THE HOUSING PROBLEM.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 April 1920, Page 10

THE HOUSING PROBLEM.

EDISON'S LATEST IDEA. FAMOUS INVENTOR'S "POURED DWELLINGS." While the problem of housing accommodation is engaging the attention of the Government and various public bodies, it is interesting to note what is being done by the progressive American in meeting the same difficulty. To a N/w Zealand Times reporter it was explained that the speed process of building which originated in the States and has on occasions been employed in New Zealand in the erection of churches, etc., is still much in vogue, and has lately been resorted to by Thomas A. Edison, the well-known inventor, whose ideas in regard to the erection of workers' dwellings have recently been put into practice in America.

A HOUSE IN TEN DAYS, i By means of his process, it was explained, a two-storied concrete house for which are claimed many advantages, is built in ten days and finished off in one extra day. His scheme involves a new and interesting use for concrete. The concrete structive, either plain or reinforced, is by no means a novelty, for buildings of the most diversified" character have been erected of this convenient and versatile material. One of the most interesting uses to which it has been put is the construction of houses in a single day, which are equipped and ready for occupation in a little over a week later. The frame and forms of the house are, under Edison's scheme, completed in a day; pouring the concrete into the moulds thus set up is the next process, and in another ten days the structure is finished off and ready for occupation.

THE ADVANTAGES. "The advantages claimed for such buildings are manifold," continued the informant of the Times representative. "In the first place they are shock proof. When the material is onee set and hardened the building is to all intents and purposes a single block o£ hard stone. Absolutely fireproof, weather resistant, warm in winter and cool in summer, owing to the non-conducting character of the walls, damp proof, and affording no lodging place for vermin, the concrete house, Edison claims, is an ideal dwelling. ''The cost of these buildings affords in America a means of furnishing comfortable homes at moderate rentals; such a house can be rentei for 23 dollars a month. American papers claim that Mr. Edison has proved the possibility of tho 'poured dwelling,' and it would be interesting to see the scheme given a thorough trial in New Zealand. Many claim, that Edison has solved the housing problem."