FUTURE OF STEEL

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 145, 21 June 1934, Page 10

FUTURE OF STEEL

ITS USE IN BUILDING

Many .experiments designed to reduce the costs and increase the efficiency of Bteel-franied' buildings are described in the second report, issued recently, of.the Steel -Structures Research Committee of the Department of Scientific and Industrial, Research/ says the "Daily Tele-

graph."

.'.The committee,1' of which Sir Clement Hihdley: is chairman, began'■■ a : five-year programme of investigations,' jnto/ the design of: steel structures; including bridges, in 1929, and its final report and conclusions /..•will be published in September. The British Steel Work' Association is co-operating. ; '■■'' In the presont report, it is stated that as a result o£ complicated' mathematical and experimental investigations it will be possible for the committee "to make suggestions for considerable improvement in efficiency of design."

. Discussing the report with a representative of the "Daily Telegraph,". Mr. C. J. Kavanagh, director, of the British Steel Work Association, said that presentday steel construction was still governed to a large extent by legislation containing many provisions whicli would bo suitable to conditions of about thirty years ago.

"The London County Council," he said, "now has a committee studying the revision of the London .Building Act. When the results of the Steel Structures Research Committee's investigations are available they will be passed on to the i L.C.C.' committee for consideration and incorporation into its regulations.' Eventually we hope there . will Tie a. new national code of steel work practice.

"The steel constituent of an average modern office building is only about 10 per cent, of the total cost. The other 90 per cent, is made up of enclosure walls, fire encasements, and many other items. We have investigated as many as possible of these other constituents, and I believe our final report will: be of fundamental importance' not only for steel-constructed | buildings, but for town planning as well."