Mr. Woolson. where girders were used, it knocked the concrete from the bottom part of the girder, and exposed the metal. A subsequent examination of buildings after the ten minutes application of water which we employ in our tests, showed the concrete was much better where the water had been applied than where it had not.

In the tests for conductivity it took about four hours to penetrate to the middle of a 6-in. block; in other words, to go through 3 in. of concrete where there was no possible chance for radiation, and the heat was coming in on all sides.

With regard to the sand and cement mixture that has been spoken of. In our testing station we have a building 14 ft. long, by 9 ft. wide and 9 ft. high, which is used for testing partitions. The ceiling and end walls are permanent; the side walls are removable, and new partitions are put in. The ceiling and end walls are made of a 1:4 mixture of sand and cement, 4 in. thick. We have had eight or nine tests in that building, averaging 1,700°F. for half of the time, and gradually approaching that during the rest of the time. Those walls are still in excellent condition; good for an indefinite number of tests, as far as I can see. I shall have to move the building soon and must tear it down; I am regretting the job I have on my hands, it is in such good condition.

The question has been raised regarding laboratory tests. not being comparable with large practical tests. I agree thoroughly on that point. The only idea of these tests was to ascertain, if possible, what the effect on the specimen of concrete would be as to its elasticity and its strength, provided we could give it a uniform heat all through. That is all these tests bring out. They do not affect, I think, the general problem of concrete as a mass construction.

BRITISH STANDARD SPECIFICATIONS FOR CEMENT.

WITH INTRODUCTION BY MR. R. W. LESLEY.

I find I am down to say something upon the British Standard Specifications for Portland Cement, or rather that I am to give some introduction of this important subject.

In considering the history of the preparation of the British Specifications, and the preparation of the American Standard Specifications for Manipulation, Analysis and Qualifications, the first thought that jumps to the eye is, that "Money makes the mare go."

When it is considered that the first attempt at specifications for cement in the United States, or rather at methods of manipulations of tests for cement in this country, was brought about from the appointment of a committee of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1885, which committee reported certain suggestions for testing, and that these suggestions remained in actual force for a period of nearly twelve years, it can be readily imagined that there were very little funds for the careful investigation of this important subject by any scientific society.

When again it is considered that early in 1897 the American Society of Civil Engineers appointed another committee to report on the proper manipulation of tests for cement, and that this committee presented to the Society a Progress Report only on June 21, 1903, it can again be appreciated how difficult it is for any body having charge of the consideration of methods of manipulation of tests or the making of specifications for structural material, to proceed without a specialized laboratory, and proper funds for the conduct of their work.

The chemistry of the subject in this country does not seem to have been so serious a matter, taking but a short period of time to arrive at some conclusions on this subject, though these conclusions were adopted only by the New York Section of the Society for Chemical Industry for the Analysis for Limestones, Raw Materials and Portland Cements. Thus this work was that of but a single section of the Society for Chemical Industry.

The American Society for Testing Materials was also slow in the work of preparing cement specification, at least as judged by English methods. The first attempts were made in 1901, but nothing definite resulted, and finally in October, 1902, a new committee of this society met, consisting of many of the original members, together with representatives of a number of other scientific societies, and this committee, in about two years of work, was able to report on June 14, 1904, Standard Specifications for Cement, which were adopted by a letter-ballot of the Society at large on November 14, 1904, or three years after the work was begun.

In the present year, these specifications with which you are all familiar: the Progress Report of the American Society of Civil Engineers; the report on Method of Analysis, of the New York Section of the Society for Chemical Industry, above referred to, and the final report of the Committee on Standard Specifications for Cement, of the American Society for Testing Materials, have at last been sent out by the last named Society in the shape of a very well gotten up pamphlet, edited by the Secretary under the direction of Committee C on Standard Specifications for Cement. Thus, in our country, without funds, with nothing but the voluntary work of men who have contributed in some cases valuable time, and in other cases both time and money, this important matter involving the use of 25,000,000 to 30,000,000 barrels of cement a year, has dragged on from year to year, through no fault of any of those associated with the preparation and making of specifications, but simply for the lack of laboratory facilities for the men working in this important field-places where proper investigations could be carried on and where, with proper funds, the great work which has been finally completed, could have been completed with pleasure, ease and credit to all those who have generously given of their time and labor.

