102 COLLAPSE OF TEXAS TOWER NO. 4 



Mr. DeLong. I would like to correct the record. It was designed 

 by the design engineer — how much we had to do with going to 15 

 feet. But when we all discussed the problems, it came up with a 15- 

 foot diameter, and the erosion that we were talking about. Senator, is 

 the movement of the sand across the banks. And it works on the same 

 basis. If you have seen sandblasting — somebody sandblasts steel or 

 the face of a building. 



Senator Saltonstall. All right. Now let's get back to the pin. 

 You said you would not have anything to do with pins, didn't you? 



Mr. DeLong. For the 



Senator Saltonstall. In fastening. 



Mr. DeLong. For the following reason. You have a pin in here. 

 You must have some slack to insert the pin. Then when the sea 

 works on the tower, this pin is doing this, and the impact of it is next 

 to impossible to figure. 



Senator Saltonstall. Well, I do not want to delay the chainnan. 

 Then the fact of whether you put in a pin or did not put in a pin had 

 nothing to do with the working of salt water on that metal. 



Mr. DeLong. No ; no, sir. 



Senator Saltonstall. Nor its magnetic attraction to the other 

 metal ? 



Mr. DeLong. No, sir. 



Senator Saltonstall. That had nothing to do with it? 



Mr. DeLong. No, sir. 



Senator S^vltonstall. I just happened to know that because we 

 ahnost lost a boat due to the erosion between a steel anchor line 

 and the iron chain connection, which eroded in 2 or 3 months. 



Mr. DeLong. Electrolysis. 



Senator Saltonstall. Wliat ? 



Mr. DeLong. They call it electrolysis. 



Senator Saltonstall. Yes. And that had no effect on the pin con- 

 nections? 



Mr. DeLong. I do not believe that that had anything to do with 

 the tower. You can make provisions 



Senator Saltonstall. Thank you. 



Senator Stennis. All right, Mr. DeLong. Thank you. Senator. 



Mr. DeLong. It was merely a different opinion that we, in our ex- 

 perience, did not want any possibility of a pin connection and having 

 a clearance where it would move. And we only saw it one way — as a 

 completely welded structure, because this is your ocean floor — from 

 here down, and you had to eliminate movement. 



Senator Stennis. All right, proceed now in your own way. You 

 are making this very clear, and it is extremely interesting. 



Mr. DeLong. So our opinions varied on pins versus welding. 



objection raised to use or kuss method or erection 



Our next problem in our discussions — we saw extreme hazards and 

 no way of calculating the stresses that would be put on the structure 

 and the tilting action, and also the possibility that one leg could hit 

 first in tlie ocean in a storm, and the additional stresses. We just 

 notified all the people interested that we would not go along with 

 it. And our chief engineer advised us that he had worked out a 

 method that was acceptable, that we could use a method which was 

 acceptable to us. That is what we call scheme B in the book which 



