THE USE OF IRON. 



53 



"(2) That steel plate of proper quality is a safe material 

 for the construction of stand-pipes. 



"(3) That wrought-iron plate, equivalent in quality to the 

 usual grades of that material hitherto employed for stand- 

 pipe construction, is a safe material for this purpose. 



" The first of these conclusions is substantiated by a num- 

 ber of the more widely known failures of steel stand-pipes. The 

 second is warranted by the scarcity of failures of steel stand- 

 pipes, in whose construction proper grades of plate metal 

 were used. The truth of the third is evidenced by the sev- 

 eral classifications of accidents and failures. 



11 The decided preference for steel, which has grown so 

 rapidly in other fields of work, applies with full force in the 

 construction of stand-pipes, and it has now reached such a 

 stage that exceedingly few concerns make a specialty of 

 building wrought-iron stand-pipes. An important result of 

 this evolution, which in the future may require a qualification 

 of the third conclusion above stated, is thus described by a 

 recognized authority in the field of structural tests: 'Steel 

 for most structural purposes has so far replaced wrought iron 

 that it is now difficult to get competition among the manu- 

 facturers of wrought iron for structural purposes. Many of 

 the manufacturers who are still making wrought iron find that 

 the demand is so much greater for steel and in fact the profit 

 better in steel that they are not putting the care and atten- 

 tion to the manufacture of wrought iron that they have in the 

 past, and it is getting every month harder and harder to ob- 

 tain the best grades of wrought iron for structural purposes. 

 There are, however, still a few concerns who are holding up 

 their reputations and manufacturing as good wrought iron as 

 in the past.' ' 



Another authority in the same field expresses the opinion 

 that: "The quality of wrought iron is about the same as it 

 was before the ' era of steel,' but engineers and inspectors 



