REAL ESTATE.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 211, 5 September 1924, Page 11

REAL ESTATE.

LAND AND BUILDINGS.

It is an interesting fact that brickmaking, the most ancient of all the industries producing manufactured building materials, is to-day one of the basic industries of the United States. It is difficult to destroy a brick. Vast quantities of the bricks made in the early days of the industry may still be found on the sites -of the ruined cities of antiquity. Bricks made now-a-days are composed of exactly the same material and manufactured according to the same principles as the ancient product. The composite price of brick all over the United States works out today at a little over £3 per 1000. Brick, therefore, is a manufactured- article weighing from 41b to olb, costing about Id, and capable of giving several thousand years of service. It is the cheapest manufactured material on the market. I _ In the Woohvorth Building, New York, which is to-day the world's tallest skyscraper, approximately a million pounds of copper was used for roofings, lifts, pipes, and interior decorations. Probably few jeople realise the numerous uses to which copper can be put. But one thing is certain. If the supply failed we should soon be without electric light and bells, telephones, electric trains and tramcars—to say nothing of copper coinage! At first glance the amount of copper used in the building trade, in comparison with the quantities of iron and steel would seem to be negligible; but when one takes into consideration the fact that every motor-car has anything from 101b to 2001b of tlie metal in its composition, and that there are j about 30001b in every railway engine, one can appreciate the extent to which the demand for it is increasing.

i A Norwegian inventor has, after many years of experiment, discovered a method of making artificial wood. A mixture consisting of sawdust, together with chalk and some chemicals, is subjected to . heavy pressure, and the result is a substance possessing all the qualities of timber. Its specific gravity is the same as that of genuine wood, its hardness the same as that of oak. It can be planed, sawed, bored, nailed, painted, stained, or polished, arid submitted to every process of carpentry or manufacture to which real wood is subjected. It will not deteriorate in water, and, on account of the chemicals it contains, is impervious to rot. Moreover, it only burns at a temperature very much higher than that at which real wood catches fire.

Metals very often suffer from fatigue. Perhaps you may have noticed this in your own razor. The edge sometimes becomes dull and the most careful stropping fails to improve it. If the razor be Tested for a week or so, however, the steel will regain its temper. Stone, too, falls ill at times. Paints have to be used to cure the malady but not always with success. In these days the architect has at his command certain medicinal liquids which are squirted on to the decaying stone, making the surface hard and weatherproof. Steel can be poisoned. Take two steel bars and heat them red hot. Allow one to cool in air and the other to cool in hydrogen. The latter will be found to be poisoned and unfit for use. ''•„•■-■

A deputation from the Birmingham Town Council waited on the Miu : stcr of Health last month and urged that some means should be found for preventing the holding-up of empty houses for sale, either by charging the owners with rates even "when they are empty or "by giving the local authority furtucr powers to take them over compulsorily by purchase or lease. The Minister, Mr. John Wheatley, replied that he had every sympathy with the object in view, but he was afraid that, at any rate as far as the rating proposals were concerned, it was unattainable, as it would require legislation of an important and contentious nature, which there would be no chance of getting through this year. There were also difficult'es in the way of giving local authorities the suggested powers outside the rating proposals in regard to empty houses. Among other reasons there was the difficulty of deciding whether houses were being legitimately kept empty or not.

William of Orange is given the credit for introducing wall paper to England. It was first made in sheets, but after a lapse of 100 years rolls were found more convenient. Most of the papers in use are printed by machinery, but some are still printed by hand, and others painted. The price of a paper depends upon the' quality of material and also upon the printing. As a rule very cheap papers have no background, so that it is the ground rather than tho pattern that indicates quality. New patterns are brought out every season by the makers. British wallpapers are usually twelve yards long and twenty one inches wide, but French papers are only nine yards long and eighteen inches wide; a paperhanger generally allows one roll in seven for waste. Bathroom papers are usually printed in oil colours or in washable distemper; and there are now some beautiful wall coverings printed on cotton, which is used as a substitute for silk tapestry.