he "customary method" must be
described in literature for private circulation. Mention has been made
of a method which makes the width of beam sufficient to insert the
steel. Considerations of the horizontal shear in a T-beam, and of the
capacity of the concrete to grip the steel, are conspicuous by their
absence in the analyses of beams. If a reinforcing rod is curved up and
anchored over the support, the concrete is relieved of the shear, both
horizontal and vertical, incident to the stress in that rod. If a
reinforcing rod is bent up anywhere, and not carried to the support, and
not anchored over it, as is customary, the shear is all taken by the
concrete; and there is just the same shear in the concrete as though the
rods were straight.

For proper grip a straight rod should have a diameter of not more than
one two-hundredth of the span. For economy of material, it should not be
much smaller in diameter than this. With this balance in a beam,
assuming shear equal to bond, the rods should be spaced a distance
apart, equal to their perimeters. This is a rational and simple rule,
and its use would go a long way toward the adoption of standards.

Mr. Worcester is not logical in his criticism of the writer's method of
reinforcing a chimney. It is not necessary to assume that the concrete
is not stressed, in the imaginary plain concrete chimney, beyond that
which plain concrete could take in tension. The assumption of an
imaginary plain concrete chimney and determinations of tensile stresses
in the concrete are merely simplified methods of finding the tensile
stress. The steel can take just as much tensile stress if its amount is
determined in this way as it can if any other method is used. The
shifting of the neutral axis, to which Mr. Worcester refers, is another
of the fancy assumptions which cannot be realized because of initial and
unknown stresses in the concrete and steel.

Mr. Russell states that the writer scarcely touched on top reinforcement
in beams. This would come in the class of longitudinal rods in columns,
unless the reinforcement were stiff members. Mr. Russell's remarks, to
the effect that columns and short deep beams, doubly reinforced, should
be designed as framed structures, point to the conclusion that
structural beams and columns, protected with concrete, should be used in
such cases. If the ruling motive of designers were uniformly to use what
is most appropriate in each particular location and