Work Ahead!

The British Portland Cement Association have just issued a charmingly illustrated brochure, containing 36 illustrations of artistic concrete structures, showing the possibilities of concrete that are being taken advantage of by the American architect.

As a young English engineer visiting U.S.A. and Canada for the first time I found very much to interest me. On every side one sees progressiveness, efficiency and a readiness to revise building regulations and structural practices to keep abreast of the times. In a very few weeks I became aware that we in England are falling behind our American confreres-not because our engineers or architects are less intelligent or efficient, but seemingly because we are hemmed in by hide bound authorities, regulations and old established practices. In these days of fierce competition in the field of foreign trade, when every extra cost in building finds its way by overhead charges to the cost of our manufactures, it is the duty of us all "ruthlessly to scrap all methods and machinely which do not come up to the most modern standard" -to quote the words of the Prince of Wales, who as a well travelled young man is constantly appealing for a change of ideas in Britain. G.S. Bowers

The inherent and peculiar advantages of the tube as a structural element have many times received consideration in print, and, in aeronautical and automobile construction, in the steel furniture industry and in certain other specialised fields, these advantages have already been turned to practical account. The special benefit attaching to the tubular section lies, of course, in a moment of inertia which is of equal magnitude in all directions, enabling the maximum resistance to buckling to be achieved with the lowest possible area of crosssection and hence the minimum weight. Hitherto, it has rarely been found possible, however, to apply the tubular principle to structural steelwork, for rivetting and bolting are highly unsuitable for the jointing of tubes.