during almost all this, and was asked if he
had anything to say in answer to criticisms
passed upon the Harbor Commission in
having accepted the plan.
81 have only to say that we have conf
dence in our engineer, and that as we are
not experts ourselves, we have to rely upon
him and his judgment in these matters"
"That is hardly fair way of putting it"
said Holmes. 81 am handicapped. These
are Mr.. Browns plans; not mine. am
simply seeing that they are carried out"
''To be sure" said Cole.
Mr.. Cole was asked with regard to the
statement telegraphed from Sacramento
yesterday that the commission had gone
contrary to law in advertising for bids for
the entire work, instead of segregating it,
and that the whole proceedings were liable
to be overthrown on that account.
"There is an agreed case in Sanderson's
court to determine that point" he said,
"and the bids Will not be opened until it
is decided"
A. Page Brown, the architect who de-
signed the foundation for and the super
structure OF the ferry depot, was asked
what he had to say with regard to the
liability OF his plans going "agley" and he
said he was not worried about it. The
plans had been accepted and the founda-
ton is nearly completed. He had received
part of the 5000 for the best plan, but
not all of it. He refused to say how much
he had received.
He said it would be practically impos-
sible to segregate the different parts of the
work on the building and let it out to sew
eral different contractors. It required one
man at the head to look after and be
responsible for the whole work. He was
convinced that Governor Budd had salts
fed himself during his recent visit that the
work was all right. The rumors of crooked
work, he said, had originated with a one
time partner of State Engineer Holmes, who
was disgruntled in some way and wanted
to cause that official trouble. Mr.. Brown
was in something of a temper with regard
to some recent criticism of the big tower in
his building. He explained that he was a
Fellow of the Society OF Architects, and
that he had been engaged as architect be-
cause of the fear the Commissioners had
that the work would fall into inferior or
incompetent hands. The work of an en-
gineer, he said, was entirely different from
that of an architect. Their lines met here
and there but diverged again. They often
had to consult with each other, but their
training was entirely different.
"But you designed the foundation for
the ferry, didn't your"
eyes"
'That is essentially an engineering feat,
isn't it?"
perhaps it is. The commission, not
knowing what was to go on top of it, got
me to make the plan"
Couldn't Mr.. Holmes, the engineer
paid by the State for just such work, have
done it?"
'He didn't know the weight that it was
expected to sustain"
"But couldn't he have consulted with
you as you say engineers sometimes do
with architects2"
"Well, have engineers in my Office"
was Mr.. Browns reply. Besides" he
added, sit is not such big affair. We
are only going to spend 100000 on it. But
Just because it is a public building every
man thinks he ought to file complaint
With private concern this whole thing
would have been dismissed long ago."