These are the things that the enthusiasts at all the concrete shows say, but they admit that there are certain kinds of construction in which concrete is not as effective as steel or granite. Also they say that the use of reinforced concrete requires the highest type of engineering skill, and a complete understanding of the technicalities of the subject.
One of the places where we know concrete best is in pavements and sidewalks, and several of the booths exhibited samples of such work. To show its strength the men in charge piled on weights, struck the slabs with hammers, or subjected them to any kind of hard usage suggested by the crowd. Then, too, there were sections of concrete buildings, and exhibitions of various systems of reinforced concrete construction. With these there were concrete chimneys, portable concrete garages, railroad ties, and what not.
"Oh, but look here," broke out the boy as he led his older friend about. "Here's a perfect model of a house."
"Yes," answered the man, "that is a model of the famous Edison poured cement, or 'one-piece' house, the latest invention of our great American inventor."
There the little building stood, perfect in every way, surrounded by a model concrete wall, a beautiful lawn, and approached by fine concrete walks and driveways.
"This model," explained the scientist, "represents what Thomas A. Edison is trying to get time to accomplish for workingmen and their families. Instead of being built piece by piece, the house is supposed to be made all at one time by pouring the concrete into a complete set of moulds. This house is so interesting that we shall look at it much closer a little later on."
"And here," said the boy; "what's this?"
He had paused before a perfect model of the Gatun locks of the Panama Canal, where the world's greatest work in concrete, or any other kind of masonry, is being carried on. The work is greater than the Pyramids of Egypt or the Great Wall of China. Though we will not bother ourselves much with figures, it will give an idea of the size of the job on the canal when we realize that it will require 8,000,000 cubic yards of concrete, and more then 900,000 tons of Portland cement.
In all there will be six great locks for the transportation of our ships from the Atlantic to the Pacific and back. Three of these locks are at Gatun on the Atlantic side of the canal, one at Pedro Miguel, and two at Miraflores. Each lock will be 1,000 feet long, 110 feet wide, and 45 feet deep—and practically all of this is done with concrete. So massive is most of the work that steel reinforcement is only necessary in certain parts of the project. The problem of sinking the great retaining walls to bedrock, and making them strong enough to hold in the face of the tremendous floods of the Chagres River, alone makes one of the most stupendous engineering works ever undertaken by man. Were it not for the use of concrete the cost of the work would be so great as to make it almost impossible of accomplishment.
The model of the Gatun locks showed the boy everything, just as it will be when the canal is opened for traffic in 1913. There was the wide Gatun lake, surrounded by the tropical forests, the great Gatun dam, and the series of locks in one solid mass of concrete. These locks when completed will be 3,800 feet long, and their tremendous height and thickness can be seen from the pictures of the work as it is actually being carried on. In the model there were perfect little ships on the lake and going through the locks.