HARDWOOD RECORD 



27 



in a recent paper recites that oue of the problems confronting rail- 

 roads today where temperature falls to a low degree, "is to secure 

 a suflieiently homogeneous metal in the 33 and 36-inch wheels for 

 the entire circumference of the tire or wheel tread to maintain 

 its rotundity. The 36-inch wheels make 560.2 revolutions per mile, 

 and with their static load of 5 tons, the accumulated tonnagg upon 

 the tread of the tire or wheel would be 2,801 tons for each mile run. 

 The tonnage for the run from New York to Chicago would be 

 2,700,000 tons. 



"The locomotive drivers of 79 inches in diameter make 255.3 

 revolutions per mile. The Pacific type engines have static loads 

 of 14.3 per driver, consequently the static load per mile run upon 

 the metal is 3,651 tons. These figures are sufficient to show that 

 their tonnage upon each portion of the bearing surface on the 

 tread repeats the load for each revolution and for high speed trains 

 with great rapidity, consequently the accumulated tonnage on 

 the tires and wheels enlarges according to the distance run." 



Mr. Dudley recites that the effect of cold on rails is to decrease 

 its ductility, but increase its tensile strength, elastic limits and 

 modulus of elasticity to a slight extent, making it more sensitive 

 to shocks. Also indirectly it affects the rails by contraction of 

 the metal, which may set up the tensile stresses of some magnitude. 

 He alleges that it is now possible, from a definite chemical com- 

 position, to determine what ductility or toughness may be secured 

 when the steel is properly purified in the bath, and thus increase 

 the factor of safety in the output of the rails. 



In concluding his paper, Mr. Dudley alleges that "it must be 

 remembered that with the present wheel loads and high speeds of 

 trains, the time factor for the reversal of the stresses under the 

 wheels and in the wheel spacing has been materially shortened 

 by the present schedule. The wheel loads also require stresses of 

 large magnitude to be distributed in a shorter time than was neces- 

 sary with slower speeds and lesser wheel loads. ' ' 



Hardwood Record does not presume to have a scientific knowl- 

 edge of this subject, but is it not proven that several important 

 railroads have placed in service a type of equipment involving such 

 an unnecessary heavy load on steel rails, which, while capable of 

 sustaining with safety the former type of equipment, have demon- 

 litrated their inability to carry with safety the modern extra heavy 

 steel trains! This fact, together with the speed of the steel pas- 

 senger trains, would indicate a basic cause of the remarkable num- 

 ber of steel train wrecks that have prevailed during the past six 

 months. 



In short, the factor of safety, by reason of the heavy increased 

 load, fast speed and rigidity of the vehicles, has been eliminated. 

 It is certain that the series of calamities that have befallen steel 

 trains during the last six months has thoroughly aroused the public 

 to an absolute want of confidence in their safety, and the railroads 

 will have to do much in improving the character of this class of 

 equipment, and demonstrating its safety to restore it to the confi- 

 dence of the public. 



THE CLAY PRODUCTS EXPOSITION 



During the last fortnight there has been a show al; the Coliseum 

 at Chicago, exhibiting brick, tile and other clay products. The 

 show was a good deal of a failure because it failed to be convincing 

 in many of the exhibits presented; i. e., in the economy of con- 

 struction of this class of material, and the fireproof qualities 

 claimed. In the years past,, the brick and clay products people 

 have worked pretty closely in conjunction with manufacturers of 

 lumber, and have in no wise slandered forest products in an attempt 

 to gain an advantage in public appreciation. 



The handling of the exploitation of the recent clay products 

 exposition was on entirely different lines, and the crux of the 

 argument in its display advertising may be test shown in the 

 following quotation from its daily newspaper advertising: 



"How to beat the building game: The first cost and mainte- 

 nance of a wooden or stucco house exceed the first cost and mainte- 

 nance of a brick house. You can shake a wooden or stucco house 

 by jumping on the floor. 



"Wood houses do not rent or sell as readily as brick houses, 

 and the depreciation, which properly includes the land on which 

 they stand, slumps with the neighborhood which uses wood. Big 

 cities will not permit a man to risk his life and the lives of his 

 family and neighbors by building of wood. 



