The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1901-07-21
Inventor Declares That Our Dwell
ings and Offices Will All
Be Poured"
SOME PIONEER BUILDINGS.
Church, Jail and Grain Elevator
Prove Plan a Success-How
Concrete Structures
Are Erected.

New York. July 2o.-Quarries may, with
IN a Few years, lie idle and stone cutting
be forgotten.
The arts Of brickmaking and bricklaying
may be lost
These are no exaggerated statements, but
well considered practical possibilities.
They are opinions that are shared by
Thomas A. Edison.
In some of the Western States, lately in
the East and to small extent on the Con-
tfnent of Europe new idea in building is
under way. Brick and stone are dispensed
with and cement takes their place-cement
poured into wooden molds or forms
which. when the. mass within them has
hardened to rocklike firmness and solidity,
are taken down.
Thus sometimes Of cement alone, some
times Of cement with a small quantity of
en- 1t, walls. columns. floors. roofs are built
entire great edifces, indeed of nothing
but the hardened concrete. The molds or
forms are merely wooden boxes. or. when
long walls are to be erected. lengths of
wooden panels and standards that are
1Sited together to receive s. the CONC, concrete
walls of facciful ornament are poured as
readily as il the surface were plain.
4 seems, all of this. like some sort Of
fairy tale Observation-Disclosures remarkable.
a page out OF the Arabian Nights'-but it
is being done daily. a poured church in
,anshe se asiN sTf in the san
try town of Mineola, l.. l.. the seat of
government Of the new Nassau County. a
poured" county Courthouse and jail that
Will be very handsome INTELLECTUALLY are
now. being built
In Bayonne, N. j.. very tall chimney
1s being put up, against all traditions. Of
tngton, d. c.. a poured cement business
structure Is rising, and the same plan Of
building has been tried in Buffalo. applied
to grain elevator, where the cement floor
holds sixty-eight steel tanks. 50 feet high.
153t feet in diameter an actual load Of 4470
pounds per square foot
As finished these walls columns and roofs
are as of stone. The mass hardening in
the molds shapes itself precisely. Here.
following the mold lines. this wall, though
eoiid. artificial stone. seems TO be of indi-
vidual blocks. The illusion is startlinsly
perfect, the more SO u little tooling will
give a stone surface, to the cement. and
color and tint have been initiated in the
mass that was poured in.
Under ordinary circumstances this new
idea, although now in successful operation
and proved very feasible structurally. might
not have attracted especial attention.
But in the last few weeks il has had a
champion in the person OF no one else than
inventor has assumed new roie-that of
prophet. Cement and steel, hi. declares, are
ture." Skyscrapers viii be built of frame
works Of steel. with walls of cement, the
eteelwork tncased in. cement as we'll All
viii viii be Of ponfed Cement They cs VIM
pour q house then" says Mr.. Edison.
Mr.. Edison is concrete expert. Plans
are now being made by a company in which
he is controlling force to build a large
Portland cement works in one of the Jer-
eey towns. and part OF this plant will be a
OF cement. poured in molds. and put up
SO cheaply that they can be rented for very
These statements Of Mr.. Edison are print
ed in Insurance Engineering:
M. EdfsOn's Predictions.
My impression is that the time will come
when every contractor will have standard
forms OF houses. twenty or thirty varieties.
The forms will be made of wood and con-
tractor using one of the standard shapes
Will simply go out and pour a house. There
Will probably be hundreds Of designs. The
contractors will put up their concrete mix
Ct: and have their beams and forms ready.
They will pour the form for the first story
complete that. then pour the second story,
and 80 on. To do that all they will require
VIII be common laboi-a few men and one
boss. That Is what ] think will be done
eventually. And such horse can be made
very cheaply. It seems TO me there Hilt
not be much use for carpenters then. There
will be cabinetmakers. to be sure. Why.
wen the floors and stairs will be made of
Mr.. Edison was asked if Portland cement
would be cheap enough for general use.
Yes. think &C., ne answered when
the price gets to be 81 barrel, or s. ton.
ana people know they can get it for that,
there will be enormous quantities of it
used"
Have you seen any account OF the
church in Brooklyn. built up section by sec
tion, precisely as you have described?'
No." said he. but that is the way to do
1t. Houses built in that manner can be
rented probably for. say, s. or s. a MONTH
They Will be as cheap that. And a
house can be put up and completed in a
Few days. The architects will have a fine
sorts OF ornamentation while they are COM
plotting the walls. Thus we viii have small
palaces renting for about so month II
the contractors have the proper molds there
will not be any difficulty in making the
most beautiful houses wonderfully chear. :"
struction OF high buildings? If so, I'm what
':An those buildings will be of steel con-
etruction, with Portland cement" said Mr.
Edison. =. :
DO you mean that the outside of the
buildings will he of cement instead of brick
or terra Gotta as now. and the inside struc-
Sural steelwork fncased in cement?'
Yes. that is the idea exactly
What. In your opipinn, will be the efrert
OF concrete construction on fire hazards I'm
citiesr'
Some of the fire insurance people vii, go
out OF business. so far as building risks are
conceEped, or write risks on the balance OF
what VIII be then obsolete houses That of
course, is something that will come way
cheapness in the houses to be constructed
; by this method that VIII prove very attrac-
tive to the masses of people"
will the roofs be made of cement also pr
Yes. the whole thing-all -poured-cement
construction"
Brooklyn's ssPoured. Church,
Except for the circumstance that no high
buildings have yet been erected with con-
crete walls and cheap ornamental houses