The San Francisco call., 1906-07-01

4 there were hundreds Of brick buildings
with greater area and height than
this. But there were also many hun
dreos Of smaller ones Therefore 1t is
possible to strike an average OF n five
story bu.iding in considering the com
bined brick area ot 5000 structures
destroyed. Multiplying 1900 bricks
by $4,000 we have a total of I125,000-
600 bricks that are either standing in
dismantled walls or have fallen in
heaps Of rrin
OF this vast number of bricks, how
ever. only about % per cent arc usable.
That gives us about S1.25o,OoO.
Now though there is no actual mar
ket for these bricks at the present time
they have a physical value of at lea st
50 thousand The owner of the 10.
cannot get So a thousand for them. but
they are actually worth that to San
Francisco. Dealers in second hand
building materials are merely Offering
10 cart away the brick, saving the
owners of the lots the expense that
would otherwise be incurred in renlox-
ing the debris The cost of the cart
'ge is about So thousand. and it costs
at the very least 81 a thousand to
clean them. or il will cost that when
the builders and material dealers begin
TO clean them in great quantity. as
they will do when the big construction
operations get under way
Having established this value. we
find that the PSI. 250O00 bricks are
worth sS.4S7.500 at the present time.
Under ordinary circumstances second
handbriclz is worth about s5 a thou
sand. but it will not have any such
ine in San Francisco for many
years TO come.
Though there is far greater volume
OF brick in the ruins than any other
material it can hardly go under the
specific category of junk Generally
speaking, junk is supposed to include
a conglomerate OF all sorts of material.
though as far as the so-called junk
dealer is concerned it only includes
scrap metal And in the Scrap metal
buried and piled in the burned area
there is about so per cent of the value.
of the total wreckage
Dealers in scrap metal have been ex-
ploring the ruins for weeks They
have made estimates lot by lot on all
the $50 burned blocks of the. city.
Though IT would be impossible to figure
down very finely, an approximateaver2
age of the tonnage. of all the cast iron
and steel that is being purchased mere
ly as junk is 100000 tons.
This includes steel girders. beams,
cast iron and steel columns sheet
metal. joints, spikes. riyets. window
sash weights angle irons. gusset plates
and all the great tangle of scrap that
can be seen in a journey of many
miles over the burned area. The cast
iron is bringing from SIS to $40 a ton
when ii is merely scrap and can only
be used for reforsing into steel No
matter how it has been broken up
and cracked it is always good for this
purpose and is worth on the lot about
IS a ton. 1t costs about 81 a ton TO
haul 1t, so Its physical worth to the
city in its present state of ruin is all
of SO a ton.
The scrap steel, in .he shape of bent
and twisted girders, IS worth only half
as much as the scrap iron, but there are
thousands of tons of steel that have
not been greatly damaged by the fire
This is worth more than scrap iron. The
steel that was melted or subjected to
intense heat lost its temper and fine
ness and can only be used again in the
manufacture Of inferior grades of
metal. This sort Of junk is bringing
about 81 ton on the lot and costing
about 81 ton to cart, giving 1t pres
ent yalue 10 the city of S6 a ton
The steel that was not badly dam
aged in the fire and the columns and
girders that were not bent and twisted
in dynamited and wrecked buildings
varies in value from $40 to $40 ton
so that in the aggregate all of the steel
is worth about $40 ton. This will
bring the average value of the entire
100000 tons Of scrap iron and steel UP
to about $40 tor. or S4,000000
Therefore, the brick and base metals
that will be reclaimed from the ruins
are worth s12.437,50o. and they make
more than so per cent OF the bulk of
all the ruin. But there are other metals
Of far greater value, though of much
less bulk. These metals are copper.
brass and lead, and there Is about
33,000.000 worth Of 1t being gathered
together and sold as fast as the insur-
ance companies make their adjustments
on the lots in the burned area
Copper has lost very little in value
from the fire. 1t is selling on the mar
ket in bars at the present time at Is
cents pound. and 1t Is being bought
in San Francisco as junk at IA cents a
pound. The junk dealer can either