"Concrete is less artistic than brick and almost all of the draw- 

 backs which apply to wood apply also to stucco. Stucco cracks and 

 both stucco and concrete get stained, the so-called preservatives 

 and washes peeling off, leaving the walls in worse condition and 

 appearance than when in the old stained condition. 



"Moral: Build of brick, terra-cotta or tile for a low cost, life- 

 time home. "Warmer in winter, cooler in summer." 



There is an old legend that "when thieves fall out, the honest 

 man will get his due," and hence manufacturers of lumber will 

 find no fault with the brick and clay products people assailing 

 concrete and stucco. 



The particular author of the "con" and "bunk" employed 

 by the clay products people to supply its literature, is one Henry 

 Sterling Chapin, who, by the merest accident, is the engineer of the 

 Building Brick Association of America. 



Following are some of the choice extracts published in the 

 Chicago Tribune's clay products advertising section of its issue 

 March 10, with the acknowledged authorship of this disinterested 

 man Chapin: 



The United States is llie only highly civilized nation in the world 

 which lives largely in wooden buildings. Our early settlers came here 

 from Europe wilhout a. thought of a wooden house. European houses 

 were built of brick, not wood. They had little wood in Europe. It 

 disappeared as a cheap and available building material before modern 

 histor.v began. 



To the pioneers in America trees provided log houses. As matters 

 settled down a few from habit and custom built houses of brick which 

 endure today. But the majority went on developing logs into hewn 

 timbers and planks and built sturdy, windproof wood houses, not because 

 they were better, but because wood was available and clieap. 



As wood became more difficult to get Yankee ingenuity devised many 

 ways to reduce the quantity of wood used in a building. Nowadays wood 

 being scarce and siib,iect to long hauls from forest to building lot, the 

 houses are reduced to knotty slabs, supported by tiny joists, covered with 

 shingles and lined with lath and plaster. 



You can often shako a "modern" wood house by jumping on the floor. 

 You can burn one like a pile of shavings. What danger, daily expense, 

 and discomfort this construction imposes, and its cost to the nation in 

 money and human life, is discussed further on. 



And now this type of building is Hearing its end. Despite the 

 "skimping" of material in wood houses, the supply is no longer equal to 

 the demand, the forests are far off, and diminishing, and the price of 

 lumber has advanced until it practically equals brick. 



Brick is more economical. Wood is no longer available in sufficient 

 quantities — no longer cheap. Brick is everywhere available — brick is 

 cheap. 



A revolution in building materials is here. Of necessity the character 

 of America's buildings must change. That which considerations of art, 

 comfort, and safety could not accomplish, necessity now demands shall 

 be done. You who live in American houses, especially you who build or 

 hope to build, are vitally involved in this revolution whether you will 

 or no, 



Bnt the facts here set forth will enable you to benefit and not suffer 

 by this impendiug change, to protect your family and to safeguard your 

 investment when you make it. 



Most of the houses now in use. those which you see everywhere around 

 you. are of wood — the product of generations of builders working under 

 the old conditions. It proves only that wood used to he cheap. 



The wooden house built twenty years or so ago is a marvel of warmth 

 and sturdincss compared with the "modern" frame dwelling. But "it 

 doesn't sell well." It burdens the land it stands on with Its "old" design 

 and many, evidences of decay. If you ask an expert you will be told that 

 "it is not a good investment." What, then, will be the fate of an 

 investment made today in the present tiimsy form of wooden structure, 

 when those which rise around it shortly must be solid houses of brick, 

 infinitely more comfortable, easier to heat and maintain, and cheaper 

 to live in? 



We venture the prediction that the day is coming when a wooden house 

 will be almost unsalable and unrentable. As an investment today it 

 invites an almost certain loss. 



Y'ou ask why this matter is not more widely understood : principally 

 because popular impressions change slowly. Wood has been cheap so 

 long that wood is often used without even a passing thought of brick. 

 Brick has been classed, in the public mind, as "too expensive," either for 

 a house to live in or for buildings for investment — for sale or rent to 

 others. 



