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Earthquake Construction

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Sell'Em Smilingly

Sell'Em Smilingly

(From the San Francisco Bulletin)

Little can be done about an earthquake after it is over. In the field in which it principally affects human beings, that of "building construction," much might be done in advance of the next one, if the aforesaid human beings were capable of learning from experience. Unfortunately we are not very docile. The highest practical authority on the subject declares that a great many of the carpenters, builders, contractors and architects, and a considerable number of the engineers, have learned very little from observation of these disasters.

They continue putting one brick on another to convenient height and laying floor joists across them exactly as their predecessors did in Sodom and Gomorrah, and Nineveh and Tyre, and Memphis and Thebes and Lisbon.

The Tutks tell us "experience is a hair-brush that nature hands us aftef rve have lost our hair." In regard to construction, we shall have more hair, and if we consult experience we can save some of it, and also save our hides. Comparatively stable construction is not difficult to understand-it is only difficult to do. And the main difficulty about doing it consists in paying a very little more for timber or steel and persuading the builder to put it in the right place.

Light and flexible buildings of timber are preferable to

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those of brick. They have more elasticity, or power to return to form after being deformed. But they need bracing across the upper angles formed by the lvalls and floors so that under horizontal and diagonal strains those angles will remain fixed, leaving it to the vertical timbers to bend and come back. Cove ceiling are valuable for this reason, when the cove members are not too light-they form a continuous brace and offer considerable resistance to contraction of the angle. In the basement of the ordinary wooden dwelling it is easy to brace the posts in the upper angles they form with the sills. But that is only in one direction. To take the heads of braces running in the other direction, plate pieces should be spiked to the bottoms of joists parallel to the sills, and 45 degree braces should be spiked to the posts and plate pieces.

It rvould be still better if bolts were added to the nailing. A good deal of damage to frame structures in San Francisco was ascribed to rusted-out nailing where studs were toe-nailed to mudsills. For som'e time after'the earthquake anybody that asked for galvanized nails was looked on as mentally incompetent and referred to a ship chandlery. Today they are more common in hardware stores, so there has been some gain. They cost so little more than bare nails that they ought to be more generally used, especially rvhere they are to be exposed to dampness. Cutting through' sills to run pipes can destroy 95 per cent of the horizontal strength needed against earthquake strain.

An earthquake not only has rvave motion, but gives the land itself a horizontal movement. Therefore, braces risini from the mudsill are less desirable than smaller and higher ones, which would permit the rvall or the posts to bend. And vertical bolts extending from foundation rvalls through mudsills rvould help hold the rvooden rvalls on the foundation.

Brick structures r,vould be more secure if the designers could be persuaded to leave some unbroken r,vall spaces at the sides and across the top. Most brick buildings are u'eakened by too many u'indo'rvs, and rvhen the shock comes the spaces left betrveen are shattered diagonally.

Covering material for steel frames is too often merely rested on the horizontal members, floor by floor. Not only should the frames themselves be well braced at upper angles, but the brick or concrete used for curtaining should be fastened on by reinforcing bars. That is seldom done, but pictures from Santa Barbara shotv the need of it.

There is no such thing as an absolutely earthquake proof building. 'We can, however, provide greater stability than we commonly do. We must take some chance-we do every time we cross a street-but there is no sense in taking too much. The old negro mammy \vas *'ise that said: "I trusts de Larvd, but I don't fool rvid Him."

Short Orders

An order for a bunch of shingles or lath, a closet shelf, an ironing board, or any such trifle is considered a nuisance by many retail lumbermen.

However, in reality, it is a very important part of his business as the material has likely been needed for some time and the ordering deferred, therefore the attention of the purchaser is riveted on the item to be secured to such an extent that either diligence or inattention is most certain to attract special notice.

The man rvho orders one board today may want a house bill tomorrow,'or rvhat is equally important, his friend may.

If his small order has been overlooked, or there has been a lack of civility, with general inattention, he would be more than human if he felt kindly disposed toward the dealer who flouted his necessity and made apparent an attitude of contempt for an order that of itself would not yield much profit.

The very fact that the order is small serves as a means to concentrate his attention so that courtesy and promptness in filling are just as sure to be noticed as their lack.

Indeed, the so-called "short orders" may be considered as a sort of selling by sample. And, if the same commercial parallel is permitted to hold good, these "sample" sales should be as nearly perfect transactions as possible.

One more point-these short orders-sample sales-or whatever you rvish to call them, are wonderful feeders for the big business you tvant.

Your materials can produce a hundred EFFECTS to one that your customer now knows.

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