EFFECTS PRODUCED UPON BUILDIINGS 129 



this, sajs, that in 1868, at San Francisco, the ornamental 

 stone-work in stone and cement buildings was thrown 

 from its position, whilst similar ornaments in neighbour- 

 ing brick buildings stood. 



To reduce the top weight of a building, hollow bricks 

 might be employed. To render a building more homo- 

 geneous and elastic, the thickness of bricks might be 

 reduced. Inasmuch as the elasticity of brick and timber 

 are so different, the two ought to be employed separately. 

 For internal decorations plaster mouldings might be re- 

 placed by papier mache and carton-piey^re, the elastic 

 yielding of which is comparatively great.^ Houses, 

 whether of brick and stone, or of timber, ought to be 

 broad and low, and the streets three or four times as wide 

 as the houses. The flatter the roofs the better. 



One of the safest houses for an earthquake country 

 would probably be a one-storied strongly framed timber 

 house, with a light flattish roof made of shingles or sheet- 

 iron, the whole resting on a quantity of small cast-iron balls 

 carried on flat plates bedded in the foundations. The 

 chimneys might be made of sheet-iron carried through 

 holes free of the roof. The ornamentation ought to be 

 of light materials. 



At the time of severe earthquakes many persons seek 

 refuge from their houses by leaving them. In this case 

 accidents frequently happen from the falling of bricks 

 and tiles. Others rush to the doorways and stand beneath 

 the lintels. Persons with whom the author has conversed 

 have suggested that strongly constructed tables and bed- 

 steads in their rooms would give protection. To see 

 persons darting beneath tables and bedsteads would un- 

 doubtedly give rise to humiliating and ludicrous exhibi- 

 tions. This latter idea is not without a value, and most 

 * T. Eonal'^son, A Treatise on Earthqualie Dangers S^^c. 



