The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-07-17

, And other comparisons could be made
almost indefinitely.
"Now. you and I are alike,'' con-
tlnued the gentleman, "and there are
thousands more just like US who would
like to know something about this
great building, something about steel
words, why don It you tell vs about the
framework and the dress Of this giant
steel chldf 1t would interest you and
L and hundreds and thousands Of
others" The suggestion was adopted
by The Tribune representative. Here
ls what he learned about tho great big
steel child and other facts in connec-
tlo1 with tho construction Of fireproof
buildings Of the present day.
Fireproo3 Construction.
Previous to the beginning Of the
nineteenth century little attention had
been. given to making buildings fire.
PROOF. Some attempts had been made
In public. buildings but they were
crude and consisted in most cases Of
,l: DICK walls supporting brick arches
winch formed the floors and roof SIM
ilar 10 large vault, It was early in
the nineteenth century when q slight
improvement was made by supporting
these floors on cast iron beams resting
On the brick walls. Another improve
ment was made and these beams were
supported On cast iron columns making
II possl bic to form larger rooms, AS
long as buildings were only two or
three stories high, this was all that was
necessary, but as ground values in
creased In our large cities and elevators
were introduced architects and en-
glneers looked for a method that would
allow Of higher buildings.
. UP to the time of the great Chicago
fre, flreproofing iron columns or grid
ers, except In a few cases, was not con-
to all who were interested that although
iron would not burn. it would, when
heated, bend and buckle allowing walls
and floors to fall.
In the year 1888, Mr.. W. l.. B. Jen-
ney, Chicago architect, first used the
present skeleton construction in the
Home Insurance company's building,
Previous to this, it was the custom to
carry the interior floor loads on cast
upon each other ct each floor and being
bolted together, the outside walls carry
ing the outer part of floors. In the
above building, the windows were re-
quired to be very wide; this reduced the
size and strength Of the piers and it
was necessary to put columns In tho
piers to carry the floor load. 1t was
then found that columns hundred feet
high or over built into elf-supporting
brick walls, caused trouble as the brick
would settle several inches and the col
umns would not. Another change was
made and these columns were arranged
to carry not only the floors but by put
ting iron beams at each floor to carry
the walls and the settlement was dis
tributed. This is practically the condi-
ton Of our present system Of skeleton
construction as used in the Kearns
building and the Hotel Utah, now being
built here.
First Rolled Iron Beams.
The first rolled iron beams were used
in the United States about the year
1850, cast iron beams being used be-
fore. It was not until the year 1885 that
steel beams were used. so that the
change from the old-fashloped brick
arches resting on the brick walls to the
use of steel beams In skeleton construc-
ton as now took place in less than
seventy-fve years. Steel construction is