House and Garden 
span is great, having an intermediate sup¬ 
port on a partition or girder; the beams have 
bolted on their side steel angle bars bent to 
a radius and made to support a fireproof 
filling, as shown; this filling acts as a fire- 
stop between floors and at the same time 
tends considerably to stiffen the beams'. 
Under the head of fireproof construction 
come those types of construction which not 
only eliminate wood from the supporting 
members of a building, but also afford pro¬ 
tection from lire for the steel or iron which 
may be used in the structural parts. I bis 
latter feature is an indispensable requirement 
for a fireproof structure. 
Speaking in broad terms, we may sub¬ 
divide fireproof construction into two di¬ 
visions; one embracing those types which use 
rolled steel shapes as supporting members 
fireproofed with terra-cotta or other non¬ 
combustible materials; and the other types 
which use concrete throughout, reinforced 
by a metal fabric or bars .of steel or iron, 
known as “reinforced concrete.” 
For dwelling-house construction both di¬ 
visions contain types eminently fitted for this 
class of building. 
In Figure 4 is shown a type of construction 
in which steel beams are used to support 
the weight of the floor and the terra-cotta acts 
only as a filling. In lieu of the terra-cotta 
arch sometimes a concrete arch is used 
either with a metal 
centre or without. 
The illustration, Fig¬ 
ure 5, shows this type 
of fireproofing with a 
flat ceiling formed of 
metal lath and plaster. 
1 here are numerous 
systems in which either 
terra-cotta or concrete 
is used between steel 
beams for fireproofing, 
but the types shown 
serve to illustrate the 
principles upon which 
these systems are 
based. These sys- 
t e m s, while being 
thoroughly practical 
for house construc¬ 
tion, are somewhat 
more costly than the types which follow. 
Figure 6 shows a type of construction 
thoroughly applicable to dwelling-houses, 
while at the same time it is not so expensive 
as the former types. Instead of steel beams 
to support the tiles, the floor is made self- 
supporting by introducing tee bars between 
each row of tile, shown at “a” in the figure, 
so that the terra-cotta tiles are made to span 
long distances without the aid of intermediate 
steel beams; this reduces the cost of the floor 
a considerable amount. The photograph. 
Figure 7, shows a finished house erected near 
Philadelphia in which this construction was 
used for floors. Fhe partitions were formed 
of hollow terra-cotta blocks and the roof 
of tile supported upon tee bars. See Fig. 18. 
1 here are several modifications of this 
style of floor construction, all depending on 
terra-cotta to resist the compression which 
occurs at the top of the beam or floor and 
depending on steel or iron rolled shapes or 
metal webbing placed near the bottom of the 
floor to resist the tensile stresses which occur 
in that part of the beam. Figure 8 shows 
one of these modifications. 
Under the sub-division of Reinforced Con¬ 
crete, we have a type of construction which 
has been very little used in this country for 
dwelling-house construction, but has been 
used for larger and heavier types of building. 
However, a start has been made in the use of 
