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planned extensive building or engineering construction work and where no cement plants now exist.

8. The best methods for mixing and utilizing the various constituent materials locally available for use in Government construction.

The kinds and forms of reinforcement for concrete and the best methods of applying such reinforcements to secure the greatest strength in compression, tension, shear, etc., in reinforced concrete beams, columns, floor slabs, etc.

10. Influence of acids, oils, salts, and other foreign materials, long-continued strain, or electric currents on the permanence of the steel, in reinforced concrete.

11. An investigation of clays and clay products needed in Government work, and the most efficient methods of testing clays and clay products.

12. An investigation into building stones available near the building centers in the various parts of the country where the Government is planning extensive building or construction work.

13. The establishment of working stresses for various structural materials needed by the Government in its buildings.

These investigations are so planned as to make use of and correlate all similar work by others, either in State testing laboratories of the various universities, or through agencies of the engineering societies and their joint committees, etc., all this work with a view of avoiding all unnecessary duplication and securing thereby the wisest expenditure of all funds available for such investigations from whatever source.

The work in the past has been confined largely to the constituent materials of concrete and the concrete itself, the funds available being too limited to admit of a more rapid extension of this work to other structural materials, and this being the material concerning which there was the greatest demand for information by the various branches of the Government service. During the next fiscal year, however, it is proposed to take up the additional subjects heretofore neglected.

Until recently the results obtained from the investigation of structural materials by the Geological Survey have seemed to be slow in forthcoming. The obvious reason therefor is the fact that elaborate and expensive testing apparatus had to be designed, purchased, and installed. After nearly a year of preparation there was a further delay in securing results, due to the necessity of giving the test pieces of cement, mortar, and concrete sufficient time in which to season for the requisite 7-day, 28-day, 3, 6, 12, 18, and 24 month testing periods. Finally, considerable time has been required for the digestion of the results of the tests, due to the involved computations necessary in order that the vast number of tests made might be intelligently discussed. Happily these inaugurating periods of preparation have, in a measure, passed, and the results are now rapidly forthcoming.

A FEW GENERAL RESULTS.

While the time since the inauguration of this work has been entirely too short to warrant a serious questioning as to the resulting money returns to the Government, yet a few general beneficial results are mentioned below.

Reconnaissance survey has been made of the supply of constituent materials near several building centers and locations for engineering construction, as per requests from the Supervising Architect, Corps of Engineers, United States Army, United States Reclamation Service, and other branches of the Government service. This survey indicates clearly where the Government may find these materials most convenient and economically available for the construction of public buildings and for engineering works.

Special tests of more than 1,000 plain and reenforced concrete beams, floor slabs, columns, etc., are demonstrating the proper method of proportioning the constituent materials and of placing the reenforcing and the amount thereof to secure for each group of materials locally available the most efficient and economical results for the building and engineering construction work of the Government. These tests indicate the possibility of reducing the amount of materials necessary and of thereby producing economies of upward of 10 per cent in design of public buildings and structures, using wholly or in part reenforced concrete. It is well known that through present lack of knowledge of behavior of concrete and reenforced concrete, high factors of safety involving the use of extensive quantities of material are now necessary in designing structures of these materials. As a single illustration of how these investigations, conducted to meet the needs of the General Government, may incidentally be of service to the engineering profession or to State or municipal governments, it may be mentioned that the investigations of the sands and gravels in the vicinity of Louisville, for the use of the Supervising Architect of the Treasury Department and the Corps of Engineers of the Army, are said by the engineers in charge of the new sewer system for that city to have saved the city in the construction work not less than $100,000.

NUMBER OF TESTS MADE.

There have been made at the structural materials testing laboratory more than 39,300 separate test pieces, upon which nearly 53.000 tests have been made, and in connection with the study of which over 10,400 chemical determinations have been made. Of these tests nearly 27,800 have been of the constituent materials of concrete, including tensile tests of cement briquets, compression tests of cylinders and cubes, and transverse tests of various specimens, etc.

There have been made nearly 1,100 beams of concrete or reenforced concrete, each 13 feet long and 8 by 11 inches in cross section. There have been made a total of over 2,500 tests in connection with the investigation of the behavior of these beams. Tests have been made on $70 of these beams, or probably more than double the entire number that has been made in other laboratories in this country during a period of more than fifteen years.

In the section of building blocks, 2,200 blocks have been tested. There have also been tested over 900 pieces of concrete for permeability and shear. Physical tests have been made to the number of nearly 13,000, tests of steel for reinforcement to the number of 3,500, and tests to determine fire-resisting qualities of various building materials have been made on 30 special panels.

PUBLICATION OF RESULTS

The results of this work have already appeared in three important bulletins, for which the demand far exceeded the supply: (1) Describing the effects of the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire; (2) setting forth in detail the Organization, Equipment, and Method of Testing at the Structural Materials Laboratory at St. Louis, and (3) giving the Results of 25,000 Tests of Constituent Materials of Concrete. This latter is probably the most extensive series of tests of this kind ever undertaken, and probably exceeds in number all the tests of this nature heretofore made in this country.

