The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-12-21
STATEMENT BY ARCHITECT.
fContinued from page u

ordinary blocks that the Philadelphia
| pressed brick shows over the ordinary
| hand made brick, and at a great deal
| of cost to myself and others who were
| interested with me, / commenced ex-
perimenting with concrete, moulded I'M
| der heavy pressure, the results being
! highly satisfactory to US all.
| In these experiments 1 was given the
hearty cooperation of the Concrete
CONSTRUCTION Company, Mr. L. E. Pink
ham, the Board of Health and the
| Board of Public Works, Mr.. Marston
Campbell particularly assuring me that
I was on the right track in my efforts
to secure an ideal construction for the
| buildings committed to my care. At
the end of my experiments I found that
concrete blocks moulded under a pres
sure of 400 pounds to the square inch
would take, in their construction, more
material than those made by hand
tamping, that under that pressure the
richer material of which the face was
made was mashed into the main body
of the blocks and became homogeneous
with it and was not a thin scale, such
as is usually applied to brick or .ce-
ment work to make nice face, and
which in time is liable to peel off, also
found that the crowding of more ma
terial into the blocks made them much
more dense and that moisture would
not penetrate the mass to any depth
through the rich lone to two outside
mixture.
Having thus satisfied myself and hav-
ing exhibited the sample blocks thus
made to the Board of Health, the
Board of Public Works, the Attorney
General and to several of the United
States Government engineers, all of
whom gave the construction their I'M
qualified approval I and my associate
prepared the plans to suit that style
of construction and the 400 pounds to
the square inch pressure clause was
inserted in the specifications.
Mr.. L. z. Pinkham, who at that time
was connected with the Concrete Con-
struetion Company. and who has been
of great assistance to me in the max
ing of all my experiments, conceived
the idea of a machine that would con-
struct all the blocks required in these
buildings both satisfactorily and cheap
ly His plans for which, when submit
ted to an expert were pronounced good.
Mr.. Anweg, on his arrival in Honolulu
two months ago called on me and urged
me to use my influence with the Board
of Public Works to have the pressure
clause of the specifications changed, as
the construction called for was impos-
sible." I showed him the blocks had
myself made and told him of the Pink
ham machine. which 1 said he would
have no trouble in securing the use
of. and that, If he wished, 1 would try
to get into communication with Mr..
Pinkham (then on Hawaii and get for
him a direct proposition. He thanked
me and said he would do business with
him in a hurry if 1 could get in touch
with him. I sent a letter to Hilo and
had it sent over the mountains to Mr.,
Pinkham by special messenger (the bill
for which-$15-came in to me and I
paid iD. Two days before Mr.. Amweg
left for the coast 1 met him on the
street and told him Mr.. Pinkham was
in town and was ready to make him
| a proposition. His reply was that the
matter was in the hands of his attor-
neys, who assured him that the Pub
| lie Works Department could not force
| him to do unreasonable things, that if
| they failed in their contention he would
then talk to Mr.. Pinkhan. have not
seen or heard from him since. nor do
think has Mr.. Pinkham.
| Pardon my voluminous explanation,
but 1 did not feel as though the ex-
perimental work of months should be
set aside in favor of a contractor whose
| only apparent interest in the job is to
get out of it as cheaply as possible.
! without at least slight protest on my
part. So / have thought it best to ac-
quaint you with the facts in the case.
i I remain yours respectfully,
i F. W. BEARDSLEE.