NOTES.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20084, 13 November 1930, Page 4

NOTES.

Mum *>' the internal wuri in the Municipal Electricity Department's new sub-station in tho Halton street building is completed, tho root' has been constructed, and the exterior is being plastered. The main portion of tho Grant's road sub-station is completed. Work is in progress on the floor, and exterior plastering.

The official opening of tho new Auckland Railway Station has been advanced two days, owing to the inability of the Minister for Railways, the Hon. W. A. Veitch. to go to Auckland on the day originally fixed, Wednesday, November 26th. 'I be ceremony will take place on Monday, November 24th. The station will be opened for traffic on Sunday, November 16th.

The highest skyscraper in Europe soon will bo completed at Antwerp, Belgium. It will be known as the Volksbank de Louvain, and will bo twenty-eight storeys high, almost double the height of buildings nt Maddrid and Hamburg, which formerly wero the highest commercial structures. The framework was completed in four months, while tho frame of the usual eight-storev Continental building requires a year for its construction. Skyscrapers aro outlawed in London and Paris for aesthetic reasons, and also because Paris ia built on sand.

"Mehil wood,'' a new building material, has been devised by Gorman chemists, according to Mr Walter Roth. Cotlien correspondent of the American Chemical Society. Its density is greater than that of wood, its power of swelling and its combustibility are very small, and its capability of being wrought is the same as that of wood, it is said. "Thin new compound material of construction," the correspondent adds, "consists of wood which lias been blended with low fusing point metals, such as lead, tin. or alloys, while still retaining its structure. According to tho procedure worked out in the Kaiser Whilhelm Institut fur Eisenforschung at Dusseldorf, the metallisation of the wood can be conducted so that, as desired, the canal systems and medullary rays of the wood can be partially or entirely filled .with metal. For this purpose, the wood is dried as much as possible, immersed in the liquid metal, and then subjected to a moderate pressure in a closed vessel."

The Town Planning Committee reported to the City Council on Monday evening:—-An application has been received for the Council's approval ot the subdivision of a property situated at No. 56 Huxley street. Sydenham, and owned by Mr W. Kilday. The property originally contained 4u perches, but owintj to the construction of a footpa'.h in Hux.ey stree. manv years ago the land \vaa reduced to 38 perches. Tho owner now de sires to subdivide the property into twr> sections, each , containing iu perches, which is one. perch less than the area required l>v the City bylaws. In view of the manner m whtcn the section was reduced, the _ oonmutr teo is of opinion that hardship would be imposed by refusing to approve or the subdivision, and it is therefore recommended that, under the authority contained in Section 143 of By-liuw No. 15, full compliance with the oylaw relating to the size of sections he not insisted upon. The report was adopted.

Submitting the report of tho Hobart Master Builders' Association at the annua! conference of tho Master Builders Federation of Australia, held in the lafimanian capital last month, Mr D. HTait said there had been vory little alteration so far as wages were concerned during the year. Carpenters and builders' labourers wore working under federal awards, and wero subject to quarterly adjustment. Tho rates were:— Joiners, £5 10b 6d per week; cnrpeiuers, 2s 73d per hour; builders' labourers, 2s 2d per hour. The rate tor bricklayers, plasterers, and painters, who worked under State u'wai'da, was 2s 5d an hour. There was no award fpr masons.

The report of tho Master Builders' and Contractors' Association of West Australia, presented by Mr C. V/. Amott. stated that the hours worked wore 44 por week of six days. The Association had strictly adhered to that, and practically all city work was carried out on that baflip. In the suburbs, on villa work, "where piecework was tho custom, the 44. hours were worked in five days. Agreements and arbitration awards provided for six working days. The Association was of the opinion that tho 44 hours working week was a huge incubus on the building trade, entaillug; a large additional cost on buildings, and in many respects affecting other callings.

A good "word .for the speculative builder was said at tho conference by I Mr I£. J. Reynolds, who rend a paper dealing with this type of construction. He said that a skilful speculative builder to-day was more than «n expert Constructor. He was a constructive thinker, inventor, and pioneer. Many suburbs owed their being to speculative building. The speculative builder had become a dominant factor hi the building industry, although not perhaps in the same relationship as previously 111 this country (Tasmania) everything was open to the enterprising, and the business of the speculative builder as now conducted was no exception to the general laws of perfect liberty and action.

Not all troubles with planes, a British technical writer remarks, are caused by the irons, although these roust, of course, be in proper condition. Try a straight edge on the sole of the smothinp plane both lengthways and Across; if at nil hollow or round select a perfectly flat surface and place a sheet of medium sandpaper on it, then knocking the plane-iron clear of the face-of the plane, rub the plane on the sandpaper till it shows a fit with the straight edge; if this is done carefully, lit will repay for the trouble t;ken. Ihe jack pliUie and trying plane should also be hKiked to, but these are best planed and should be tested for being put of twist on the sole. Tho back iron should be kept bright on the front part, as if allowed to get rusty or gummed up with resin from the wood being planed. Unnecessary friction _is caused to the free passage of shaviitgs. This may seem a small matter, but the writer saw a refractory smoothing plane cured by tb'.s niir<pte expedient. Tho back iron slv uid also fit the cutting or front irp:, if shavings are found to be coining '-e----tween the two, the hack iron should be rubbed down <-,n the oilstone till a close fit is ohtqjped. The oilstone should be looked to as well; if hollow either in length or breadth, it should be rubbed down on a coarse flagstene, Utlng wntdr as a lubricant, until a straight, surface is secured, as a plane iron cannot be properly sharpened on an oilstone that is not itself true.