1212





RECORD AJSD GUIDE





December 28,  1912





obstacles to its operation which would
be inevitable when the contractors be¬
gin sinking the four steel tubes which
will carry the subway tracks under the
river. It is a two-story, steel skeleton
structure about 41 feet long and about
27 feet wide, of fireproof construction,
and has a tower 62 feet above the foun-'
dation. The whole structure was found
to weigh about ISO tons. The building
was jacked up, placed on a barge and
towed to its new site. No accident
marred the work.





Isaac A. Hopper.

Isaac Abraham Hopper, builder and
bank president, who died Saturday, De¬
cember 21, was buried on Tuesday, in
St. Raymond's Cemetery, following serv¬
ices at St. Joseph's Church at 12Sth
street and Morningside avenue. Mr.
Hopper's death occurred at his residence,
165 West 122d street. He was in the
sixty-first year of his age.

Mr. Hopper was a member of one of
New York's oldest families, and his
father, Abraham, was a big builder be¬
fore him. Isaac A. succeeded his father
in business and became as well known
and as important a factor in the build¬
ing field. He was also influential in
politics and was the Democratic leader
in his district. Mr. Hopper was the first
president of the Harlem Democratic
Club, for a time a member of the Board
of Education, and for a period the pro¬
prietor of a Harlem weekly newspaper.







THE LATE ISAAC A. HOPPER.

Of late years Mr. Hopper gave a great
deal of his time to his duties as presi¬
dent of the Empire City Savings Bank,
and consequently was by no means so
active as a builder as in former years
when he executed some of the heaviest
and most important masonry in the city.
In recognition of his standing as a mas¬
ter builder, the Building Trades Employ¬
ers' Association honored him with the
presidency.

Mr. Hopper put through many large
contracts in his time, including the Third
avenue bridge, a large part of the New
York Central Railroad's viaduct, the
New Netherlands Hotel, the former
Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank, St.
Michael's Episcopal Church in Bloom¬
ingdale, the Third Avenue Railroad
Company's power house at Kingsbridge,
the New York Central power house,
Carnegie Music Hall, the Marie An¬
toinette Hotel, the Normandie and a
number of public school buildings.

Mr. Hopper was a graduate of the Col¬
lege of the City of New York. His
birthplace stood near the Harlem end
of McComb's Dam Bridge. He leaves a
wife and four sons, one of whom,
Thomas T. Hopper, is a builder on his.
own account. John J. Hopper, the en¬
gineering contractor, is a brother. A
few years ago the building business of
Isaac A. Hopper was incorporated.





SUPT. MILLER AT PITTSBURGH.

Dined By the Building   Code   Commis¬
sion—Notable Underpinning  Work.

While attending the recent conven¬
tion of the National Association of Ce¬
ment.Users at Pittsburgh, Pa., Super¬
intendent Rudolph P. Miller, of the Man¬
hattan Bureau of Buildings, was the
guest at luncheon at the Union Club of
Mr. Edward Stotz, architect, the chair¬
man .and his associates of the commis¬
sion for the revilsion of the building code,
F. H. Kindl, civil engineer; F. A. Rus¬
sell, architect; S. M. Murphy, builder;
Joseph A. Waldron, plumber; William
S. McDowell, attorney, and Robert A.
.Cummings, civil engineer. Messrs. J.
M. Morin, Director of Public Safety; S.
A. Dies, Superintendent of the Bureau
of Building Inspection, and J. P. Bren¬
nan, Assistant Superintendent, were
also present and took part in the discus¬
sion on the essentials of a good build¬
ing code.

The commission has been at work
for'some time and hopes to present an
up-to-date measure in the near future. A
state building code is also under consid¬
eration in Pennsylvania and naturally its
relation to a city ordinance was dis¬
cussed. Mr. Miller contended that while
a state code might have some advan¬
tages inasmuch as there are certain fun¬
damental principles of construction that
are universally applicable, it should,
nevertheless, be limited and should not
attempt to replace the local ordinance
entirely. The abolition of the local de¬
partment certainly would be unwise and
contrary to the interests of real estate
owners, builders and architects.
Test of a Concrete Column.

