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February 14, 1914 RECORD AND GUIDE 32ii AMERICAN SOCIETY OP ENGINEERING CONTRACTORS.—Secretary, J. R. Wemlinger, 11 Broadway, New York. Meets second Thurs¬ day, in New York, except July anu August. INSTITUTE OP OPERATING ENGINEERS. —Regular meeting second Thursday of each month. Engineering Societies Building, New York City. H. B. Collins, secretary, 29 West 39th St. New York City. NATIONAL BUILDERS' SUPPLY ASSOCIA¬ TION.—The members of the National Builders' Supply Association will hold their annual con¬ vention Feb. 17 and 18, with headquarters at the Hotel La Salle, Chicago, 111. THE NEW JERSEY LUMBERMEN'S PRO¬ TECTIVE ASSOCIATION will hold its annual meeting at the Washington Restaurant, Broad st and Military Park. Newark, N. J., Feb. 24. The meeting will be followed by the annual banquet of the association. BALL OF THE FINE ARTS, at the Hotel Astor, on Friday, Feb. 20, under he auspices of Eeaux Arts Architects for the benefit of their education fund tor young draughtsmen. Lloyd Warren, chairman ot the committee in general charge of the b^ll, is particularly anxious that a representative gathering ot artists, sculptors, authors, musicians and others belonging to art organizations shall attend. ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS.-The second an¬ nual midwinter convention ot the American In¬ stitute ot Electrical Engineers will be held in the Engineering Societies Building, New York, February 25, 26 and 27, under the auspices ot the Electrical Power Committee. The general subject of the meeting will be "Electric Power," and each of the sub-committees of this general committee will present papers on the special branch of this subject. MECHANICS' AND TRADERS' EXCHANGE. —At the annual meeting ot the exchange, held February 5, 1914, the following were elected for" the ensuing year: President, Francis N. How¬ land ; vice-president, Prank E. Conover; treas¬ urer, Edwin Outwater; secretary, Charles B. Chedey. The following trustees were also elected: Alfonso B. Pelham, Augustus Meyers, John J. Roberts, Fred Usher, Lewis Harding. Francis M. Weews, and Ronald Taylor. The representatives on the Board of Examiners, Building Department, Lewis Harding and Will¬ iam Crawford. THE NINTH EXHIBITION of the Brooklyn Chapter of the American Institute ot Archi¬ tects will be held at 131 Remsen st. Brooklyn, from Sunday, March 15th, to Saturday, March 28th, inclusive, without charge to the public. The public exliibition will be preceded by the private view, reception and annual dinner ot the society, Saturday, March Mth. The exhibition committee, John fi, Slee, chairman. H. Lincoln Rogers, Carroll H. Pratt, William P. Bannister and John P. L. Voelker, have spared no effort to make this year's exhibition the best iu the history of the society. OBITUARY JOSEPH CAREY, a retired general contractor, died at his home, 615 Vanderbilt av, Brokklyn. N. Y. Monday, Pebruary 9th aged seventy-two years. GEORGE M. CADMUS, aged seventy-five years, died at his home, 36 Washington st, Bloomfleld. N. J., Sunday, Pebruary Sth, after an illness of several months. Mr. Cadmus had been Building Inspector of Bloomfield for over seven years. n D RECENT INCORPORATIONS, THE KESNER REALTY CORP. has been chartered with $20,000 Sapital stock to do a realty and construction business with offlces in Manhattan. The directors are Arthur J. Albert, 1026 Park av, Hoboken, N. J.. John T. Duane, .333 Bleecker st. Brooklyn, and Robert L. Red- field. 341 West 85th st, N. Y. C. Hill, Lock- wood & Redfleld, 35 Nassau st, N, Y. C, are the attorneys. THE INTERSTATE REAL ESTATE Sc BROK¬ ERAGE! CO. is a $100,000 corporation chartered to do a realty construction, brokerage and build¬ ing material business with offlces in New York City. Sol. Zarck, 2732 Brnadway, Roscoe E. Blanehard, and Lvdia L. Blanehard, 230 West lOSth st, are the directors. Karl W. Buck. Esq., 230 West 105th st, is the company's attorney. THE HAYPORD REALTY CORP. has filed papers with a capitalization of $25,000 to do a realty, contracting, brokerage and construction material business with offlces in Manhattan. The incorporators are Raymond B. Maben, 174 Monroe st, Brooklyn, Chas. P. Kramer, 218 Eist 11th St. N. Y. C, and Josephine A. Lane. 512 West 13.=5th St. N. Y. C. Roe & Hayes, 44 Pine st, are the attorneys. CORNELIUS VANDERBILT GENERAL CON¬ TRACTING CO, has been incorporated to do a general contracting, construction and realty business with a capital stock of $10,000, with offlces in Richmond. The directors are Cornelius Vanderbilt, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr.. and Francis F. Leman, all of West New Brighton. Prancla P. Lehman, West New Brighton, is the attorney for the company. JORAL REALTY CO. has been chartered with offices in Manhattan to do a realty and con¬ struction business with $10,000 capital stock. The incorporators are Jos. Rosenzweig. 