In view of the similarity of the investigations outlined by the joint committee, and those about to be started by the Geological Survey, there was discussed at a meeting of the joint committee in Cleveland, Ohio, June, 1905, the advisability of joint cooperation. At a meeting a few days later in Atlantic City, N. J., Mr. Joseph A. Holmes, representing the Director of the Geological Survey, submitted a basis of cooperation providing for the execution of this work by the Geological Survey, either in its laboratories at St. Louis or in other laboratories which possess the requisite facilities, under the general direction of the joint committee. This plan of cooperation was mutually agreed to and the subcommittee on tests was instructed to cooperate with the Geological Survey in accordance with this understanding.

On December 14, 1905, the subcommittee on tests submitted a revised programme of tests, which was amended and adopted by the joint committee. This programme was approved by the national advisory board March 31, 1906, and now constitutes the working outline for these investigations.

FUNDS.

The first appropriation by Congress for the investigation of structural materials amounted to $12,500, of which $5,000 was available until June 30, 1905, and $7,500 until June 30, 1906.

Some months before the close of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1906, this small appropriation of $12,500 for the work at the structural-materials testing laboratories became exhausted, and the work was nearly at a standstill until a new appropriation of $100,000 became available July 1, 1906. With this increased appropriation the work was greatly extended, new equipment purchased, and two large buildings, used during the exposition by the department of mines and metallurgy, were occupied for testing purposes.

Another appropriation of $100,000 for the fiscal year July 1, 1907, to June 30, 1908, insures the continuance of the work which is now being conducted as described in the following pages.

STRUCTURAL-MATERIALS DIVISION.

ORGANIZATION.

The investigation of structural materials assigned to a division of the technologic branch of the United States Geological Survey is under the general supervision of Mr. Joseph A. Holmes, expert in charge, with Mr. Herbert M. Wilson as chief engineer, and is under the direct supervision of Mr. Richard L. Humphrey, engineer in charge.

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

BULLETIN NO. 329

GENERAL VIEW OF BUILDINGS OCCUPIED BY STRUCTURAL-MATERIALS TESTING LABORATORIES. Office and constituent-materials laboratory in foreground.

The organization of the structural-materials division comprises the following sections:

The structural-materials testing laboratories, located in Forest Park, St. Louis, Mo. (Pl. I and fig. 1), occupy the cement and foundry

FIG. 1.-General plan of buildings occupied by structural-materials testing laboratories in Forest Park, St. Louis, Mo.

buildings and the metal pavilion of the Louisiana, Purchase Exposition. The cement building is constructed entirely of reinforced concrete and was built by the Association of American Portland Cement Manufacturers. It consists of three pavilions, separated by intermediate courts, and connected across the front by a continuous loggia. The central pavilion is 30 feet square and is used by the constituentmaterials section; that on the right is used as a general office; that on the left is used by the park commission of the city of St. Louis, by whose courtesy these laboratories are permitted to remain in Forest Park.

The metal pavilion, 60 by 100 feet, is used by the beam, the permeability, the shear and tension, and the column sections, and by the carpenter shop and the steel-cutting plant. In order to put this building into proper condition for use it was necessary to replace the original glass sides with wooden sheathing and to lay a concrete floor. In addition, a ceiling at a 12-foot elevation was built, affording a second story of the full size of the building. Partitions were erected dividing the building into four rooms, which are used for mixing, molding, storing, and testing beams, columns, and shear and tension test pieces.

The foundry originally consisted of a steel skeleton having a roof of corrugated iron and sides of wire netting. Up to February, 1907, this building was used by the fuel-testing plant for testing coke, and when these tests were finished it was sheathed with wood, a new roof was built, and it now houses the building-block, the petrographic, and the photographic sections and a portion of the constituent-materials section. It also contains 25 bins, each of one car capacity, for storing material; a workshop equipped with a machine lathe, drill press, and emery grinder; a blacksmith shop, and the necessary power equipment for the entire plant.

Power was furnished by the fuel-testing plant until its removal to the Jamestown Exposition at Norfolk, Va., in April, 1907. The onestory annex to one end of the foundry is occupied by the chemical and electrolysis laboratory. In addition to these buildings a one-story frame building contains the computing and drafting sections.

EQUIPMENT.

The greater part of the equipment of the model cement-testing laboratory of the Association of American Portland Cement Manufacturers was loaned for some time, through the courtesy of Mr. R. W. Lesley and Dr. Edgar Marburg, and was subsequently purchased by the Geological Survey. The remainder of the equipment which had been loaned for exhibition purposes was afterwards purchased from the manufacturers at very low prices.

In a large number of instances the manufacturers, recognizing the importance of the investigations being carried on at the laboratories, and desiring to be of some assistance, have supplied equipment for the purpose at greatly reduced prices, in some cases at less than cost.

In addition to the equipment loaned to or purchased by the Geological Survey, a small amount of equipment belonging to the United States Reclamation Service has been used.

In the following list of the more important items of equipment it was deemed inadvisable to include the smaller pieces of apparatus, as these are mentioned in connection with the work of the different sections. Half-tone reproductions of photographs of only a portion of