Los Angeles herald., 1907-03-31
OVER NINETY TONS REST ON
CONCRETE FLOOR
Public Demonstrations by Contractors
Of Tremendous Strength Of Reln-
forced Concrete Material at
Lankershlm Building

TRACTORS, tne hODefJS COtlbIfuCIiOn COHl-
pany, who recently finished the con-
crete work on the Citizens National
bank building.
Tests have been made on other REIN
forced concrete structures that have
recently been erected in Los Angeles,
but it Is doubtful If p more thorough
demonstration has been given the pub
lie than that on the Lankershim
structure. Hundreds of people gath
cred at the building to witness the
test, which was confined to the lower
floor. The space tested was near the
center on the Fourth street side, the
panel being II feet Q inches by IS feet
s inches in dimensions. Only concrete
with twisted steel bars imbedded in
the same formed the material of the
floor. On this space was placed bags
of cement nearly eight feet high, the
weight being over COS pounds to the
square foot; and on the cement sacks
climbed over 100 Of the employees Of
the contractors, who posed while
photographers took f1ashlight and time
exposure pictures of the group. The
inspection showed a detection Of less
than an eighth of an inch in the CEN
ter. The city ordinance requires test
weight Of but $50 pounds to the square
foot In the demonstration of yester-
day the company desired to prove to
parties interested that the floor space
described would stand four times the
weight the ordinance required, and
more than made good the claim.
c. H. Millard. the foreman of the
work on the building. stated that the
structure would be completed by July
/ and that the Lankershim eight-story
building would be one of the best Of
its class in Los Angeles
Reinforced concrete as building
material seems to have comes to stay
in Los Angeles. Many of the more
expensive structures designed have
been constructed Of concrete, which is
commonly understood to be a mass
of broken stone or gravel, sand and
cement, mixed with water and tamped
in place, reinforced concrete in which
has been imbedded steel bars of proper
form and size and in the proper po-
sition for the purpose of resisting
tensile stresses.
Technical Talk on New Material
In the course of a recent address
given by Harrison Albright. the we'll
known Los Angeles architect, he de-
clared that concrete was the material
extensively used centuries ago by the
Egyptians and the Romans, and in
strength and durability no mass, how
ever large or hard, equals the walls
of concrete which they built and which
can only be destroyed by laboriouS
process like that of quarrying stone
from its natural bed.
Mr.. Albright further stated in the
course of his technical talk that there
have been failures in reinforced con-
crete buildings as there have been in
all other types of buildings, due to
improper design, bad materials and dis
honest workmanship.
pI1 AIYYfa
alone make 1t most desirable, as
should the fact that it does not de-
teriorate with age, but becomes
stronger, making repairs unnecessary,
which cannot be truthfuly said of any
other building material.
Tests by Fire
Reinforced concrete has great fire
and earthquake resisting qualities.
After the Chicago conhagration a COM
mittee investigated the comparative
fireproof qualities Of materials in the
ruins and reported in favor of the same
in the order named-concrete, brick,
stone.
1.-THE conflagrations in Boston, Balti-
more and San Francisco swept streets
of granite blocks into ruins more
quickly than if they had been wood.
Sheets of flame spread over ranges
of buildings, stone flew into fragments,
iron columns. girders and beams warped
and bent, tumbling the so-caled fire.
proof piles into heaps of ruins.
Probably no better, and certainly
no more expensive and thorough tests
could have been devised than those in
Baltimore in connection with the United
States Fidelity & Guaranty company's
building and the International Trust
company's building, both of which were
built entirely of reinforced concrete un-
der the Hennebique system.
In connection with the International
Trust company's building, the first
floor, supported by concrete columns,
and the mezzanine floor, extending only
in the rear. also supported by con-
crete columns, sustained perfectly the
fall of the Adams Express company's s
building, which adjoined it. The Adams
Express company's building was six
stories high, and the fire having
gutted it the side walls fell on the
large skylight of the International
Trust company's building, crushing it
and reaching the concrete floors with
a tremendous force but without injur-
ing them. These floors so protected the
vaults that their contents were re-
moved unchanged, and the tests of
the floors showed that they had not
been weakened by the fire or by the
fall of the adjoining building.
THE buildings referred TO in Balti-
more were in the center OF the region
OF the most intense heat, I'm which
granite, stone, brick and terra Gotta
were entirely destroyed. They were
absolutely proof against the fire and
are today the best examples of truly
fireproof structures.
Unfortunately for San Francisco,
there We're no reinforced concrete
buildings there, Had there been the
city would not now be the mass OF
ruins that It Is.
That reinforced concrete Is earth
quake resisting is best proven by the
fact that the Museum building, Leland
Stanford, jr., university, Palo Alto.
Cal, erected I'm reinforced concrete
twenty years ago by Mr.. e. L. RAN
some, was undamaged by the EARTH
quake, while additions TO the same
building erected within the past few
years OF brick were entirely DESTROYED.
as We're many portions of other build
ings Of the university erected Of brick
and stone"
One Dollar Shoe sale
Shoes Tor women and children. New
stock daily 523 BrysOn block, "a and
Spring.