134 COGGIN BROWN: THE BURMA EARTHQUAKES OF MAY 1912. 



with doors, or should at least have strips along the front edges. 

 The chimneys should be laid with cement mortar and boxed 

 from a foot or two below the roof to the top, and the parts 

 above the roof should be braced with iron rods. The lower the 

 structure the less strain it will be subjected to. Such a building 

 would be practically proof against earthquakes having an intensity 

 below X on the Rossi-Forel scale. "(M 



It is also pointed out that steel frames and reinforced concrete 



Btruotures arc eminently well adapted to resist 

 Reinforced oonorete. ,. . . . ,. : . . 



earthquake snooks ol oign intensity. 



The reinforced concrete roofs of the military hospital in Maymyo 

 did not fall or crack. Some of the girders moved and crushed the 

 walls under them, but this would have been avoided if bed plates 

 had been provided. 



The frames of brick nogged houses then should be as low, solid 



and strongly keyed together as possible. The 

 Contraction of modi- ^ of ^^ . md bles should , )e 



noil bungalow. . . 



filled in with wooden boards. The brick work 



of lower panels runs less chance of being rocked out during 

 a shock, but it should be firmly bound together, and some means 

 devised of clamping it to the woodwork in a better way than is 

 the custom at present. Plaster on inside walls, and ceilings, and 

 plaster or stucco on the outside of houses, should be avoided as 

 far as possible. Attention should be paid to the foundations on 

 the lines indicated above. Any break between the foundations and 

 the upper structure of a house, as in the case of a wooden building 

 erected on brick or masonry pillars is dangerous. On the other hand, 

 foundations like the long teak post, let deeply into the ground as 

 is often done in the construction of bungalows in Burma, ensures 

 a considerable element of safety. ( 2 ) 



The present method of constructing chimneys must be a 



perpetual menace in a situation liable to 



Present chimneys a eart i iqliake shocks. It is recommended that 



source of danger. l 



chimneys be built as light and low as possible, 

 that the brick courses be braced together with iron rods used as 

 clamps, and that they should be, as far as practicable, provided 

 with casing boxes or a coating of cement. 



1 Loc. tit., Vol. 1, Pt 11, p. 358. 



2 Seo Montessus do Ballore : La Soionco Seisuiologiquc, p. 485. 



