The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-09
Recent CO|apses Are Said to Be Due to CareIessness
 of the Workmen
CITY BUILDING LAWS
 SHOULD BE REVISED
CareIessness in Proportloning and Mixing Concrete-Status of Ma tional Banks-Experlment
 on Roads.

Washington, September S.-(Special)- The recent collapse of a number of rein forced concrete buildings with loss of life and of several hundred thousand dollars has brought forcibly to the attention of structural material experts the need for an immediate revision of the building regulations of the great cities of the country. It is declared that inattention 10 this new material on the part of officials of municipalities and the haphazard man. ner in which it is being handled by some contractors have led to most serious problem, and will result in more dsas- ters unless there is a remedy at once.
 Richard L. Humphrey. expert in charge of the United States geological surveys structular material laboratories in St. Louis, Mo-. and Norfolk, Va, declares that the danger of collapse of concrete structures exists in nearly every impor- tant city in the United States.
 q have examined carefully nearly every one of the buildings that have collapsed within the last year." says MT. Hum phrey. "and in every instance the fall of the structure has been due to care- lessness of construction. From what I have seen of other concrete buildings in progress of construction, I am satis- fed that the same errors are being re- peated. and that further colapses will surely come unless the officials of tie cities take the question in hand now. This danger of careless construction con fronts nearly every city of the country and it is a miracle to me that more con- crete buildings have not collapsed.
 Should Revise Laws.
 '1n order to meet this problem square, ly every city in the United States should revise it's building laws in such manner that either the owner or the contrac- tor of concrete building shall be com pelled to employ a competent inspector, whose duty it shall be to follow every de- tail of the construction from the begin ming of the foundations to the compile ton of the roof. New York, St. Louis, Boston and Philadelphia have either pre- pared are now preparing new regua- tons governing concrete construction.
 'The science of concrete construction is not yet thoroughly settled. and until it is the greatest care should be taken in the use of the material Concrete by reason of it's superior qualities, especially its re- sistance to fire and its cheapness is be- ing used extensively in these days, and will be employed still more in the future. It is a comparatively new material, and until it's properties fully known and appreciated the greatest safeguards should be thrown about it. There is a prevalent idea that 1t can be used by unskiled laborers. That is the error which has led to serious consequences. While it is true that unskilled labor can be employed to a large extent. concrete construction requires the same care and attention to details that Is demanded by frst-class construction with other ma terials.
 Mixing Concrete.
 Some of the causes that have produced failure are careessness In proportionng and mixing the concrete; poor or unsuit- able sand. stone or gravel; poor joints in the forms and insufficient bracing. and often too early removal of these forms: insufficient and incorrectly placed rein forcement, and bad alignment of the work
 Each failure tends to discourage the use of concrete for the reason that it is almost universally attributed to the ma teral rather than to the improper condi- tions under which it is used The fail ure of a reinforced concrete structure by reason of improper design. poor materials or bad workmanship is no more an argu- ment against it's use than the collapse of a steel stucture under similar conditions is an argument against the use of struct- ural steel in construction.
 "The geological survey, in connection with it's experiments. has made it a point to investigate promptly the failure of concrete structures. and the collapse of those already examined has been due to carelessness on the part of the contrac- tors or defective design or forms, and not to the materials used
 Careless Construction.
 "In the last ruined concrete building I Inspected found many evidences of care Iessness in construction. The forms used were the bad feature; the joints were not tight. the supports were light and for The roof had to be spiced. The alignment of the work was very bad; the columns did not center over each other, and the lower sides of the beams and girders were not only not level. but had also sagged, in dicating that the forms were not of suf- 1cient stiffness. Further carelessness was shown in placing the reinforcement: the rods were too close in the girders and beams. and the splice of the sheets of expanded metal in the floor slabs did not appear to be sufficient. Little attention appears to have been paid to the column connections. While there were many noints in the construction which were not as they should be. and certainly not m accordance with good practice, none of those can be regarded as the cause of