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?

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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. 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.

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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.

Now, gentlemen, if these men had not been prudent in this matter, and, instead of making this combination, had been extravagant in adopting the heavy iron and heavy clay as in the English system, they would have secured improvements in name, but not in fact; for cash is the key to the situation, and, although the manufacturer has noble aspirations for progress and improvement, he knows that he must maintain prudential limits.

I have enlarged on this point; for it is a general defect, that, when we see a new thing, our natural inclination is to go to the extreme and reach after the impracticable, thus making no progress.

Thus was established in Catalonia two systems of fireproof factories: the one type shown in the factory of Vidal Hijos, constructed 1871, the spindle building of Battlo Bros., 1869, and several others; the other type shown in the loom room of Battlo Bros., woollen factory of Carreras, etc. The first type consists of wooden girders and tile arches, and the second has tile arches for ribs, with small iron beams with dome between.

Sections shown on plan.

What is the combination, iron and clay, or wood and clay? It is very simple; it is only iron or wooden girders, set apart over columns at the regular distance of a factory bay, ten feet six inches or more, as has been stated, and between them tile arches, similar to those now to be seen in the Boston new public library, or the Harcourt building, or Exeter Chambers.

The combination with iron can be executed in two ways, as it is used in some of the rooms of the library, acting as a beam or girder, working by deflection; or as used in the Colorado Telephone Company's building, Denver, Y. W. C. A., New York, working principally by tension. This latter form may also be seen in some of the rooms of the library. When the combination is of wood, it is working in deflection, as in the case of iron, and in some cases by tension. The construction is cheapest in both materials when working by tension.

Some may think that fire-proofing in Catalonia is cheaper than here; that, in a general sense, is not so, because, supposing they had accepted the English system, the relation between the English system and the cohesive system would be the same there as here. It may be supposed that the cohesive system is dearer here than there. I will show wherein the difference lies. It cannot be in labor, as the same proportion of difference exists in the wages of carpenters for wooden construction as for masons; and, as the walls are the same in either case, the difference is only in the floors; and, if any there be, it must be in the material. Wood is the same there as here. Portland cement, one of the main factors in the construction, costs in Spain three dollars a barrel, against two and one-half dollars here. Plaster costs about the same. The difference is only in the cost of the tile, which in Spain can be purchased at five dollars per thousand, while costing here fifteen dollars; but, taking into consideration the fact that in Spain we use fiveeighths inch and here one inch in thickness, and that the tile is only one of the components, and that it is only in this special material that the cost is greater, the real difference in the price per foot of the material is only twenty-five per cent. This twenty-five per cent. difference in the cost of materials cannot be a sufficient reason for not using the construction here; for, in a factory one hundred by one hundred feet, or ten thousand square feet, the difference in the floors would only be eight hundred dollars. I do not think this eight hundred dollars would prove an insurmountable obstacle to a New England manufacturer, therefore this cannot be the cause. In the iron there is a little disproportion; but, as the economic state of a country is relative in all things, if the iron and construction is cheaper, the production is also cheaper and the income and interest less, so that does not affect this comparison; consequently, the difference in cost there and here between the wooden and fire-proof factories is really the same, and the reason for not adopting the same system here is not due to the difference of eight hundred dollars for each ten thousand feet of floor.