The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-12-25
HOMES FOR POOR MEN.
One Thousand Dollars viii Build 4
Modern House for Three Families.
Nav YORK Worid.l

mooeFn rouse Tor ihree familteS.
(New York worid.)
Thomas A. Edison, who usually
shunS lnterviewers, was as affable and
laxative yesterday as q candidate at
district election rally. He took the
World reporter to the second floor of
his laboratory, showed him the models
or Queen Anne cottage and said:
Next spring ! intend to build a
house by this model. BY means of a
system OF patent moulds il is possible
for any contractor to build house of
solid cement twenty-five feet wide and
forty-five feet deep. three stories high
and capable of comfortably housing
three families, for 81 900. Three families
In house on this model will give each
family lots of ROOM
THE most important feature of the
patent lies in the moulds, which are of
iron, but the material for the house is
TO be composed almost wholly of a new
composition of mine, consisting of one
part OF cement, three parts of sand and
nVe parts of quarterback crushed
stone. The only part of the house not
Quilt OF cement will be a strip of wood
around the ends Of the floors on which
to tack down carpets.
by pouring the cement into the
moulds, beginning, of course, at the top
until the whole mixture overfiows the
ed1fice, Ii viii be possible to build the
mouse IN twelve hours, and in six days
more it will have settled and hardened
so as to be absolutely indestructible.
Il have built the model of this house
on the basis of a labor-owner getting
s1.5O per day. The moulding forms are
of cast iron. and for 81, 600 the entire
house can be built. This to include
heating pipes, staircases of cement,
doors and mantels of cement and a ce-
ment roof that won't leak. Plumbing
and even bath tubs will be of cement.
1.-THE durability of the house is I'M
questionable. 1t will last forever. Even
children may go around with axes and
chop as long as they like without do
ing any material harm.
Therefore there will be no necessity
for repairs. Even the window sashes will
be of cement. Aside from the narrow
strip of wood intended for the holding
of carpet tacks the only wooden thing
about the house is the front stoop.
have given it wooden stoop to make
l. more beautiful. 1 have been in con-
sultation with New York architects on
the subject of the wooden stoop and
think it possible to omit that material
in the stoop construction. 1t will cost
contractor $4,000 to get the molds
with which to build the house, but then
he will be able to build over 30, 900
houses with the one set of molds
The molds can be taken down in a
few hours after the house has been
finished, and they may be carted to any
part of the world in less space than is
required for shipping an ordinary der
rick. That's what will appeal strongly
TO commercial economy. In selling con-
tractors the iron castings 1 shall re-
strict them in the use of cement that
vii lhave no air bulbs. The cement
Will be poured into the molds until it
flows over at the top. Then the house
is practically finished. / won't sell the
molds to any who do not satisfy me of
the quality of their concrete formula.
In the great San Francisco disaster
the houses which withstood the earth
qUakes were built of cement"
Mr.. Edison was asked how he was
progressing with his storage battery for
driving trucks. He caught the eye of
gray-haired man in the party and be-
fore answering the question called out
to the visitor:
Hello, George! Have you got any
more los per cent copper" Then smil-
ingly he said:
Il don't mind telling you that I have
at last succeeded in getting the storage
battery proposition to a condition in
which it is of economic value. 1 am
turning out 300 storage batteries a week
for trucks. This after a three years
test. l realized that if l made a bat
terry capable of doing only 1900 miles
when new plate became necessary it
would do no more than the horse was
able to 90. decided that if the battery
was able to accomplish $4,000 miles
without a new plate the horse was
dead. The horse is dead. Next De-
cember 1 expect TO begin supplying
storage batteries to trucks, and then it
will be cheap enough for even a Tenth
avenue butcher to purchase it.
81 have succeeded In perfecting a
50,000-mile battery. 1t will be able to
take twice the load of the ordinary
truck, will have twice the speed and
take up half the space. In a word, it
will be eight times as useful as the
horse and wagon. In December, when
we will begin TO deliver these batteries,
the horse of Manhattan will disappear
forever