The American Architect and Building News,
VOL. XXXIII. Copyright, 1891, by TICKNOR & Company, Boston, Mass. No. 819.
Entered at the Post-Office at Boston as second-class matter.
SEPTEMBER 5, 1891.
Summary:—
The United States Treasury to undertake the Destruction of Foreign Photographs sent through the Mails. —The Winner of the Prix de Rome. — The Loss of Faith in Iron as a Building Material. — The Department of Agriculture’s Report on Forestry.— Scientific Forestry.— A New Form of Locomotive for the St. Gothard Railway. — A New Alloy of Copper
and Antimony. — German Explorations near Smyrna. . . 141
German Architecture. — V............................................................................143 Architect, Owner & Builder Before the Law.—VII. . . 144 The Dolphin in Ornamentation. — VI..................................................147 The Management of an Architect’s Office.—II.............................147 Comparative Municipal Building Laws. — II....................................150 The Elastic Limit...............................................................................................152 Inhumed Alive in Concrete.........................................................................153 Cast-iron Lintels................................................................................................154 Illustrations:—
House in Grammercy Park, New York, N. Y. — House at Corey Hill, Brookline, Mass. — Cottage at Toledo, 0. — Old Colonial Doorways, Trenton, N. J.—Building, Erie, Pa. — Cottage, Chestnut Hill, Mass.
Additional: Ceiling of the Cathedral, Monreale, Sicily.— Villa Jagersbacher, Gmiinden, Austria. — Fragments of Rococo Framing in the Louis XV Style.— St. Chad’s Church, Wybunbury, Eng.— Singing Gallery by Donatello, Florence, Italy.—Westfield College, Hampstead, Eng. — Business
Premises, Dover, Eng.................................................................155 Communication : —
Specifying in Jingle........................................................................155 Notes and Clippings...........................................................................156
ACCORDING to the New York Tribune, a decision has been made in Washington which is of great importance to architects. For many years it has been customary among architects and students to send and receive photographs from abroad by mail. In old times, any one who wanted photographs of particular buildings could enclose a postal order to the local photographer, or to Braun, Levy, the London Stereoscopic Company, or any other of the great foreign dealers, and receive the prints he wanted with little delay, through the mails, free from duties; or an architect travelling abroad could send photographs home to his office, or to his friends, in the same way. After a time, the customs laws received a different interpretation, and photographs were held to be dutiable, but they could still be sent in the same way, and delivered to the person to whom they were addressed, on payment of the duties. Within a few days, however, the privilege of sending photographs by mail, which has existed in every civilized country ever since photography was invented, has been taken away from the citizens of the United States, so far as foreign photographs are concerned; and such photographs are declared to be unmailable, and orders are said to have been sent to all post-offices to confiscate them. It is impossible to conceive that this new regulation should have any object, and the case seems to be simply one where the officials were obliged to conform themselves to a different and authoritative interpretation of the meaning of a law which, of course, they did not make, and which may not have been intended to have such a meaning. If so, Congress will probably set the matter right next winter, but, in the meantime, architects and students must abstain from sending foreign photographs by mail. While the necessary preparations are being made for having this subject brought to the attention of Congress, we wish that the allied one of the establishment of a parcel-post might be revived. The United States is now at least twenty-five years behind the rest of the civilized world in postal facilities of this sort. An Englishman can send a good-sized package from the remotest part of Great Britain to the farthest post-office in New Zealand for thirty cents, and, we believe, to any part of India for twenty cents, while we have ourselves paid five dollars expressage for the transportation of a book, enclosed in a small wooden box, from Boston to the Mississippi River. Six or eight years ago, a Postmaster-General, in his report to Congress, ingenuously stated that lie had made some effort toward the establishment of a domestic parcel-post, but had been obliged to abandon the plan, “ on account of the opposition of the express companies.” It is not likely that the express com
panies would look any more favorably on the idea now than they did then; but, after having had the reform delayed through two administrations to suit them, it seems only fair that they should let the people have their turn ; and the present Postmaster-General, who is a thorough business man, and can understand the immense importance to the internal commerce of the country of cheap transportation of parcels, and who, we venture to say, is not afraid of all the express companies that ever existed, could do nothing which would gain for him so much popular gratitude as to make a beginning at furnishing us the facilities which the English, French, Germans, Swiss, Austrians and Italians, and even the Russians, have so long enjoyed.
THE annual competition in the Paris School of Fine Arts, for the prize of Rome, has just been decided by the award
of the Grand Prize to M. Eustache; while M. Normand has the “ first Second Grand Prize,” and M. Chausseniche, who distinguished himself in last year’s competition, wins the “second Second Grand Prize.” The subject this year was “A Central Railway Station.” M. Normand, according to La Construction Moderne, presented a very striking and interesting design, but he had what seems to us the rather unhappy idea of making his building entirely of iron ; and it is not very surprising that the judges gave him the second place.