135 West 123d Bt; Raphael Lyons. Woodmere. L. I., and William Rosenbloom, 214 West 92d St. Jos. Rosenzweig, 99 Nassau st. Is the attorney. SPARKILL REALTY CORP. has filed Incof- poratlon papers with $.30,000 capital stock to do a realtv and construction business with offlces In Manhattan. John Otto, 542 Sth av. N. Y, C, Pred W. Kolb. 765 Ocean av, Brooklyn. Con¬ rad Gaschott, Corona. L. I., and two others. Stover ft Hall. 60 Wall st, N. Y. C, are the attorneys for the company. JAMES MITCHELL has flled Incorporation papers with a capitalization of $40,000 to do a realty, contracting, construction and dealing in building material supply business w'ith offlces In Manhattan. The directors are Jas. Mitchell, 1440 Broadway, Martha L. Berliner, 160 Broad¬ way, and Clinton N. Hernandez, 515 West 184th St. Emanuel S. Cahn, 160 Broadway, is the attorney. GROWING THE VARNISH TREE. Department of Agriculture Is Urging the Cultivation of Chinese Importation. Atter several years of experimenting in the South the Department of Agriculture at Wash¬ ington is ready to advise farmers in the warmer parts of the United States to grow varnish trees and will help start the new crop, which, with care, should bring good profits, even on ordinary land. Last year the United States Imported 5,000,000 gallons ot tung oil, expressed trom the seeds of the Chinese tung or wood-oil tree, an oil which in recent years has had a revolutionary effect on the varnish industry. It makes a high-grade, quick-drying varnish with only slight tendency to crack. The tree which produces this varnish is a native of the Yangtze River region. In some re¬ spects it resembles the catalpa; In the Spring It is covered with large flower clusters before the leaves appear. The tree begins to bear fruit when four of flve years old. The fruit is the size of small apples, each containing four or flve large oil seeds. The yield of these seeds in China ia thirty to seventy-five pounds to the tree,. The oil from the seeds constitutes nearly 25 per cent, of their substance. The apple-like fruit would be worth 25 to 40 cents a bushel, and when the trees are planted twenty feet apart the gross yield from an acre would be, at these prices, $50 to $85 an acre. One eight-year-old tree near Tallahassee, Pla., bofe last year two bushels ot fruit. The cultivation and marketing of the fruit and the manufacture of the oil from the tung tree is said to be a simple process. The distri¬ bution ot several thousand trees in the South in 1906 and 1007 has brought out considerable Information as to the behavior of the trees in the United States. It ha.s proved a rapid grower and withstands a temperature approaching zero. It drops its leaves in the Winter and does not start again until early Spring. Therefore its crop is not likely to be injufed by late frosts. Tung trees have grown and fruited well in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama. Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Florida, and California, and the Government specialists see no reason why the experiments should not result in a profitable Industry, particularly where land is of little value for other crops. The present consumption of tung oil in the United States would require about 40,000 acres of orchards, and the Department of Agriculture points out that the consumption is likely to grow. The department has. on hand for dis¬ tribution to experimenters a limited number of one-year-old trees. What is now wanted to de¬ velop the industry, officials say. is the creation of acre plantations in the hands of private in¬ dividuals. Smokeless Combustion of Coal in Boiler Furnaces. The Bureau of Mines has Just Issued B^illetln 40, which is a reprint of U. S. Geological Sur¬ vey Bulletin 373, revised by Henry' Krelslnger. The authors of the original bulletin were D. T. Randall and H. W. Weeks. The Bureau of Mines has made extended tests to determine the con¬ ditions necessary for the smokeless combus¬ tions of bituminous coal in boiler furnaces. In the investigations of industrial establishment! a study was made of the conditions in 13 of the larger cities in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky. Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New York,. Ohio and Pennsylvania, between 400 and 500 plants being inspected: Siifflctent Ihtofmatlon was col¬ lected to make the data' from 284 plants of value for this report.' In' nearly every city visited coal was supplied from points both In and out of the State, so that although nina States we're visited, the'facts ascprtalned apply to coal from a greater number. The main pur¬ pose ot the inspection was to obtain a better knowledge of the Influence of furnace design, and of the conditions under which combustion takes place, on the production of smok». The summary ot conclusions as Riven in the Bulletin will Indicate what was learned by the tests. A furnace, well designed and