16 abstracts: technology 



the basin, much exploratory work has been done under private aus- 

 pices, irrigation and power projects have been examined, railroad 

 routes have been surveyed, and the Grand Canyon has been traversed 

 by several persons and parties since Major Powell made the pioneer 

 trips in 1869 and 1872. 



The information relating to the water resources that has been col- 

 lected by many agencies has never been brought together so that a 

 broad view of the possible utilization of the whole river could be ob- 

 tained. The present report attempts the pioneer work of assembling 

 the principal facts relating to the subject, and especially of studying 

 the possibility of controlling the flow of the whole river by means of 

 storage reservoirs, in order to avoid further danger of overflow to the 

 Salton Sink and to render available for profitable use the enormous 

 quantity of water that now flows unused and largely unusable to the 

 Gulf of California in the form of floods. B. D. W. 



TECHNOLOGY. — Durability of stucco and plaster construction. R. J. 

 Wig, J. C. Pearson, and W. E. Emley. Bureau of Standards 

 Technologic Paper No. 70. Pp. 72. 1916. 



In 1915 the Bureau of Standards in cooperation with a committee 

 which includes representatives from the Supervising Architect's Office 

 of the Treasury Department, the American Concrete Institute, and 

 three contracting plasterers of wide experience and from as many 

 large cities, as well as representatives from the industries, undertook a 

 comprehensive investigation of stucco construction. On the Bureau's 

 grounds was erected a test structure containing 56 experimental stucco 

 panels, each approximately 15 feet long and 10 feet high. These 

 panels, which were completed in November, 1915, represent practi- 

 cally all of the common types of stucco construction, a variety of mix- 

 tures being used on metal lath, wood lath, hollow tile, brick, concrete 

 block, plaster board, gypsum block, and concrete bases. 



In April, 1916, a careful inspection of the condition of the panels 

 was made, and the present progress report and full description of the 

 test structure was prepared. Only 2 of the 56 panels were entirely 

 free from cracks six months after the panels were erected, and a num- 

 ber of them were in very poor condition. On the other hand, about 

 40 per cent of the panels were rated as satisfactory. It should be 

 mentioned that the smooth type of finish employed is well adapted 

 to the bringing out of the small defects, such as cracks, blotches, uneven 

 texture, etc. Further experimental work is needed before general con- 

 clusions can be drawn. R. J. W. 



