WIRE CONCRETE.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIII, Issue 1584, 2 September 1873, Page 3

WIRE CONCRETE.

For some years past the attention of engineers and architects has been given to the construction of houses, wharfs, and other works % in concrete, and at the present time numerous samples of the successful application of the system are to be met with both in London and the Provinces. Among those who have labored to extend this method of building, and to improve its details, is Mr Philip Arannon, who has succeeded in producing a combination of metal and cement which has been tested with very satisfactory results. This system of wire concrete, as it may be termed, consists of a sustaining metallic framework or skeleton, upon which wires are strained, the whole being enclosed in the concreted materials forming the structure. By this arrangement not only are the walls and floors of a building run up in concrete, but the doors, shelves, and other fittings are formed of the same material. Thus the strains in a building are equally distributed, and it is rendered fire-proof throughout, wood and other combustible material being dispensed with. In order to obtain the utmost amount of cohesion throughout the mass and to prevent cracking — especially where employed in doors or thm partitions — a certain proportion of fibrous material is worked up in the concrete. This system has been carried out in a house at Edmonston which was built by Mr Brannon, a.nd to which the test of fire has been applied on two occasions without producing any detrimental effect upon either the carcase or fittings. Moreover, furniture was left in some of the rooms, and persons remained there while a brisk conflagration was going on in the lower apartments. Arrangements have been made for the construction of houses upon this principle in Islington, Battesea,and Camberwell, and negotiations are pending for the erection of severai blocks of buildings in the North of England.

A Chicago paper says :— " The windy beard of JEolus himself, and all his succedaneous bags of atmosphere, beswept our segment of earth from long ere dawn of yesterday, through a bitter twenty -four hours of extreme winterness and physical and spiritual shiverings."

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