operated, will burn manv coals without smoke up to a certain number of pound.s per hour, the rate Tarying with different coals, depending on their chemi¬ cal composition. • If more than this amount Is burned, the efflclency will decrease and smoke will be made, owing to the lack of furnace capacity to supply air and mix gases. Extremely high volatile matter In th» cnnl usually gives low efficiency. The highest effi¬ ciency was obtained when the furnace was run nt low capacity. When the furnace was forced the efficiency decreased. With a hand-fired furnace the best results were obtained when firing was done most fre- quontlv. with the smallest charge. Small sizes of coal burned with less smoke than lar^e sizes, but developed lower capacities. Peat, lignite and sub-hltumlnous coal burned readily In the tvpe of tlle-roofed furnace uaed and developed the ratdd capacity' wlfli prao- tlcallT no smoke. Coals that smoked badlv gave eilTlclencles 8 tiy K ner cent. lower than tltfr coala blirallltr ~WI«S IltOe smoke. 1. _~ J ~ The January Building Slump. As shown by the preliminary report to Bradstreet's journal last week, there was no gain in building expenditures during January, but rather a heavy shrinkage alike from January, 1913, and from De¬ cember of last year. The decrease from December was especially marked, and at New York City the falling off was very heavy because of the large total re¬ corded in December in Manhattan Bor¬ ough. Takifig the country as a whole, the decreases outnumber the increases considerably, but the decrease at New York appears relatively more pro¬ nounced because of the December total having been so large, the heaviest of any month for nearly two years, in fact. The total aggregate expenditures at 125 cities for January was $42,976,618, as against $50,349,048 in January, 1912, and $63,766,048 in December, 1913. There is here shown a decrease of 32.6 per cent, from December and of 14.6 per cent, from January last year. As partially ex¬ plaining this slump, it might be noted that the total building expenditures at New York in January (four boroughs re¬ porting) was $9,168,026, as against $10,- 376,880 in January last year and $21,- 017,173 in December, 1913. Here, it will be seen, the decrease was 56 per cent, from December and 11.6 per cent, from January, 1913. ---------•--------- The Graduate College Group of Prince¬ ton University. (From the Builder, London, England.) One of the weak points of the Ameri¬ can architect was considered to be their inability to understand and carry out Gothic—a failing readily understood when it is remembered that the archi¬ tectural record of the United States covers little more than two centuries, and that, apart from the indigenous re¬ mains of Mexico, Peru and Yiicatan, nothing remains in the two Americas of an earlier date than the Spanish Renais¬ sance buildings of Mexico and South¬ ern America. In these circumstances design of a Classic or Renaissance character is more natural to the American than the Euro¬ pean, and this is also emphasized because of the climatic conditions of the United States, as over the greater part of its territory the summers possess a heat and intensity which we only find in Southern Europe. Excepting for the round-arched Rom¬ anesque, type of architecture, which we may almost say was "invented" by Richardson, and which, after a series of years, was swept away by the .general endeavor to follow classical lines, the buildings of every other type have been few and far between. We see in New York and many of the older towns_ de¬ liberate attempts to copy certain periods, usually with a greater and more pain¬ staking" attempt at accuracy than we find here. But the so-called Gothic of the United States is usually a hard and life¬ less imitation of corresponding work carried out here. 'We have now in Eng¬ land a number of designers who can carry out churches and other buildings which combine considerable freedom of design with much of the spirit which has rendered mediaeval work so interesting. The building which we illustrate here, the Graduate College of Princeton Uni¬ versity, shows that one firm of ai^chitects in America understand the spirit and nature of Gothic design, and we think the accompanying illustrations will be of general interest to our readers. We do not remeinber a finer instance of modern Gothic design in this country, and it is doubly interesting as showing what can be accomolished by education, knowledge, and skill in a land without mediaeval traditio.ns. Mr. Cram believes' that the exponents of Classic traditions are working on wrong lines, and. though we are not with him on this- point, we think the Prince¬ ton College sho~ws tlje absolute mastery of the style whkh he believes in. Messrs. Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson ;.ire also ihe;'architects of the Military -£dleger ateJSTe^ .point—a fpic example -Sf semi-wilttaiy design. ^ -;i.