Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1923-04-13
BUILDING OPERATIONS HELD UP
ON THE PERCY DAY JOB

LII OEEhAIlONS HELD UE
ON THE PERCY DAY JOB
On Thursday of last week, Building
Inspector Frank B. Dixon stopped the
workmen of Frank P. Mattera from
laying concrete building blocks at the
Percy Day job on Oak avenue, close
to the boardwalk. Mr.. Dixon claimed
that the blocks did not come VI to the
specifications, as outlined in the new
Wildwood building code. Pending an
investigation of the matter work was
suspended on this operation. Percy
Day, the wife of James Day, barber,
is having a two-story apartment house
built on this site, the new style stucco
face building blocks being used in it's
construction.
After the work of his men was held
up, Mattera, the manufacturer of the
blocks, got busy and made a hurried
trip to Philadelphia on the day fol-
lowing, taking with him three blocks
from this job for the purpose of hav-
ing a chemical test or analysis made
of same by E. L. Conwell & Co., sue
cessor to Henry S. Spackman Engi-
neering Co., engineers, chemists and
inspectors, 2O24 Arch street. The re-
suit of the analysis is given below:
The following is a report of our
tests OF samples of your blocks sub
mftted to determine if they are ac-
ceptable under the building code of
Wildwood, N. j.
Although the building code omits
any requirement for strength, which
bis the most important feature, we
made compression tests with results
as below:
Laboratory No. 1880
specimen Lbs. per so. in. Tons per so. #.
No. l 649.0 46.7
No. 2 $3.50 47.2
No. 8 1920 49.S
Inc above tests indicate that the
blocks have ample strength, with a
large factor of safety, to carry any
load that could be imposed upon them
under the code.
AS the building code specifies the
proportions of the materials of which
blocks shall be composed, a chemical
analysis was made of an average
sample of the three blocks tested for
strength. This gave the following re-
suits:
cement Loo volume
SAND Lei volume
Pebbles and cinders. .2.24 volume
The above proportions are sub
stantially in keeping with require
ments of the code. The code specifies
crushed stone, gravel or Stag as coarse
aggregate. Among the definitions Of
Stag given in Webster's dictionary is:
Stag is vitreous cinders." The Gin
ders present in your block are vitreous
and we consider them entitled to clas-
s1tlcation as Stag. Based upon the
satisfactory strength of your blocks
and their composition, as shown by
chemical analysis, we consider your
blocks acceptable under the building
code of Wildwood.
Upon receipt of the foregoing analy-
teal test by special delivery last
Saturday afternoon, Mr.. Mattera re-
quested a hearing of the case at once.
This took place at City Hall about
in the presence of the Commits
.sioners, the building inspector, City
Attorney Johnathan Hand and Mark
r. Sooy, attorney for the defendant.
a review of the findings pre-
scented by E.. L. Conwell G Co., the
Commissioners decided to accept same
as satisfactory and instructed In
spector Dixon to withdraw his objec-
tons to the use of Mattera blocks,
work on the Percy Day building being
resumed, therefore, last Monday
morning. The stucco face blocks are
something entirely new on Five Mile