THK IKH SF AND ITS FOUIPMFNT. 



USES OF REINFORCED CONCRETE. 



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IN the last fifty-live years there has been a gradual growth of a novel lorm of construction, which only 

 began to show real development in this country in the past ten years. This revolution in construction, 

 tor it is no less, is not yet in lull bloom For those to whom concrete is nothing but a name, it may 

 be explained that it is a mixture, in certain definite proportions, of a hard, inert aggregate and a 

 cement. fhe aggregate will be broken brick or stone, or, generally, gravel ol icgulated si/.e with 



a proportion of sand; the material which binds the whole together will be lime or Portland cement, 



according to the purpose for which the concrete is required, Portland cement being used always for 



i ein forced concrete. These ingredients, thoroughly mixed together with a sufficiency of water, form 



a kind of pudding that sets into an exceedingly hard and practically imperishable mass. Concrete 



has often been used in conjunction with steel to protect it against lire and corrosion. The new 



method ol construction, called reinforced concrete 



is, however, very different from ordinary steelwork, 



(hough it employs steel in conjunction with concrete. 



Steel is a material strong both in tension and in 



compression ; concrete, on the other hand, is com 

 paratively weak in tension, but strong in compression 



in other words, it is strong but brittle. For resisting 



coinprcssive forces concrete is much more economical 



than steel, provided that its greater bulk does not 



preclude its use. In a reinforced concrete beam steel 



is put on the tension side, embedded in the concrete, 



which itself serves to take the compression ; in the 



combination, therefore, both concrete and steel are 



serving the functions lor which thev are respectively 



adapted in an economical way. It steel is introduced 



into a concrete pillar, the tendency lor the tensional 



forces to snap the brittle concrete is counteracted. In 



arch construction \ve may have either pure compression 



or a combination of bending and compression ; in 



either case the reinforcing of the concrete by small 



sections, of steel is very advantageous. Though the 



advantages thus secured are very considerable, the 



amount of steel is notably small in all reinforced 



concrete construction, amounting only to about one per 



cent, in bulk. In general considerable economy in 



first cost is effected, while, furthermore, the concrete 

 has the property of protecting the steel from corrosion 



and renders the structure tire-resisting, so that economy 

 is effected both in the upkeep of painting and in 

 reduction of fire risk. Reinforced concrete will serve 

 brickwork, or other structural material. 



Reinforced concrete ha-; been applied to so many and varied purposes, and has made such 

 tremendous strides, that it is difficult to forecast its future limitations. Even where there is no saving 

 in first cost, reinforced concrete is often preferable to other materials because of its durability, its fire 

 resistance, hygienic quality and general efficiency. In the present chapter a few of the applications of 

 reinforced concrete in and about the country house will be described, though the list cannot be exhaustive, 

 for every day it is being put to fresh uses. 



In the building of the house itself reinforced concrete is very suitable for constructing floors 

 and roofs, which are thus made fire-resisting and durable. Buildings have often to be erected on very 

 soft and treacherous subsoils ; and thin rafts ol reinforced concrete can be constructed to distribute the 



2_;i CATTLE STALL DIVISIONS 



in almost all cases in place of steel, stonework. 



