The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1909-07-09
READY TO
MOLD HOUSES
Great Inventor Says $1,000
Will Build Homes Ordinar-
lily Costing $4,000
He USES REINFORCED CONCRETE
New York Plumbers are Doubtful
Wizard Of Menlo Park May Have
Overlooked Wage Scales in Estlnat.
ing on Concrete Structures.

overlooked wage scales in EStimat-
ing on Concrete Structures.
New York City.-Thomas A. Edison
has announced that he has completed
his scheme for building concrete
house for 81 200, which, if constructed
of stone in the same design, would
cost between $4,000 and 100000. The
fact that Edison includes in his $1,000
estimate the heating and plumbing for
the house is construed by practical
men here to mean he has fixed his
figures without previously having
consulted plumbers and steam fit
ters and without taking into con-
sideration the eght-hour day and
the prevailing rate of wages. The
price he cites could not prevail if
only a single house was to be built
That he wants to be understood clear
ly. What he means is that If the re-
inforced concrete houses were built in
blocks, by his design and through the
use of his molds, the cost of each
house in a block would not be greater
than about 1920.
He also says that figure is depend
ent upon the houses being built on
soil which yield sand and gravel from
the excavations. Even after making
| due allowance for those conditions,
practical builders here in New York
said they felt sure Edison would find
himself in a losing game If he con-
tracted to put up those blocks of de-
tached one-family houses for $1,000
each, with the plumbing and steam
| heating apparatus included. Opinion
was expressed that a mistake had
been made in the estimates, and be-
| fore contracts were entered into for
building such houses the estimates
would be revised and changed materi
ally.
The Edison housebuilding plan calls
for one-family house, on lot 40x60
feet. The floor plan of the house is
25x30 feet. The front porch extends
eight feet and the back stoop three
feet. Each house will contain six
rooms and bath, and the cellar will
extend beneath the entire house and
will contain the boiler, washtubs and
coal bunker. The main living rooms
and also the outside of the house will
be richly decorated. The decorations
will be cast with the house and there
fore will come from the molds as part
of the structure and not merely be
stuck on.
The entire house will be of rein
forced concrete. That includes the
walls, roof, floors, porches, bathtub
and the laundry tubs. The only wood
in the building will be the doors, door
frames, windows and window frames.
The inside walls also will be of con-
crete and there will be no plaster fin
ish. The surface will be smooth and
may be tinted or painted, as the owner
may desire. Edison seems to think
that with his plan in working shape it
will do much toward relieving the
congestion which now exists in cities
and practically enable every working
man to own his home or to be ten
ant in detached house at an expense
that is, for rent and carfare-of not
more than SO month.
Cast-iron molds will be used in
building the houses, and they will
vary in design. After the concrete
foundation has been laid and has hard
ened the molds will be set up upon
it. The term foundation is not to be
construed as meaning the cellar walls,
but merely a base of concrete upon
which the molds will rest. Edison es-
Inmates that the molds needed to be-
gin the work of building such houses
on wholesale lines will cost $685. o.
and that the necessary plant will cost
$4,000 more. At least six sets OF
molds must be used to keep the men
and the plant busy
Edison says it will take four days
to set up the molds. The liquid con
crete can be poured into them in six
hours. The molds will be kept in use
for four days until the concrete hard
ems and then it will require four days
to remove them. That means the
house will be finished in fortnight
With the six sets of molds, if that
schedule is adhered to, about 15C
houses can be built in a year. The
initial cost of the cast iron molds will
be comparatively great, but they may
be used indefinitely, Edison says, and
in the long run will be much cheaper
than the wooden molds now used anG
which, because of their destructibility
increase greatly the expense of con
crete construction.
Edison has George E. Small ant
Henry ]. Harms, Jr., engineers, work
ing with him now. They designed the
house and molds and made the expert
; ments. The first house will be pour
ed in sections for experimental pur
poses and to discover and remedy de
fects. Then an entire house will b,
nodded with one pouring. In othe
words, lot OF liquid concrete will b,
run into the molds and when they ar,
removed that muddy-loolnng mixtur,
will have been turned into q hand
some home where a workingman car
live and rear his family cheaply ant
l