Los Angeles herald., 1907-06-16
EXPERTS IN BUILDING
DRAW LESSONS FROM
SAN FRANCISCO QUAKE

much more severe lndll dH1
occurred there is no. reason why ,su. Sal
francisco should not be rebuilt as suc.
cessful commercial enterprise II Seems
highly improbable that earthquakeS vii
ever be much more severe than the one OF
April Is, 1906. There is no doupI tnat 'It
city can be rebuilt so that altnoNgn II
nmakes, this damage will not be at al
fatal and the city will not burn up as t@ne @
result of it-John Stephen Sewell, captain
engineer corps, U. ). a.
When we can plainly see as we may
looking backward, that nearly all OF TINS
lesfruction and suffering might nave peer
ssrevented by wise foresight and provision
we feel that we must send a warming to
ali the cities Of the world. Any city tnat
q o'sr nrsst crime-Frank Soule, dean college
of Civil engineering, University Oh Cah-
fornia.
y The San Francisco disaster demon
strated that the lessons taught by the
Chicago and Baltimore fires are sun un-
learned The same faults n ne nniy sure
way to remedy grave defects OF tnls cnar- mar,
acter is to enact strict building laWs
which will compel an o4seryames che
ard L. Humphrey. secretary OF Ine ma
fional advisory board on fuels and struc-
tural materials.
IN the above words three of the best
experts on structural materials IN
the United States sum up the nope
frl vet practical, lesson that has been
learned from the terrible disaster that
cost 500 lives and propert- loss Oh
s5O0,OOO,OoO.
Acting in cooperation with tne lecn-
nologic branch of the geologic SUI >
these experts visited the scens VI ues '.s1.
1ation and ruin wrought by the eartn-
quake and fire shortly after the casas-
tronhe. Capt. Sewell officially repre-
santed the war department at the tlne'
Torof prank Soule was acting IN pc
taif of the geological survey, anu
p;cbard T.. Humphrey, now expert ~
charge of the structural materlaiS
vision OF the survey, was , ol "a eao
ground representing the natlonai al
visory board on fuels ana seruo'oi q
materials. 1,..,o;sco and
ether cities of the world how to be pre-
rored for earthquakes and also now
10 prevent general conf1agratlons'
Concrete the Best
That reinforced concrete structures
properly built are the pest, noi on siso
1vithstand earthquake shocks out aiso
o.,ainst fire. is the opinion OF tnese
The conclusion of Capt. Sewell m
-arard 10 the most efficient type Oh
building for Scn Francisco coHtail
some striking suggestions.
.sFor very tall buildings, says oap. .p
sewell. ..the best type of constructlo.t
Is undoubtedly steel frame, pue az ~
aSo,,i5 he thoroughly braced, much IN
~ sone way as the Call building.
rTbe steel bracing in this building uu-
doubtedly saved the masonry. III
buildings such as the new CnroniIle
and the Monadnock the erect VI LIZ
s,ihration was really counteracted py
the. masonry, and the masonry was
much shattered Some of 1t was pre-
cinitated into the street from the new
Cbronicle. the Rialto and other pullu-
s,,1rs Naked steel frames of the same
tvne came through without serious
damaee but they did not have the al
5itional stresses due to the vlpratloh
~ Great load of masonry fioor con-
str,ction and content, in the upper
stories. as did the finished buildings.
.In my Judgment, to secure tne U.s.
results, it should also be lncloseo VIII
walls Of reinforced concrete, .,s,n III ~
case II would be almost fmposslple 10
throw the walls off, The proper artls
lie treatment of this material woulo
seen, to be a very important propleH
for the architects in place ike osh
Erancisco. It's great utility in earth
onake shocks cannot be denied. Where
steel frame buildings are to be nnlsneo
with ordinary masonry walls, however,
complete bonding of all race prlchs
with full header courses snoulu pe
absolutely required; no other Iorin 10
ADEQUATE. Nothing but Portland ce-
ment should be allowed in any portlon
of the structure The masonry shoulu
be tied to the steel frame IN the very
hest possible way, and much more
securely than is ordinarily the case.
"For buildings of moderate he1gnt,
say UP to 125 feet as an extreme Hllll'-
reinforced concrete alone can uh-
1,ndo,,btedly be so designed as to give
very good results when subjected TO
either earthquake or fire. But LnS
bracing of reinforced concrete pullo-
ing of any height to resist earthquakes
is a mntter for serious study.
''Where reinforced concrete is useu
throughout, whether the bulldlng Is
very tall or not, great care should De
taken with the design and execution
of the connections between columns
and members of the floor system
ssFrom the effect on Notifications ana
from the effect on monolithlc ana MAS
siye concrete structures elsewhere, II
seems iustifiable to conclude that
solid monolithic concrete structure OF
any sort is secure against damage ~
an earthquake country, unless IL shoulu
hannen to lie across the line OF tle
slip: in that case the damage might pe
fatal and it might not. That woulo
depend altogether upon the amount OF
the slip and the intensity of the forces
accompanying it,
Professor Soule declares in his report
that the failure of some of the methods
of fireproofiin in San Francisco IS dl-
rectly traceable to the commands of
owners to their architects to cheaper,
as far as practicable, the fireproofing
and the construction generally, in or
der to secure greater interest on their
investment.
This cheapening" he declares, has
often occurred in spite of the protests
of the designer, and it is in an entirely
wrong direction, for rates of insurance
are largely reduced with improvements
in fireproofing, and as the cost of the
steel frame and its proper fireproofing
seldom exceeds q per cent of the cost
of the building 1t seems wise to pro-
tect the other 7S per cent with ade-
quate materials"
On the best types of buildings for
San Francisco Professor Soule says:
'In a country subject to earthquakes
strongly framed and well founded
y x,voodor1 bo,1ca of two Or most