There is in course of publication a bulletin giving the Results of Tests with 108 Plain Concrete Beams, which should be ready for issuance within a few weeks. In addition to this bulletin, there are in preparation the following, which will shortly be ready for publication, viz: A bulletin giving the Results of the Fire Tests of 30 Panels of Various Building Materials; a bulletin giving the Results of the Tests made in 1905 at Various Colleges and Universities; a bulletin giving the Results of Tests of 252 Reinforced Concrete Beams; another outlining Results of Tests of Series of 90 Reinforced Concrete Beams; and, finally, bulletins setting forth the Results of Tests of Mortar Building Blocks, the Results of Tests of Reinforced Concrete Slabs, and the Results of Additional Tests of Constituent Materials of Concrete.

The above are considered in a measure as preliminary statements of immediate results. They will be followed as promptly as possible with other bulletins in which the results of all the tests mentioned on any special phase of the subject will be brought together, carefully digested, and rendered more easily available for use of engineers, architects, and builders.

NATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD AND CONSULTING ENGINEERS.

The plans for the investigation of fuels and structural materials as now being conducted by the Technologic Branch of the United States Geological Survey are, before being decided upon by the Director of the Survey, submitted for consideration to a national advisory board, consisting of representatives from the national engineering societies and allied organizations, who were invited by President Roosevelt to serve along with the chiefs of the several Government bureaus having charge of public works and large fuel purchases to give advice concerning these investigations.

The appointment of this national advisory board grew out of a wish on the part of the President, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Director of the Geological Survey not only that the appropriations for these investigations be expended in a manner most beneficial to the several branches of the Government service and without duplication of work well done elsewhere, but also that the investigations should be conducted in such manner as to make the results of the greatest possible benefit to the general public.

For cooperation in planning and conducting these investigations, the committee secured the services of Prof. N. W. Lord, of the University of Ohio, as chief chemist; Prof. L. P. Breckenridge, of the

University of Illinois, consulting engineer in charge of the steaming tests, and Prof. R. H. Fernald, of Washington University, St. Louis, as consulting engineer in charge of the producer-gas investigations. To the good advice and experience of these experts, as well as to the good work and wide acquaintance with the coal fields of the country on the part of Messrs. Parker and Campbell, of the committee, must be attributed a large share of the success attained.

Until a year ago the fuel-testing plant and the structural materials laboratories of the Government were located in St. Louis, Mo. The structural material tests are still conducted in St. Louis, but last year the fuel-testing plant was removed to Norfolk, Va. The coking and washery plant was at the same time removed to Denver, Colo., where the coals of the West are being tested, especially for coking purposes.

Chemical laboratories are being operated temporarily in Columbus, Ohio; Pittsburg, Pa.; Berkeley, Cal., and in the Geological Survey office in Washington, the latter for the special analyses of fuels purchased by the Government.

O

1st Session.

No. 465.

COMPLIANCE OF RAILROADS ENGAGED IN INTERSTATE COMMERCE WITH COMMODITIES CLAUSE OF ACT TO REGULATE COMMERCE.

LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN OF THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION, TRANSMITTING, PURSUANT TO SENATE RESOLUTION, CERTAIN INFORMATION RELATING TO THE COMPLIANCE BY RAILROADS ENGAGED IN INTERSTATE COMMERCE WITH PARAGRAPH 5 OF THE AMENDED SECTION 1 OF THE ACT TO REGULATE COMMERCE, COMMONLY KNOWN AS THE "COMMODITIES CLAUSE."

MAY 8, 1908.-Ordered to be printed and to lie on the table.

To the Senate:

INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION,
Washington, May 8, 1908.

The Interstate Commerce Commission has the honor to submit the following in response to the resolution of the Senate adopted May 6, 1908, directing the Commission to furnish certain information relating to the compliance by railroads engaged in interstate commerce with paragraph 5 of the amended section 1 of the act to regulate commerce, commonly known as the "commodities clause:"

First. This provision by its terms became effective "from and after May 1, 1908," or about a week ago. The Commission has no official knowledge or information as to whether or not, since the date mentioned, railroads engaged in interstate commerce have complied with the provision in question, but believes from common report that they have not done so, except perhaps in a few instances, and excepting also those railroads, comprising probably the greater part of the whole number, which prior to May 1, 1908, were not engaged in transportation now made unlawful by the commodities clause. It will be observed that railroads are not required to make any report to the Commission upon this subject, nor has the Commission any means of ascertaining the facts in regard to compliance or noncompliance with the provision referred to, by railroads generally or by any particular railroad, without conducting an investigation for that purpose. Such an investigation the Commission has not yet been able to undertake.

Second. The Commission has no knowledge or information whatever of any agreement, arrangement, or understanding between railroad companies and the authorities charged with the duty of enforcing said provision, or otherwise, whereby or on account of which said. railroad companies or any of them are to have immunity from punishment for violations of the commodities provision, and therefore can furnish no information upon that subject.

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