N
OTWITHSTANDING the great value of iron as a material of construction for certain purposes, we think that
in this country, where more iron buildings, perhaps, have been erected than in all other countries put together, there is a strong feeling among architects that they have had their day; and that a better, safer, and more durable structure can be made by combining masonry with iron, than by using the metal as the only, or even the principal constructive material. In other countries, and especially in France, where iron construction is now applied to all sorts of new uses, it has the charm of novelty, and is often spoken of as the universal material of the future ; but most experienced American architects have seen too many iron columns honey-combed with rust, and girders with half the thickness of the wrebs separating in flakes, to wish to entrust their reputation to such perishable material; while our fire-engineers have thoroughly satisfied themselves that an iron building of the ordinary sort is less capable of resisting a severe fire than one of almost any other material. Among the engineers, a similar distrust of iron for construction exposed to the weather has become very general. Two serious accidents have shown that the life of a suspension bridge, with either wire or chain cables, is only about forty years; and some recent examinations of plate-girder bridges have shown that, in about the same length of time, the web plates, notwithstanding careful and often repeated painting, are eaten nearly or quite through, by corrosion, which works unobserved beneath the paint. The contrast between bridges which perish in a generation, and those which, like several of the masonry bridges built by the Romans, have been in use for nearly two thousand years, and are still in excellent condition, is too striking not to attract the attention of intelligent engineers, and the next decade is likely to see brick and stone extensively used for railway bridges, to the great advantage of the landscape in the neighborhood. Already, it is said that the officials of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which has always led in scientific engineering, have given orders that no more iron bridges shall be built on the road, and the children of the present stockholders will probably have reason to rejoice at the decision.
THOSE persons who wish to know a little of the science of forestry should send to the Department of Agriculture at
Washington for a copy of Bulletin No. 5, by Mr. B. E, Fernow, Chief of the Division of Forestry. This extremely interesting little tract contains the substance of some public addresses, delivered before State Boards of Agriculture, and other similar bodies, by Mr. Fernow, as representative of the Department of Agriculture, together with practical observations upon experiments now in progress in forest-planting on the plains. By this time, nearly every prudent American who reads the newspapers, has begun to feel the serious necessity of providing timber for future generations; while the people of the older States, who see themselves surrounded by myriads of
VOL. XXXIII. Copyright, 1891, by TICKNOR & Company, Boston, Mass. No. 819.
Entered at the Post-Office at Boston as second-class matter.
SEPTEMBER 5, 1891.
Summary:—
The United States Treasury to undertake the Destruction of Foreign Photographs sent through the Mails. —The Winner of the Prix de Rome. — The Loss of Faith in Iron as a Building Material. — The Department of Agriculture’s Report on Forestry.— Scientific Forestry.— A New Form of Locomotive for the St. Gothard Railway. — A New Alloy of Copper
and Antimony. — German Explorations near Smyrna. . . 141
German Architecture. — V............................................................................143 Architect, Owner & Builder Before the Law.—VII. . . 144 The Dolphin in Ornamentation. — VI..................................................147 The Management of an Architect’s Office.—II.............................147 Comparative Municipal Building Laws. — II....................................150 The Elastic Limit...............................................................................................152 Inhumed Alive in Concrete.........................................................................153 Cast-iron Lintels................................................................................................154 Illustrations:—
House in Grammercy Park, New York, N. Y. — House at Corey Hill, Brookline, Mass. — Cottage at Toledo, 0. — Old Colonial Doorways, Trenton, N. J.—Building, Erie, Pa. — Cottage, Chestnut Hill, Mass.
