New-York tribune., 1901-07-27
PROBASCO.
anarchy.


dent has served to demonstrate. That is the
complete unfitness of Samuel X. Probasco TO
have charge of that structure, even during va
cation season. He If either completely ignO-
rant of tile character of the bridge and the en-
gineering problems involved in its care or he
has deliberately set out to deceive the public
concerning the nature and cause of the breaks.
review of few of his statements clearly
demonstrates this.
Mr.. PrObasco all day Thursday declared that
the breaks were due to the excessive heat, and
entered into elaborate explanations of how eX
pansion had strained the rods and caused them
TO part. He did not offer this explanation as a
tentative one, but the positive determination
of the professional expert responsible for the
lives of the thousands who cross the structure
daily Yesterday Mr. Martin pronounced this ex
PLANTATION absolutely untrue; declared that heat
was in no way responsible for the breaks but that
they were due to vibration. 1t may be said for
Mr. Probasco that this is n question Of profess
sonaI opinion, and that his mistake was in
stating what he merely thought a positive
fact. That excuse however does not apply TO
his statements about the bridge construction
issued in support Of his theory. He represented
that the broken rods were fastened rigdy to
the trusses, so that when the latter expanded
they were subjected to lateral bending strain
which snapped them off at the fastening AS
a matter of fact, they have hinge joints at both
cable and truss so as to move freely in the
plane Of the truss as it contracts or expands,
and so could not be bent or chafed. Mr.. Pro-
basco quoted in "The Evening Sun of
Wednesday as saying:
The rods ran from the cable to the girders,
passed through and were bolted on the other
side. The lateral expansion of the girders
chafed the rods at the screw thread and they
snapped.
To "The Mail and Express" he made similar
statement:
The breaks not caused by any particu-
larly heavy weight upon the bridge, has
peen CANNED, put were caused solely by the
expansion due to the heat Of the last few days
or weeks. All of these bars rods were Verti-
cal. and were, of course, permanently fixed by
both cable and iron work With the expansion
they were gradually forced so that instead of
their being perfectly straight they were driven
to different angle, and the strain caused them
TO snap.
1t is only necessary 10 examine Mr. Martins
official report Of yesterday to see that these
statements We're either inconceivably ignorant
or deliberately deceptive. Mr. Martin thus
stamps his associates explanations as ridicu-
lous and his descriptions of the structure as
untrue:
On account OF the expansion and contraction
of the trusses Of the bridge, there is a longitu-
dinal maximum movement at thu slip joints of
about seven inches and this movement ia kes
place in the truss to which the floor beams md
the lower ends Of the suspender rods are at
tached. and does not occur in the cable to
which the upper ends Of these rods are attached
the result is that the lower ends of the rods
move backward and forward as the truss ex-
pands contracts. In order to provide for
this steel trunnion block was introduced into
this connection. which permitted a rolling mo-
tion without producing cross strain in the rods
The lateral strain, driving the fixed rods TO a
different angle, caused the trouble, according
10 Mr.. Probasco There was no such strain and
no such fixed rods. says Mr.. Martin. In view
Of such display Of himself IL is almost super
fiuOus to call attention to Mr. Probasco's deca-
rations that the bridge roadway had not sagged
though everybody who had seen the breaks
which, we believe, he had not then taken the
trouble to do Notwithstanding that he was In
charge of the structure-knew that il had
sagged, and Mr.. Martin in his report admits the
fact. Nor Is 1t necessary TO take seriously the
discrepancy between his assurance that the rods
had often broken before, only this time several
happened to break at the same time, and Mr..