STATE GEOLOGIST. 187 
wide, 28 inches deep and 24 feet long, spaced 3 feet center to center. 
The columns were of solid Ransome steel concrete, being 21, 19 and 
17 inches square for the first, second and third stories, respectively. 
The walls were 16 inches thick, having 9 inch hollow spaces in the 
center. The concrete was made of Atlas Portland cement and 
crusher run of basaltic rock passing a I inch ring screen. No sand 
was used, the fine crushed basalt taking its place. The proportions 
varied in different portions of the work from 1 part cement and 5 
crushed stone to I cement and 6% stone. 
One wing where the crystallizing tanks were placed was of steel 
frames with wooden walls, partitions and fixtures. Much inflammable 
material was stored all through the building at the time. The roof 
was of wooden beams and light supports, with board and tar cov- 
ering. There were many wooden partitions in the main building, 
much wooden framing for the shafts, machinery supports, stairways 
and bins. 
The heat of the fire was sufficient to fuse copper in several places 
in the building. All steel posts and girders were warped out of all 
semblance to their proper shape. Several large tanks set upon the 
roof, one a concrete tank 6 by 6 feet and 50 feet long, weighing 33 tons, 
fell through to the fourth floor without doing any injury. The clear 
fall from roof to floor was 14 feet. One steel tank weighing 18 tons 
fell corner-wise, apparently, and that cracked two or three concrete 
floor girders and broke a small hole through the floor. With the 
exception of the cracked floor beams, no damage was done to the 
concrete portion of the building except to crack off the plaster here 
and there and to smoke up the walls and ceilings so that a coat of 
paint or plaster was required to put them in presentable shape. 
The floors held three and four inches of water after the fire 
without showing any leakage. 
Figure 122 shows the results of the fire in the one story portion 
of the building where there was not a great amount of combustible 
material. Figure 123 shows the condition of the concrete at the 
point where the fire was the most intense and where the hole was 
punched in the floor doing the greatest damage. 
The test was so conclusively in favor of concrete for a fire proof 
material that the company in rebuilding made all of their partitions, 
the roof, bins and the machinery and shafting supports out of concrete. 
The writer visited the works on August 28, 1902, just before 
the rebuilding was completed; the plant had been in operation, how- 
ever, for some months, as it took but little work to get the main 
building in condition to operate the plant. The work in progress was 
the laying of the roof. | 
In making the roof, planed boards were used for the forms. 
They were carefully put up and thoroughly supported. A thin coat 
