Facings to Framed Structures

From Berlin I proceeded to Breslau, one of the most interesting places of my tour, and a city possessing many excellent modern buildings of various types. Harold B. Rowe

Dear Sir,-The use of slab bases for stanchions has introduced new calculations. The placing of a more or less concentrated load in the centre of a slab brings to one’s mind the picture of the stanchion sinking and giving the slab a saucer-like shape. A slab will, under certain conditions and if resting on a homogeneous foundation behave as a beam: that is to say, it will tend to deflect along a line or lines parallel with one or other pair of sides. If a slab be weaker on one axis it will commence to deflect, take on a channel shape, and (however slight that deflection) become at once stiffened against deflection on the other axis. The weaker way being found, the appropriate formula can be applied. Arpossible case is shown in Figure 1. Here the slab is a uniformly loaded beam with cantilever extensions.

The gasometer erected for the Southern Oil Co., Ltd., at Trafford Park, Manchester, is, in. plates, as far as can be ascertained, the first all-welded gasometer in this country, and marks a distinct step forward in the advance of welding.