It is a subject for congratulation that at our meeting last evening, Messrs. Holmes and Humphrey, in the discussion of the plan and scope of the proposed investigation of structural materials under the auspices of the U. S. Geological Survey, have opened up to us and all engineering societies, a new vista of work to be done. under Government auspices, backed by Government funds and under skilful men. They have opened up a field, where in a proper laboratory, all these questions which are agitating all these stand

ing committees on testing and manipulation of cement can be thoroughly investigated, so that these committees may at all times, in their original inquiries, get proper results without taxing either the time or the funds of the individual or the committees. This is within the scope of the Government, and no class of materials deserves more thorough and full investigation than that great body of structural materials which goes to the building of all that is permanent in our country, whether of road-beds, railroads, large buildings, or the homes that house our people.

In England, a country which we are rather prone to consider slow, whose methods are sometimes stated to be behind the times, and whose ways of accomplishing things are held up by some of us to ridicule, it may be interesting to know that the preparation of the British Standard Specifications for Portland Cement took a little over a year to conclude. The history shows that the Committee on Cement was appointed at a meeting of the Main Engineering Standards Committee on March 27, 1903. The first meeting was held June 12, 1903. Twelve meetings were held, and the specification was passed in its final form November 23, 1904, and approved by the Main Committee on December 8,

1904.

In considering the promptness of this work, and in view of the general work of the Engineering Standards Committee in England, it is to be noted that this great body has the support not only of the British Government, but of a number of the Governments of the English Colonies. It is to be noted also, that this support is not a sentimental support, but an actual money support which enables the various committees to do good work, and to put out promptly specifications and volumes of reports in the best and most approved form. These funds enable the various committees of the Engineering Standards Committee to have examinations made in the most approved manner in laboratories at the expense of the Committee, and the day of gratuitous work, gratuitous services and gratuitous journeys in the preparing of these specifications, is at last over in England. The conditions which have existed in our country in the preparation of specifications, where engineers in a labor of love, at their own expense, have gone into deep investigations for the benefit of the standardizing committees, do not exist. in England.

Another interesting fact in connection with this British Specification is, that the Government is actually represented by a number of its officers on the Committee: the Chairman, Mr. Matthews, representing the Crown Agents for the Colonies; Mr. Colson, representing the Admiralty; Mr. Fitzmaurice, the London County Council, and Mr. Lyster, the Liverpool Docks.

In addition to this, another point is to be noted, and that is, that while engineers and experts are on the Committee, and the manufacturers of Portland cement are well represented, the large contracting firms in England-whose names are world-wide for good work-have also been associated in the preparation of the Standard Specifications. The sentimental feeling that interests agitate those who prepare specifications, a feeling which our own Society has recognized is a false one, did not prevent the British Engineering Standards Committee recognizing the producer and the user of cement, as well as the engineer who stands between producer and consumer. The professional, as well as the non-professional engineer is recognized in the appointment of the Committee, and this recognition by such bodies as the Engineering Standards Committee, and by such societies as our own, which in every case recognizes the large producer, as well as the consumer and engineer, is going to bring about a feeling that the man who is at the head of a large contracting business or a large manufacturing business, is by the mere force of the position he has carved out for himself, a business engineer and to be ranked with engineers, though he may not in all cases have the skilled college training and education which they have been more fortunate in obtaining.

Now, coming to the specification itself and comparing it with our own, it is to be noted, first, that it is shorter, more compact and embodies in four large pages of printed matter covering a series of articles numbered from 1 to 12, what in cur specification. 32 pages are taken to describe. The specifications embody in the one case, 12 articles; in the other, 25 articles, which latter in turn cover 76 more. This condition of specifications in our country is due to the embodiment in and under the Standard Specifications of the American Society for Testing Materials, of the Progress Report of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Report of the New York Section of the Society for Chemical Industry.