Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/757

 Popular Science Mont/il//

��No scaffolds

��those for the partitions may be quickly trued up and alined with each other.

Meanwhile, the supports are being braced toget her by cross- pieces, as holes have been left in them all, where the horizontal beams may be secured. Short members are placed between the up- rights so as to permit the introduction of doors and windows, the frames of which can be wired in place.

At the same time workmen standing on stepladders put the raft- ers in position, making them fast with pegs and wire, just as the other beams have been fastened are required.

High rib lath is then attached to the sides and spread on the roof and firmly bound down. For the walls two areas of wire web or lath may be used, so as to give further stability. The metal meshes are then plastered from within and as soon as the plaster has set sufficiently, stucco is applied to the outside wall with a cement gun. Because of the air spaces, walls of this character have a considerable advantage over those of the poured con- crete variety which often sweat and give the tenants of the house a sense of chill. The roof is also of stucco, handled in the same manner as that composing the walls. The portion of the concrete foundations rising above the earth serves as a base for floor joists and also incloses an air-cham- ber underfoot. Here then we have a fire- proof, vermin-proof, rodent-proof and damp-proof structure.

Although these new models may be built from standardized parts, pleasing and attractive variations may be made by adding a gable here and there or altering the pitch of a roof. These one-story cottages can be erected for one family, for two or for three families, so that a village of them would not be cursed by sameness. The architect has had forty variations of the idea worked out in his drafting room. Further antidotes to monotony may be pro\'ided by painting the exterior stucco walls in different

��r

�� ���Trenches are aug by machine, and then the main sup- porting pillars are all dropped in together with a cradle

��tints, and also by devising striking color schemes for the shutters, the doors and the roofs, so that there may be no two houses together which appear to be e.\- actly alike. Here the paint gun serves both beauty and economy.

The cost of these dwellings can be kept very low, in the opinion of the in- ventor, because they can be built by unskilled labor under the direction of skilled foremen. Laborers whose wages would be only $2.25 to $2.50 a day could do work for which in ordinary construc- tion the services of carpenters and masons at from $5 to $7 a day would be required.

Houses of this type, exclusive of equipment, could be erected, according to this plan, within tw^o weeks of the time the trench digging machine went into action and under favorable conditions only one week would be required.

The installation of a general steam or electrical heating system would be pro- vided for long in advance, or if stoves are used, the needed warmth would be readily obtained. Lighting and plumbing, al- though requiring the services of skilled men, could be reduced to the simplest terms.

One-family houses built under these specifications can be erected at from $700 to $1,000 each, including the cost of land in the average new industrial community. These standardized dwellings, the unit of construction, consist of a living room, a kitchen, dining-room, two bedrooms and

��r41

�� �