622 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and, in subjecting them to heat of different intensities to see how 

 much they could withstand before bi'eaking up, there was no per- 

 ceptible difference observed in the tendency to fracture, whether the 

 bricks were exposed to a gradual or rapid heating. Not one of them 

 broke when subjected to a white heat. Several were heated to a 

 bright-red heat, and then plunged into a bath of cold water. They 

 withstood this test without showing a decidedly damaging fracture, 

 and one of the bricks was exposed to an alternate heating and cooling 

 three times before breaking up. 



These results were a surprise, and they suggest the advantage of 

 using such a material for the walls of buildings, as a sure defense 

 against uncontrollable conflagrations. The facts that appear to be 

 established by the line of experiments are : 



1. That a system of iron beams re-enforced with beton can be made 

 to sustain weights many times greater than the iron beams alone can 

 bear without re-enforcing. 



2. That floors and roofs can be economically made of beton re-en- 

 forced with iron rods, capable of sustaining heavier loads, with a less 

 number of supporting beams, than any other system of flooring and 

 roofing, of equal cost, now in use. 



3. That the system of re-enforced beams and beton floors affords 

 advantages for a more perfect method of heating buildings uniform- 

 ly than by the steam or hot-water system. 



4. That the sanitary requirements of complete ventilation are 

 plainly within the reach of this system of construction. 



5. That it affords a perfect defense against the interior destruction 

 of buildings by fire. 



The intrinsic worth of beton construction appears most valuable in 

 furnishing the elements of fire-proof construction, and thus inaugurat- 

 ing a reform in the prevailing system of building based on the prin- 

 ciple that safety can be more economically realized through reforma- 

 tion than by exclusive dependence on insurance indemnities for losses 

 by fire. The amount of capital destroyed by fire appears almost fab- 

 ulous, and has been estimated by insurance authorities to be over one 

 hundred million dollars annually in this country. This enormous esti- 

 mate takes no cognizance of the losses due to the disturbance of busi- 

 ness relations and labor by such enforced interruptions of industry, 

 but the sum of the losses accounted for seems to be enough to awaken 

 an interest in the discovery of some effective remedy for reducing 

 them. 



Yet, if the remedy is only to be found in building more thoroughly, 

 its adoption may remain doubtful so long as the hazardous method of 

 building, and the rates for insuring hazardous property, occupy their 

 present relations to each other. Such radical departures from con- 

 servative ideas of building as are herein described must necessarily 

 find a slow recognition. 