Additional: Ceiling of the Cathedral, Monreale, Sicily.— Villa Jagersbacher, Gmiinden, Austria. — Fragments of Rococo Framing in the Louis XV Style.— St. Chad’s Church, Wybunbury, Eng.— Singing Gallery by Donatello, Florence, Italy.—Westfield College, Hampstead, Eng. — Business
Premises, Dover, Eng.................................................................155 Communication : —
Specifying in Jingle........................................................................155 Notes and Clippings...........................................................................156
ACCORDING to the New York Tribune, a decision has been made in Washington which is of great importance to architects. For many years it has been customary among architects and students to send and receive photographs from abroad by mail. In old times, any one who wanted photographs of particular buildings could enclose a postal order to the local photographer, or to Braun, Levy, the London Stereoscopic Company, or any other of the great foreign dealers, and receive the prints he wanted with little delay, through the mails, free from duties; or an architect travelling abroad could send photographs home to his office, or to his friends, in the same way. After a time, the customs laws received a different interpretation, and photographs were held to be dutiable, but they could still be sent in the same way, and delivered to the person to whom they were addressed, on payment of the duties. Within a few days, however, the privilege of sending photographs by mail, which has existed in every civilized country ever since photography was invented, has been taken away from the citizens of the United States, so far as foreign photographs are concerned; and such photographs are declared to be unmailable, and orders are said to have been sent to all post-offices to confiscate them. It is impossible to conceive that this new regulation should have any object, and the case seems to be simply one where the officials were obliged to conform themselves to a different and authoritative interpretation of the meaning of a law which, of course, they did not make, and which may not have been intended to have such a meaning. If so, Congress will probably set the matter right next winter, but, in the meantime, architects and students must abstain from sending foreign photographs by mail. While the necessary preparations are being made for having this subject brought to the attention of Congress, we wish that the allied one of the establishment of a parcel-post might be revived. The United States is now at least twenty-five years behind the rest of the civilized world in postal facilities of this sort. An Englishman can send a good-sized package from the remotest part of Great Britain to the farthest post-office in New Zealand for thirty cents, and, we believe, to any part of India for twenty cents, while we have ourselves paid five dollars expressage for the transportation of a book, enclosed in a small wooden box, from Boston to the Mississippi River. Six or eight years ago, a Postmaster-General, in his report to Congress, ingenuously stated that lie had made some effort toward the establishment of a domestic parcel-post, but had been obliged to abandon the plan, “ on account of the opposition of the express companies.” It is not likely that the express com
panies would look any more favorably on the idea now than they did then; but, after having had the reform delayed through two administrations to suit them, it seems only fair that they should let the people have their turn ; and the present Postmaster-General, who is a thorough business man, and can understand the immense importance to the internal commerce of the country of cheap transportation of parcels, and who, we venture to say, is not afraid of all the express companies that ever existed, could do nothing which would gain for him so much popular gratitude as to make a beginning at furnishing us the facilities which the English, French, Germans, Swiss, Austrians and Italians, and even the Russians, have so long enjoyed.
THE annual competition in the Paris School of Fine Arts, for the prize of Rome, has just been decided by the award
of the Grand Prize to M. Eustache; while M. Normand has the “ first Second Grand Prize,” and M. Chausseniche, who distinguished himself in last year’s competition, wins the “second Second Grand Prize.” The subject this year was “A Central Railway Station.” M. Normand, according to La Construction Moderne, presented a very striking and interesting design, but he had what seems to us the rather unhappy idea of making his building entirely of iron ; and it is not very surprising that the judges gave him the second place.
N
OTWITHSTANDING the great value of iron as a material of construction for certain purposes, we think that
in this country, where more iron buildings, perhaps, have been erected than in all other countries put together, there is a strong feeling among architects that they have had their day; and that a better, safer, and more durable structure can be made by combining masonry with iron, than by using the metal as the only, or even the principal constructive material. In other countries, and especially in France, where iron construction is now applied to all sorts of new uses, it has the charm of novelty, and is often spoken of as the universal material of the future ; but most experienced American architects have seen too many iron columns honey-combed with rust, and girders with half the thickness of the wrebs separating in flakes, to wish to entrust their reputation to such perishable material; while our fire-engineers have thoroughly satisfied themselves that an iron building of the ordinary sort is less capable of resisting a severe fire than one of almost any other material. Among the engineers, a similar distrust of iron for construction exposed to the weather has become very general. Two serious accidents have shown that the life of a suspension bridge, with either wire or chain cables, is only about forty years; and some recent examinations of plate-girder bridges have shown that, in about the same length of time, the web plates, notwithstanding careful and often repeated painting, are eaten nearly or quite through, by corrosion, which works unobserved beneath the paint. The contrast between bridges which perish in a generation, and those which, like several of the masonry bridges built by the Romans, have been in use for nearly two thousand years, and are still in excellent condition, is too striking not to attract the attention of intelligent engineers, and the next decade is likely to see brick and stone extensively used for railway bridges, to the great advantage of the landscape in the neighborhood. Already, it is said that the officials of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which has always led in scientific engineering, have given orders that no more iron bridges shall be built on the road, and the children of the present stockholders will probably have reason to rejoice at the decision.
THOSE persons who wish to know a little of the science of forestry should send to the Department of Agriculture at
Washington for a copy of Bulletin No. 5, by Mr. B. E, Fernow, Chief of the Division of Forestry. This extremely interesting little tract contains the substance of some public addresses, delivered before State Boards of Agriculture, and other similar bodies, by Mr. Fernow, as representative of the Department of Agriculture, together with practical observations upon experiments now in progress in forest-planting on the plains. By this time, nearly every prudent American who reads the newspapers, has begun to feel the serious necessity of providing timber for future generations; while the people of the older States, who see themselves surrounded by myriads of