ARTIFICIAL STONE, OR CONCRETE 



long-handled spades or simply straight poles were 

 used to work between the reinforcement bars. 



"In the girder boxes a thin layer of concrete was 

 first spread on the bottom, and then the reinforcement 

 bars were placed accurately on it and moved back 

 and forth until thoroughly set in position, when the 

 remainder of the concrete was filled in and carefully 

 spaded around them. The concrete was leveled off 

 with a straight-edge two inches above the tops of the 

 tiles, making the floor slabs, the beams, girders, and 

 columns monolithic and providing a continuous hori- 

 zontal surface over the full area of the building, from 

 out to out of the walls, about two inches below the 

 top of the finished floor. After the concrete had set 

 at least ten days, the boxes were stripped from the 

 columns and girders, the timber was roughly cleaned 

 and made up again for use in an upper story. The 

 inner faces of the boxes were scraped clean, but not 

 oiled or coated. 



"By this method but a small number of mechanical 

 appliances were required. The concrete was com- 

 posed of Portland cement and trap-rock of three- 

 quarter-inch size. It was mixed in portable concrete- 

 mixers and that used in the foundation and lower 

 stories delivered to wheelbarrows to be trundled to 

 the work. That for the remainder of the building 

 was delivered from the mixer through a movable 

 chute to a hoisting-bucket. This chute was seated on 

 an inclined bed to which it was connected by a lever 

 that could be operated to set the lower end of the chute 

 over the concrete-bucket or to slide it back and up so 



