NOTES.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18369, 30 April 1925, Page 4

NOTES.

(By Builder.) "Builder" invite's contributions from readers oil any matter of interest which they might like to propose. Correspondence on subjects of interest will also be accepted.

Messrs Da we and "Willis, architects, are now calling for tenders for the erection in reinforced concrete of the proposed new Concert Hall and Municipal Theatre in Manchest-er street. Tenders will close at 4 p.m. on May 27th. Tlio use of electric hells has been discarded in tho renovation of an important hotel in Birmingham, livery bedroom is provided with an electric button-push, but when the button is pressed a lamp merely lights -up on an indicator board in the central hall. Someone is always in attendance, and a maid or waiter is dispatelied to tho room at once. The lamp remains alight on the indicator board until the maid has actually gone to the room, as tho light can only bo switched off in tho room, itself. Porters and lift attendants are all summoned in the same way, and there is not a bell in the hotel. Tho making of 5,000,000,000 bricks annually from tho 12,000,000 tons of furnace clinker and ashes produced yearly in Great Britain was ed by Mr W. H. Casmev in a recent lecture at the Huddersfield Technical Institute. "Splendid bricks can be produced," said Mr Casmey, "by grinding the clinker and ashes and mixing theni with lime and water. The bricks arc then run into a steel chamber and subjected to steam pressure. After six hours they are ready for use. The demand for bricks at the present time is extraordinary," said Mr Dudley, the secretary of tho National Federation of House Builders. "Some of our members have had to use foreign bricks becauso of the difficulty in certain parts of the country in obtaining British bricks. Mr Casmey's proposal deserves to bo most carefully gone into." The proposed Now York Cathedral, in its main conception, apy-tirently will follow traditional lines, but two points of detail are decidedly modern—not to say American. One is that tho sculptured figures adorning the choir show representative _of tho twenty centuries of the Christian era--one for,each, 'lliey arc: (1) St. laul, (2) Justin Martyr, (.3) Clement ot Alexandria. (4) A than asms, (5) Augustine of Hippo, (6) St. Benedict, (.) Gregory th& Great, (8) Charles iVlarte—(9) Charlemagne, (10) Alfred th® Great. (11) Godfrey of Bouillon, (12 St. Bernard. (13) St. .Francis ot Assisi, (14) John AVyclif, (15) Columbus, (1G) Archbishop Cranmer, (17) Shakespeare, (18) George Washington, (VJ) Abraham Lincoln. For the twentieth century thero is an uncarved bloc!;. This seems a liappy idea. But mush more questionable is the ■ proposed Sportsman's Corner, where sculptural and stained glass representations aro to appear of present-day heroes of outdoor 'sports. Thousands of visitors to Ghent will remember the wonderful Van J'jJ ok picture. "The Adoration of the Lamb, in the Cathedral. An interesting story of tho way this famous art treasuio was saved during the war is given by a correspondent of tho ''lronmonger, who writes from Ghent: "When the Germans wero in Ghent trying to steal every possible valuable, Canon \ an den Gheyn, to whoso caro all tho treasures of the Cathedral" had been committed for many years, decided to save tho 'Acneaii'Mystique' of Van Jiyelr Bros. He~took as his confidants two brother?, Frans and Henri' Coppejans, well- . known artists in our city. Between them they worked out a plan, which tliev submitted to Charles Coppejans, another brother, who is an artist smith. The four men' in full daylight filled) an open ran with scran iron, old Hue pipes, and a lot of other worthless, odds and ends, and Mr Charles Coppejans, in dirty workman's clothes, himself conveyed tho van from tho Cathedral to a safe snot in the town, which will never bo disclosed. Tho rubbish concealed tho valuable pictures, which, as you know, were thus saved from destruction. Mr Charles Coppejans risked his life and tho lives of his two "brothers, and his servicoihas since been recognised by our Government." In a recent lecture at tho Central School of Arts and Crafts, Sir Banister Fletcher outlined tho history of the Tower of London, and the part it played in national life. There -were, ho said, evidences that a Celtic fort, a Roman and a Saxon stronghold successively occupied tho site on which William the Conqueror began tho building of tho Norman keep. Thus Celt. Roman, Saxon and Norman all agreed as to tho strong strategic value of this position on Thames-side, where the castle of tho Conqueror rose foursquare and sheer from the rising ground, to control tho river traffic, to oppose anv hostilo fleet, and also to 'overawe tlia citizens of his newlyacquired capital. Here, too, the old. Roman city wall. which was senior to tho Norman castle by somo 800 yearfi, ran down to the riiver, and the thrifty Norman builders used this wall on tho east as part of tho castle fortifications, i Tlio old Tower had served many purposes. It had been a fortress, palace, and prison; it had housed the Royal mint. Stato records, ancient armour, and Crown jewels. It had been a military storehouse, an army clothing depot,. an arsenal and a barracks — always up to dato and always in active service.