352 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



November, 1905 



A SECTION AT A TIME 

 JUST AS YOU NEED THEM 



A SECTION BOUGHT TO-DAY FITS A 

 SECTION BOUGHT FIVE YEARS HENCE 



Our Steelsects, or sectional cases, are interchangeable. You 

 can have them every section complete or in combination. Check 

 files, letter files, document files, safety deposit boxes, roller 

 shelving, blank files, etc. 



Write for our Catalogue 30 S 



BEROER'S 



Steel Sectional Cabinets 



are adapted to every kind of office, the lawyer, the doctor, the 

 manufacturer, the business man, and all professional use. We 

 also make special equipment to order. Ask for our steel equip- 

 ment catalogue. We also make steel ceilings and other sheet 

 metal architectural work. 



THE BERCER MANUFACTURING COMPANY 



CANTON, O. 



V. 



A H. G. 6-5 



N EW YORK 



PHILADELPHIA 



ST. LOUIS 



_y 



The Lovell 



Window Operating 

 Device 



The best opening apparatus on the 



market, and the only device that will 



operate, if desired, a line of sash 



500 feet long 



Manufactured and Erected by 



<■ 



The G. Drouve Co. ^<, ^ 



Bridgeport, Conn. 



Also Manufacturers and Erectors of 



The "ANTI-PLUVIUS" 



SKYLIGHT 



Absolutely and permanently impervious against rain, 

 snow, sleet or dust, without putty or cement 



Bridge arrangement for walking on 

 the skylight without coming in contact 

 with or danger of breaking the glass 



ARTISTIC 

 MANTELS 



€fl Our line embraces 

 everything needed 

 for the fireplace, and 

 our Mantels range in 

 price from $2.65 up. 

 Catalogue free. 



THE CEO. W. CLARK CO. 



91 Dearborn St., Cnicago, 111. 



306 Main St., Jacksonville, Fla. 



CFactory : Knoxville* Term.) 



Fire Insurance Companies, and have the in- 

 dorsement of leading architects and builders 

 throughout the country. The important mat- 

 ter of hooping, and all strains which may pos- 

 sibly involve a tank, whether from water, wind 

 or vibration, have been met with absolute suc- 

 cess, and the contrivance is absolutely safe and 

 reliable. A catalogue issued by the company 

 contains plans for the installation of a water 

 service to meet any conditions, private or 

 public. 



Hollow Concrete Building Blocks 



AS ONE feature after another of the prac- 

 tical side of the concrete block industry 

 becomes familiar to the world, con- 

 siderations are bound to be applied to the artis- 

 tic points of the material used. When a product 

 possesses the qualities that render it as cheap as 

 brick, as handsome as limestone and as durable 

 as granite, the observational faculty is primed to 

 deal with appearances — its remaining virtue. 

 The question of usefulness, durability and econ- 

 omy can not be favorably answered, if the ma- 

 terial does not please the eye. Until it does, it 

 will not be in the class of those creations that 

 are able to stand out and bear themselves up in 

 architecture above the level of the ground. 

 Concrete blocks made by a well-known process 

 have been used in office buildings that are 

 thought to be the finest structures of a town, 

 and in the case of commercial rating able to 

 bring the largest rentals. The Rose Dispen- 

 sary Building, Terre Haute, Ind., built seven- 

 teen years ago, and in absolutely perfect pres- 

 ervation, is an example of this claim. A church 

 in Houston, Texas, is built entirely of con- 

 crete and mostly of hollow concrete blocks, 

 and on the score of looks alone will make the 

 observer share our rosy optimism in the con- 

 viction that the effect has there reached the 

 height of rivaling much pretentious architec- 

 ture. Railway stations, institutions, residences, 

 barns, factories, cottages, entrances, etc., 

 furnish a variety of proofs of efficiency gained 

 by the choice of these blocks. They are made 

 by the Pettyjohn Company, Terre Haute, Ind., 

 by a method of molding which prevents the 

 formation of those invisible cracks which are 

 liable to break after a building is up. In 

 using the Pettyjohn machine and process, the 

 machine and not the block is moved, and in 

 this way all possibility of having blocks in- 

 jured or damaged by carrying off, moving or 

 disturbing before the cement is set is entirely 

 avoided. When molded in the form of hol- 

 low blocks with a rapid and up-to-date ma- 

 chine, and with the present low price of 

 cement, it can be put upon the market at a 

 cost that will place it in competition with all 

 building materials, even including lumber. 

 Any attempt to get away from the artificiality 

 of the present cut stone designs must comprise 

 two very radical departures from the usual 

 methods. First, the abolishing of the iron 

 face-plate and the substitution of face-plates 

 that are in themselves granular in texture; 

 and, second, the block must remain upon or in 

 contact with the face-plate until it has set, 

 thus preventing any possibility of the surface 

 of the block sticking to the granular surface 

 of the face-plate. This is just what the firm 

 has done in producing the Pettyjohn facing 

 model. This machine uses a chemically pre- 

 pared and waterproofed concrete face-plate in 

 the bottom of the machine. These plates are 

 cast directly from natural cut stones, and the 

 blocks molded from them are thus an abso- 

 lutely perfect reproduction of the natural stone 

 original, and, of course, may be made in un- 

 limited variety of design, size or shape, not to 

 mention coloring or stratified effects. The 

 blocks, after being made, remain upon the face- 

 plate for twenty-four hours or more, or until 



