Was that a contractor did
Cheops out of several millions?
Or that Joseph’s sudden rise
To Comptroller of Supplies
Was a fraud of monstrous size
On King Pharaoh’s swart civilians?
The mere duration of the pyramids, undamaged except by the hand of man, is an answer to such a charge; and in the Britannica article Pyramid the reader will find (Vol. 22, p. 683) that even where the hidden material was rubbly or of mud bricks, “the casings were not a mere veneer, but were of massive blocks, usually greater in thickness than in height”—in other words, that the construction was of the best character.
But the builder must be a far better-informed man under present conditions than ever before. To give him the necessary information there is a large and growing literature ranging from builders’ and contractors’ pocket manuals to special periodicals. This literature is expensive, and like all special literature puts the intending purchaser in a difficult position, for if he buys it all, he must pay much more than the returns from his purchase warrant, and he will then have to read it all and use his own judgment in deciding what is best. If he does not buy all, he must be an expert, not merely in every branch of his business but in the bibliography of his business, to make a wise selection,—and if he is sufficiently expert for this he will probably need no such library. But he will find, to a remarkable degree, the best of all that there is in such special literature in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, with the strongest assurance of its being authoritative, and with the certainty that for an outlay, small in comparison with what he would make for such special information elsewhere, he will get the guidance that he needs for his work and also information as excellent on any other subject that he or any member of his family may wish to pursue.
The key or foundation article for the builder or contractor is Building (Vol. 4, p. 762), by James Bartlett, lecturer on construction, etc., King’s College, London, who has contributed other articles on related topics. The article deals with:
The relation of building to architecture and with building laws and special types of plans according to local governmental requirements