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The PRESIDENT.

The secretary has cast the vote, as suggested, and the gentlemen named by the committee are unanimously elected.

I wish to thank you for the re-election. I somewhat expected a change would be made, but I will try to serve you for another year.

The next business in order on the call for the meeting is the following proposed vote:

That it is the sense of this Association that certain statistics concerning the production of goods, and the cost per pound of labor, in the mills represented in the Association, would be of great interest and value; and that the Board of Government is hereby authorized to inaugurate a system whereby such information can be obtained, the expense per annum not to exceed

dollars.

A few years ago, such a system was inaugurated by the Board of Government, on the suggestion, I think, of Mr. Lippitt of Providence, for an investigation into the methods and cost of picking in twenty-five or thirty mills in New England. The investigation was made by Mr. REED, under the supervision of a committee representing the Board of Directors; and he presented a valuable paper to the Association. Such statistics from the mills represented in this Association would be of value. The methods employed; the different kinds of machinery, all producing the same or similar results; and the cost of production, if studied by some competent person, it seems to me would be something every member of this Association would like to see; and I can hardly see why any member of this Association should hesitate to give that information. You will remember that the investigation in regard to picking was so made that, while each mill was known to the investigator, no one else could tell what mill was represented; and that same system could be maintained. The Board felt unanimous in this matter, but wanted to test the sense of the meeting; because they did not wish to spend money or enter upon the work without the full consent of the Association. I hope you will consider the matter, and that it will come up for discussion.

The Board of Government has not considered such a work in detail, but simply advocates at this time a general plan to be worked up by some committee, which shall give the information, that I am sure we all desire, concerning important processes of manufacturing, without disclosing, of course,the entire cost, etc., of any completed fabric.

After a brief discussion, in which some opposition was expressed, it was voted that this subject be indefinitely postponed.

The PRESIDENT. The matter of nominations for membership will now be taken up.

The SECRETARY. The following names have been proposed, and are recommended by the Board of Government for election :

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The PRESIDENT. You have heard the nominations made by the Board of Directors. Shall they be voted on singly? If I hear no objection, the vote will be taken on the names as proposed.

All of the nominees were thereupon elected to membership.

The next matter on the call for the meeting is a paper by Mr. Guastavino of Boston, Mass., on a new building material adopted in the Boston Public Library and other buildings. Mr. WOODBURY. Before that paper is read, I wish to offer the following motion:

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Voted, That the Board of Directors be authorized to lay an assessment on the members of the Association, not to exceed ten dollars each, to defray the expenses of the ensuing year.

The motion was adopted.

THE COHESIVE SYSTEM OF BUILDING.

BY R. GUASTAVINO, ARCHITECT, BOSTON, MASS.

I have heretofore treated, in other addresses, the general subject of the cohesive system of building; but, accepting the invitation of your board of government, I take pleasure in making special reference, in this paper, to its application to industrial buildings, which I hope will prove of interest.

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This work will not require great ability in me, for I come from a country which, like New England, breathes in industrial activity, in cottons, woollens, silks, laces, etc.; a country which, not only because it supplies its own market, but because of its export trade, more especially to South America, East India and North Africa, is known as the Spanish Manchester." I refer to Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, a country where I had for fifteen years my circle of operations as architect and specialist in this kind of building; hence I can modestly say that I have not to talk about that which is new to me, nor will it be new to all of my auditors. All that I shall do is to explain what has been done in the last twenty or twenty-five years, so that the Catalonians now have nearly seventy-five per cent. of their industrial buildings fire-proof.

How was this done? Was it because these industries were backed by larger capital, had better facilities, or made more profit than those of New England? What is the reason that the Catalonian manufacturers have ceased making other than fire-proof buildings? Why do not the New England manufacturers do the same? Those questions I want to analyze and answer.

As far back as 1865 we can say that neither in Barcelona nor in the provinces of Catalonia was there a single factory that was not constructed, as here, all wooden floors, and

most of them wooden columns and girders; they also had to some extent the "slow-burning" construction,—a combination of wood and iron. I remember that all the factories in the streets of Amalia Rierretta, Luna, and the districts of San Pablo and San Pedro, were of wood. So old and so saturated with oil were these buildings, that the smell arising was foreboding of immediate danger, perhaps caused by the knowledge of the scene of horror which would ensue, should there be the least neglect, by fire. Nearly all of these buildings have disappeared, their owners, with better judgment, have built their factories less closely together, and in another system, better suited to their interest,that is, fire-proof.

Some may imagine that the manufacturers of these places were richer or safer in their investments, thus requiring more permanent and safe buildings; but it is not so, as we are afforded very little protection, our markets being open to the French and English manufacturers, and any slight change of the tariff threatens immediate danger. What was the cause of this change?

These manufacturers had learned from experience, that, notwithstanding the insurance money comes, in case of fire, the factory must be stopped for a period, the customers must be supplied, and they go to some competing firm; so that, when they get started, it is to begin over again. They also know that the wear and tear and depreciation in a wooden building in five years pays the extra cost of a fire-proof one. A factory costing $20,000, requiring to be built in twenty years, means that five per cent. per annum must be laid away to restore it at that time. This means that in five years the factory costs $25,000, or as much as a fire-proof All these considerations, and the increasing exigencies of the fire insurance companies rendering them more careful in the issuing of policies, compelled the manufacturers to open their eyes to the value of fire-proofing; and under these pressing necessities some of them decided at once to build their factories fire-proof.

one.

But twenty-five years ago the Catalonian manufacturers were in the same position as those of New England; they knew only the English fire-proof factories of iron and small brick arches, expensive, and not fire-proof, with the difficulties connected with this system regarding the running of shafting, in which any of the frequent alterations required in every factory is an enormous task. Realizing this inconvenience, the manufacturers of Catalonia did not at a single bound go from one extreme to the other, that is, from the poorest to the most expensive; they took precautions so that the sudden change might not nauseate them, and commenced to study the way to overcome the inconveniences of the English system of fire-proof industrial buildings, and find such a system as was fitted for the manufacturers' convenience, and to avoid the heavy losses which the insurance companies are not required to pay. No one can blame this prudence, for the capital invested in the factory is the manufacturers' tools, like the hammer and chisel in the hands of the workman; they cannot, they must not, employ more than just what is necessary, with the least chance of loss; and because of their prudence they now have, as I have said, more than seventy-five per cent. of their buildings really fire-proof.

This system of fire-proofing was the combination of clay and wood or clay and iron, with ten feet six inches or more span, according to the bays. I must remark that, for every ten fire-proof factories, eight were constructed of clay and wood, and two of clay and iron. The adopting of this combination of wood and clay, in preference to iron and clay, was not so much due to economy as to the belief that in the way applied it was better fire-proof, besides being more adaptable and convenient for changes and alterations, reducing wood, however, to the lowest quantity, and putting it under absolutely safe conditions. One of these was the firm of Battlo Bros., for whom I built the first factory as architect in this way in Sarria, as shown in these photographs. This was so eminently successful that several others were at once erected on the same principle.

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