NA rURE 



531 



THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 1916. 



AMERICAN STEEL STRUCTURES. 



•^uctural Design. Vol. ii. Design of Simple 

 Structures. By Prof. H. R. Thayer. Pp. ix + 

 495. (London : Constable and Co., Ltd., 1914.) 

 Price 165. net. 



THIS is a second volume of a treatise, of which 

 another volume is to follow. It can be 

 heartily commended as a competent attempt to 

 grapple with, and reduce to order, a wide and diffi- 

 cult subject. . No English book known to us deals 

 in similar detail with the considerations which 

 should be present in the mind of a designer, or 

 gives equal help in dealing with practical pro- 

 blems. A large number of examples of design 

 are worked out in numerical detail, and this gives 

 the author an opportunity of introducing the dis- 

 cussion of various matters which cannot be re- 

 duced to exact rule, but are such as would be 

 pointed out by a chief draughtsman to his sub- 

 ordinate or by a professor to his student at the 

 drawing-board. Thus tips can be given by which 

 difficulties can be obviated or evaded, and modi- 

 fications indicated where rational formulae lead 

 to unpractical dimensions. Not only rules of 

 applied mechanics are attended to, but considera- 

 tions of weight, cost, durability, and convenience 

 of erection are equally stated. 



The technical terms may present difficulty to 

 some English readers, and a bilingual glossary 

 would be useful. Ties (sleepers), cotd^, bents, 

 girts, dapped ties, splice (for joint), and kips (as 

 units of load) are foreign in this country. Pro- 

 bably unavoidably a very large number of em- 

 pirical formulae are introduced, and the basis for 

 these or the reason for the selection of the con- 

 stants suggested is not generally clear. They 

 must be taken on the authority of the author. It 

 is not obvious why the weights of single, double, 

 or treble I beams for the same load should be as 

 21, 30, and 36, and a built beam as 32 (p. 7), 

 and so in 6ther cases. There are other cases 

 where abbreviation has been carried to a point 

 which will give trouble to readers, but this but 

 little detracts from the considerable merit of the 

 book. 



Naturally the chief subjects treated are bridges, 

 plate and braced, for roads and railways, and 

 viaducts for elevated railways. But steel-framed 

 mill and office buildings are treated fairly fully, 

 and railroad stations, mine structures, stand 

 pipes, and steel tanks more briefly. A feature of 

 the work is the tabulation of references to tech- 

 nical journals and memoirs. 

 . An interesting chapter is that on high steel- 

 NO. 24,11, VOL. 96] 



framed buildings. The author points out that the 

 executive offices of great corporations must be 

 in large cities, and central to facilitate intercourse. 

 Hence arise sections of a city where land is very 

 valuable and high buildings are necessary to 

 secure a fair return on the property. In America 

 there has been a steady drift towards higher build- 

 ings, the highest being the Woolworth building 

 with fifty-five stories or 775 ft. high On the 

 other hand, the disadvantages of the system seem 

 serious enough — exclusion of sunlight from 

 streets, difficulty of fire protection, overcrowding 

 of the water and sewer systems. In the prevalent 

 "cage construction" all loads, including the 

 weight of the walls, are carried at each floor-level 

 by the steel. From the large and increasing sum 

 bringing no return during erection, the work has 

 to be done with remarkable speed. 



The author states that it is possible to replace 

 an old building by a new one twenty-five stories; 

 high in a year. Work at different heights is 

 prosecuted simultaneously, and as concerns the 

 steelwork, two to four stories may be erected 

 per week. Many of the details of floors and fire 

 protection of steelwork, etc.. for high buildings 

 will be new to English readers. The provisions 

 required in the United States for water, drinking 

 water, hot water, elevators, heating (by waste- 

 steam radiators), lighting, telephone, and tele- 

 graph are more elaborate than anything exacted 

 in this country. 



CANADA. 

 Stanford's Compendium of Geography and Travel. 

 (New Issue.) North America. Vol. i. Canada 

 and Newfoundland. Edited by Dr. Henry M. 

 Ami. Second edition, revised. Pp. xxviii + 

 1069. (London: E. Stanford, Ltd., 1915.) 

 Price 155. net. 



IT is inspiriting, in these times of national self- 

 questioning, to turn to a book like this, in 

 which a true Canadian tells with glowing pride 

 of the magnificent and continuous growth of the 

 great Dominion as an integral part of our Em- 

 pire. The book has been written to replace an 

 earlier edition by Dr. S. E. Dawson, published in 

 1897; and it shows that the interval has been 

 characterised by a national vitality and progress 

 even more vigorous than those of any previous 

 period. Exploration pushed forward everywhere ; 

 old boundaries changed ; new territories settled ; 

 population enormously increased ; fresh industries 

 established ; railway and shipping enterprises of 

 world-importance planned and carried through ; 

 old political difficulties swept away and others, 

 formerly unthought of, now to the fore ; and, 

 through all, as a dominant note, an ever-increasing 



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