Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1901-06-09
A FIRE PROOF HOUSE
BUILT TO BE BURNED.
Practical Tests of Material and
Methods of Construction Conduct
ed by Men of Scientific Training.
Fires that Draw Il Distinguished

Methods of Construction d
ed by Men of Scientific Training.
Fires that Draw "a Distinguished
Audience.
Special to. the Register.
BOSTON, June 8, 1901.-A fire which
occurred recently in the suburbs of
Cambridge was notable from the fact
that 1t was witnessed by a group of so
picked men, including some of the lead
ing engineers, architects, college profess
Sors, builders, manufacturers, insurance
men, and capitalists of New England.
Naturally it was no ordinary fire that
drew men Of a national reputation to a
lonely spot on the banks of the Charles
River, but a deliberate attempt to burn
or at least to diStort a building express
ly constructed to resist great heat. The
ordinary contest between fire and fire
proof construction might or might not
lbe a fair one, but the scientific value of
this test was assured by the fact that it
was made under tahe direction OF Prof.
c. l.. Norton with the assistance OF a
number of the students from the physics
department OF the Massachusetts Insti-
tute of Technology, and that accurate
records were obtained of the principal
factors and results involved in the ex-
pertinent.
Practical trials by various means Of
new materials and methods of construc-
ton have been made necessary by the
modern practice of erecting city build
ings Of extreme height in which the
hazard to human life and property be-
m enormously increased. Structur-
al steel furnishes, under ordinary con-
ditions, the strength necessary for safe
ty, but while nOn-comDustible it is
subject to such distortion by heat that
in case OF fire the collapse of a steel
building is almost inevitable. Two
problems are thus presented to the
builders; namely, the protection of
steel beams, so that if heated at all
they shall be heated evenly without dis
tortion. and in the second place, the Sc
lection of floor material which shall be
strong, light, and absolutely ireproof.
Experiments have shown that a con-
crete is not only fire-proof but is also
sufficiently non-conductive to protect
steel beams and prevent their distor-
ton. The same cinder concrete would
be desirable for floors because of its
additional quality of lightness, were it
not lacking in tensile strength. This
M drawback has been overcome by
mingling with the concrete steel hbres
of some sort, which appear to make it
capable of bearing a heavy load even
when subjected to extreme heat. Some
times the steel fibres are represented by
wires, sometimes by screens or twisted
netting, or split with diamond-shaped
meshes-all these devices being intend
ed to prevent a continuous expansion of
the material when heated, which would
be sufficient to crack the cement.
In the typical test made at Cambridge,
a building was constructed Il by 20 feet
in size and eight feet high, the roof be-
ing a single slab of reinforced cinder
concrete representing the floor OF a
modern building. This roof was load
ed with a pile of pig iron sufficient to
I give a pressure of about 400 pounds to
the square foot, 80 tons of the iron be-
ing used. In order TO obtain a greater
heat, the building was arranged on the
general plan OF a furnace, having a crate
of steel rails instead of a floor. two
large iron doors at one end and two
massive chimneys at the other. The
structure was covered with concrete
ibotn inside and out, giving 1t the ap-
pearance of a primitive adobe temple
Instead of windows there were four
small holes at the corners, through
which The junction" OF an electric
| pyrometer could be inserted for the pur-
! pose Of reading the inside Temperature.
There were besides IL other pyromaters