Issue 8

THE object of this paper is to enable the designer of Hollow Reinforced Concrete sections of circular and rectangular shapes to ascertain, with the minimum of calculation, what is a suitable section to adopt. Gerald C. Gumersall

In bringing under review the present-day question of the control of structures by means of regulations under whatever responsible authority these may have been enacted, the questions involved by the phrase "in the public interest" are of primary importance. It is true that buildings and other structures are subject to control in purely private interests. In Scotland it is not an infrequent practice to incorporate in feu and other contracts specific conditions which either by means of imposing restrictions on the use ofland or by the direct limitation of the size,materials of construction, and other matters, delimit the type and use of structures erected hereon. Such restrictions may be ineffectuallyimposed where they are contrary to the public interest or to parliamentary enactment, where the superior or other person endeavouring, and once entitled, to enforce them has ceased to be able to show interest to insist on their outcarrying, or where, through having already been breached, they can no longer be upheld on reference to the public law courts. Restrictions or burdens of this kind are of minor importance in respect of the wider control exercised by statutory bodies and relief from them may be obtained by purchase, compensation, or, if need be, by special legislation should no other alternative be more readily reached. Frank A.B. Preston

SIR,-with reference to Mr. Procter’s interesting paper on “Laterally Unsupported Beams” in your July issue, I note that the adopts for J the effective polar moment of inertia for an I-beam section in torsion, the approximate formula ...

THE Hawkes Bay district of New Zealand was visited by devastating earthquakes on February 3rd and 13th, 1931, which resulted in the virtual destruction of the business centre of the city of Napier and the partial destruction of the town of Hastings, 12 miles distant. Adjacent towns and villages also suffered great damage. The whole of a widespread area was grievously disturbed; 260 lives were lost, and the number of injured persons was considerable. The damage to properties and contents was estimated at between three and four millions. The havoc and devastation were comparable only to t h a t wrought in towns and villages in Flanders after heavy and continuous bombardment during the Great War. J.S. McAven

THE object of this paper is an attempt to overcome an unnecessary and irritating difficulty in connection with the design of steel pillars. This difficulty is due to the fact that within recent years the permissible working stresses have been and still are frequently altered, with the result that tables of safe loads on pillars are soon rendered obsolete and require to be recalculated, and, since the “straight line graphs” originally included in the London County Council General Powers Act of 1909 have been superseded in the London County Council Code of Practice of 1932 by a “curved graph” with a further complication of a permissible increase of stress in the case of eccentric loading, the preparation of such tables has become a laborious and thankless task. W. Cyril Cocking

Foreword by PHILIP MOON, M.Inst.C.E. (Engineer and General Manager to the Bournemouth Gas and Water Company).The new gasworks at Poole-the ferro-concrete structures of which are described by Mr. Hale in the following paper-were rendered necessary by the continued and rapid development of the extensive area served by the Bournemouth Gas & Water Company. How rapid this development has been can be gathered from the following particulars with regard to the output of gas :- Year. Output of Gas. 1903 ... ... 537,819,000 cubic feet. 1914 ... ... 1,114,806,000 ,, ,, 1928 . . . . . . 2,468,504,000 ,, ,, 1930 . . . . . . 2,652,022,000 , , , , H.M. Hale

THE discovery and use of asphalt dates from the remotest ages. D'Eyrinis, who discovered the Val de Travers mine, and published a work on the subject in 1721, held that Noah's Ark was coated, and the Tower of Babel cemented, with it. He based his assertion on the proximity of the deposit at Siddim. L.A. Simmons