The girders were the same depth as the beams. For
its depth the writer found this system to be the strongest and most
economical of those investigated.

E.P. GOODRICH, M. AM. SOC. C. E.--The speaker heartily concurs with the
author as to the large number of makeshifts constantly used by a
majority of engineers and other practitioners who design and construct
work in reinforced concrete. It is exceedingly difficult for the human
mind to grasp new ideas without associating them with others in past
experience, but this association is apt to clothe the new idea (as the
author suggests) in garments which are often worse than
"swaddling-bands," and often go far toward strangling proper growth.

While the speaker cannot concur with equal ardor with regard to all the
author's points, still in many, he is believed to be well grounded in
his criticism. Such is the case with regard to the first point
mentioned--that of the use of bends of large radius where the main
tension rods are bent so as to assist in the resistance of diagonal
tensile stresses.

As to the second point, provided proper anchorage is secured in the top
concrete for the rod marked 3 in Fig. 1, the speaker cannot see why the
concrete beneath such anchorage over the support does not act exactly
like the end post of a queen-post truss. Nor can he understand the
author's statement that:

"A reinforcing rod in a concrete beam receives its stress by
increments imparted by the grip of the concrete; but these
increments can only be imparted where the tendency of the concrete
is to stretch."

The latter part of this quotation has reference to the point questioned
by the speaker. In fact, the remainder of the paragraph from which this
quotation is taken seems to be open to grave question, no reason being
evident for not carrying out the analogy of the queen-post truss to the
extreme. Along this line, it is a well-known fact that the bottom chords
in queen-post trusses are useless, as far as resistance to tension is
concerned. The speaker concurs, however, in the author's criticism as to
the lack of anchorage usually found in most reinforcing rods,
particularly those of the type mentioned in the author's second point.

This matter of end anchorage is also referred to in the third point, and
is fully concurred in by the speaker, who also concurs in the criticism
of the arrangement of the reinforcing rods in the counterforts found in
many retain