An interesting test of a concrete col¬
umn was made under the auspices of the
National Association of Cement Users
during the convention in the new ten-
million pound testing machine (the
largest in the world) at the Bureau of
Standards. The column that was tested
consisted of a concrete mixture in the
proportions of one part cement, two
parts sand and four parts crushed stone,
reinforced by seven 1 1-16-incb round
vertical rods and a helix of j4-inch wire
having a pitch of 3 inches. The column
was 16 feet long and had a diameter of
27 inches within the helical reinforce¬
ment and an outside diameter of 30
inches, thus giving an inch and a half
covering for  the wire reinforcement.

The first evidence of any stress on the
column appeared when a load of 1,300,-
000 lbs. (2,275 pounds per square inch)
was put on the column. The outer cov¬
ering of concrete started to spall oflE at
that time and continued to do so until
the load had been increased about 500,-
000 pounds more. Complete failure oc-
ciirj-ed when the load had reached 1,950,-
000 pounds or a load of 3,400 pounds per
square inch. Just before this load had
been reached the wire helix broke near
the top of the column and the vertical
reinforcement began to buckle near the
top and the whole column bulged until
it was about 6 inches' out of line. Con¬
sidering that the column was only 25
•days.old when tested, this is a very sat-
.isfactory showing.

Many instructive papers on cement
and concrete were presented at the con¬
vention of which those on the investiga¬
tion of flat slab construction, the so-
called girderless floors, and the eflfect of
electric currents on concrete were per¬
haps of greatest value to the structural
engineer.

Superintendent Miller was also much
interested in the underpinning work now
in progress in Pittsburgh in connection
■with the municipal-improvement known
as the "hump removal."   This work con¬





sists of the cutting down in the densely
built business section of a little over two
miles of streets within an area approxi¬
mately equal to that enclosed by 14th
street, Broadway, 23d street, Lexington
avenue and Irving place. The maximum
depth to which the streets are to be
lowered is 16.3 ft. The widening of
three streets for a total length of over
2,000 feet and the opening of another
short street are also included in this
work. One of the buildings aflfected by
this improvement is the 22-story Frick
Building, the old basement of which now
becomes the first story of the building.
In another instance, a five-story brick
building was bodily lowered about ten
feet in order that the floor of the first
story might be level with the street in
the new position of the building.





FIRE  HAZARDS  IN FACTORIES.

Citizens'    Union's    Recommendations-
Importance of Horizontal Exits.

The Citizens' Union has sent to the
New York State Factory Investigating
Commission a memorandum giving the
results of its study of the proposed bills
relating to the fire hazard in existing
factory buildings being considered by
the commission for introduction in the
next Legislature. These bills are like¬
ly to constitute one of the most impor¬
tant features of the next Legislative ses¬
sion. The Citizens' Union memoran¬
dum, which is of considerable length,
contains, among others, the following
specific   recommendations:

That less importance should be placed
upon outside fire-escapes as a means of
exit. Such fire-escapes are described as
"Not a good and safe means of egress,"
and it is urged that they should be rec¬
ognized as a means of exit only in case
a better means of exit cannot be pro¬
vided.                                                   ^,,^

That the proposed bills should be re¬
vised so as to fix definitely as between
the landlord and the tenant the respon¬
sibility for compliance with each of their
provisions.

That greater emphasis should be laid
upon horizontal exits, as superior to
vertical exits; and that in a fireproof
building with non-combustible floor fin¬
ish and trim and with metal or metal-
covered window frames throughout
glazed with wire glass additional occu-
paiicy should be allowed oii any floor
divided by partitions of brick, terra cotta
blocks or concrete four inches thick,
with all openings protected by fireproof
self-closing doors.

That no wire glass should be permit¬
ted in the interior windows in fireproof
enclosures of stairways and elevators,
since wire glass, though it will turn a
flame, will radiate practically all the
heat that is thrown against it. Experts
consulted by the Citizens' Union declare
that with fire on one side of a parti¬
tion or enclosure in which there is wire
glass the heat on the other side is apt
to be so great as to destroy human life.

That the percentage of increased oc¬
cupancy allowed in a building where
automatic sprinklers are installed should
be reduced from fifty to twenty. The
Union says: "The danger of congestion
in the exits is so serious that with the
fifty per cent, increase allowed there
might be great loss of life in case the
sprinkler should fail to extinguish or
greatly retard the fire, as happens in a
small percentage of cases of fires in
sprinklered buildings. Furthermore, the
reduction in insurance rates allowed in
consideration of the installation of auto¬
matic sprinklers is so large an induce¬
ment to install them that it is unneces¬
sary to provide such an additional in¬
ducement as is given by the proposed
bill."