The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-02-09
Building and Building Material
B Fssderic ]. liasEin.

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 The National Builders' Supply As- Looisville. Kentucky. The progress of the trade during the past year will be talked over ana there will De q general discussion of matters pertain Ing to building and building materials. There will be an exhibit in connection with the convention, in which new materials and methods on construc- tion win be demonstrated. The re- salt of the exchange of ideas along these lines win probably be shown In further advancement in the trade
 One of the most important oues- tions which will be considered by the convention is, the building of earth quake-pfoof houses. The recent ca tastrophs iu Italy has demonstrated the necessity of the general adoption of some system of constructiop by which. buildings in the earthquake zone in this and other countries can be made reasonably safe. In the United states there has been an fn1- pressfon that structural steel VIII meet almost any earthquake test. This impression grew out of the San Fran cisco earthquake and fire. from which . number of steel frame buildings emerged in comparatively good con dftion.
 In other countries, however. steel is not the favorite. 1Jspan finds frame |or bamboo construction the safest. Heretofore Italy has used stone ana brick almost exclusively in building construction. Those materials have been weighed in the balance and found wanting. The United States govern Hment Ia instituting an innovation in
 Italian buifding operations. Haf million dollars are being spent Tor lumber and other materials for frame buildings. Haif a dozen ships are car- rying these articles across the ocean. American boss carpenters are super intending the construction of 2,b0o frame dwellings in the esrthcuake e stricken districts around Messira and
 How the Itaiians will like these wooden houses remains to be seen. They are absolutely unlike any dwell Iines they or their ancestors have lived in for hundreds of years. or ever shoe the denudation of the Italian forests. There is reason to believe, however. that if Messina and Reggie had been built of wood instead or stone. the loss of life would have been less appalling
 A German inventor claims to have perfected an earthqnake-proof house. The structure looks much like any other house, but Is is erected on sort of platform, sunk to the level of the surrounding ground, but detached therefronl, except at the center, where there is a sort of pivot upon which the platform and It's burden will rock and sway, maintaining it's center of gray ity. during seismic disturbances. That is what 1t ought to do. theoretically, but 1t Is not recorded that the scheme has ever been demonstrated pracfic- ally.
 The. builders supply and building trades in America have shared in tho prosperity that. until the panic, of 1907. was general throughout the country for ten years, and which bids fair to be revived and continued indefinitely hereafter. Building materials used m the United States are costing the con- suner not Iess than half a billion dol- lars annually. This includes lumber. hardware, etc, which are not included in the trade term 'fbuilders supplles That term means only stone, DFick' cement and other materials used by
 nasons. but.~properiy speaking, build ing materials should include every thing used in house construction.
 A few items in the list of purchases of the American building owners each year are more than nine billion bricks, forty million barrels of cement, forty billion feet of lumber and many mil-
 lion dollars worth of roofing and fin-
 ishinR materiAlA These purchases show h tendency to increase until one
 Is- tempted to ask when Is the con
 struction of buildings in this country going to stop. or come to standstil' as is safd to be the case in European countries at this time. The answer ia that building construction will not
 stop increasing here until the increase of American population ceases. Even
 then construction operations probably
 will continue on a large scale. until many buildings of a more or less tenn porary character are replaced Witn substantial ones.
 There is this difference between building in America and in Europe: In the former country 8 structure IS expected to last for few years or at
 most for a generation or two; WhlIe our European cousins build houses that will last for centuries. American builders are fond of speak l4nx of their improved materials and methods, but they can produce no brick that is better than that over e. Oo0 years of age which has recently baan dug up in the ruins of Babylon. Nor can modern building methods pro duce results that will excel those at- tained 4,oO0 years ago when Pharoan buIIt the pyramids. However, Tor or dinarv purposes, American methods ana materials suit the time, the place ana the people better than any other
 systan ancient or modern. Our sys-
 fem ia fin a class by itself. They sky
 scraper is an example or tnls tact' l, Ine last building of this sort tnes NeN
 York is to permit has just been negun'
 American builders are record preAk- CTS. Take the case of the East St. louis contractor who recently built 9Sur-room house, from excaYating TOT fhe foundations. to painting ana nns sIIiine the structure throughout, in one day. A bride and groom were fn q hurry to go to housekeeping, so after getting all the materials on the ground ana labor engaged. the builder prom ised to complete the job in a day. He started at I o'clock one morning laying ines for the foundation. Meanwhile carpenters were saving boards for the wlnerstructure. During the exterior the mAsons turned their attention to 8 chimney. Plumbers. painters. roofing experts, Rlaziers. and other workrnen fairly trod on each others' heels. A few of them worked over the eiRht-hour schedule, but after fourteen hours during which 11.0o0 shingles 5000 leths and 376 yards ot plaster had been put on. and 76.0O0 mails driven. to say nothing of painting.