Chapter 1

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Concrete Construction: Methods and Costs This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title: Concrete Construction: Methods and Costs Author: Halbert Powers Gillette Charles Shattuck Hill Release date: March 16, 2008 [eBook #24855] Language: English Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24855 Credits: Produced by Brian Sogard, Josephine Paolucci and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION: METHODS AND COSTS *** Produced by Brian Sogard, Josephine Paolucci and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION METHODS AND COST BY HALBERT P. GILLETTE _M. Am. Soc. C. E.; M. Am. Inst. M. E._ _Managing Editor, Engineering-Contracting_ AND CHARLES S. HILL, C. E. _Associate Editor, Engineering-Contracting_ NEW YORK AND CHICAGO THE MYRON C. CLARK PUBLISHING CO. 1908 COPYRIGHT. 1908 BY THE MYRON C. CLARK PUBLISHING CO. Transcriber's note: For Text: A word surrounded by a cedilla such as ~this~ signifies that the word is bolded in the text. A word surrounded by underscores like _this_ signifies the word is italics in the text. The italic and bold markup for single italized letters (such as variables in equations) and "foreign" abbreviations are deleted for easier reading. For numbers and equations: Parentheses have been added to clarify fractions. Underscores before bracketed numbers in equations denote a subscript. Superscripts are designated with a caret and brackets, e.g. 11.1^{3} is 11.1 to the third power. Greek letters in equations are translated to their English version. Minor typos have been corrected. PREFACE. How best to perform construction work and what it will cost for materials, labor, plant and general expenses are matters of vital interest to engineers and contractors. This book is a treatise on the methods and cost of concrete construction. No attempt has been made to present the subject of cement testing which is already covered by Mr. W. Purves Taylor's excellent book, nor to discuss the physical properties of cements and concrete, as they are discussed by Falk and by Sabin, nor to consider reinforced concrete design as do Turneaure and Maurer or Buel and Hill, nor to present a general treatise on cements, mortars and concrete construction like that of Reid or of Taylor and Thompson. On the contrary, the authors have handled the subject of concrete construction solely from the viewpoint of the builder of concrete structures. By doing this they have been able to crowd a great amount of detailed information on methods and costs of concrete construction into a volume of moderate size. Though the special information contained in the book is of most particular assistance to the contractor or engineer engaged in the actual work of making and placing concrete, it is believed that it will also prove highly useful to the designing engineer and to the architect. It seems plain that no designer of concrete structures can be a really good designer without having a profound knowledge of methods of construction and of detailed costs. This book, it is believed, gives these methods and cost data in greater number and more thoroughly analyzed than they can be found elsewhere in engineering literature. The costs and other facts contained in the book have been collected from a multitude of sources, from the engineering journals, from the transactions of the engineering societies, from Government Reports and from the personal records of the authors and of other engineers and contractors. It is but fair to say that the great bulk of the matter contained in the book, though portions of it have appeared previously in other forms in the authors' contributions to the technical press, was collected and worked up originally by the authors. Where this has not been the case the original data have been added to and re-analyzed by the authors. Under these circumstances it has been impracticable to give specific credit in the pages of the book to every source from which the authors have drawn aid. They wish here to acknowledge, therefore, the help secured from many engineers and contractors, from the volumes of Engineering News, Engineering Record and Engineering-Contracting, and from the Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the proceedings and papers of various other civil engineering societies and organizations of concrete workers. The work done by these journals and societies in gathering and publishing information on concrete construction is of great and enduring value and deserves full acknowledgment. In answer to any possible inquiry as to the relative parts of the work done by the two authors in preparing this book, they will answer that it has been truly the labor of both in every part. H. P. G. C. S. H. Chicago, Ill., April 15, 1908. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE