onstruction so essentially practical. To serve this purpose,
stirrups should be made as shown in Plate III. They should be restrained
in some manner from moving when the concrete strikes them. A very good
way of accomplishing this is to string them on a longitudinal rod,
nested in the bend at the upper end. Mr. Godfrey, in his advocacy of
bowstring bars anchored with washers and nuts at the ends, fails to
indicate how they shall be placed. The writer, from experience in
placing steel, thinks that it would be very difficult, if not
impractical, to place them in this manner; but let a saddle of U-bars be
provided, and the problem is easy.

(_2_).--Stirrups serve also as a tie, to knit the stem of the beam to
its flange--the superimposed slab. The latter, at best, is not too well
attached to the stem by the adhesion of the concrete alone, unassisted
by the steel. T-beams are used very generally, because their
construction has the sanction of common sense, it being impossible to
cast stem and slab so that there will be the same strength in the plane
at the junction of the two as elsewhere, on account of the certainty of
unevenness in settlement, due to the disproportion in their depth. There
is also the likelihood that, in spite of specifications to the contrary,
there will be a time interval between the pouring of the two parts, and
thus a plane of weakness, where, unfortunately, the forces tending to
produce sliding of the upper part of the beam on the lower (horizontal
shear) are a maximum. To offset this tendency, therefore, it is
necessary to have a certain amount of vertical steel, disposed so as to
pass around and under the main reinforcing members and reach well up
into the flange (the slab), thus getting a grip therein of no mean
security. The hooking of the U-bars, as shown in Plate III, affords a
very effective grip in the concrete of the slab, and this is still
further enhanced by the distributing or anchoring effect of the
longitudinal stringing rods. Thus these longitudinals, besides serving
to hold the U-bars in position, also increase their effectiveness. They
serve a still further purpose as a most convenient support for the slab
bars, compelling them to take the correct position over the supports,
thus automatically ensuring full and proper provision for reversed
stresses. More than that, they act in compression within the middle
half, and assist in tension toward the ends of the span.

Thus, by using U-b