Abstract
THE Department of Scientific and Industrial Research is presenting a building research exhibit at the Building Trades Exhibition to be held at Olympia on September 12-26. Most of the work has been carried out at the Building Research Station, Watfordthe main exception being the timber portion of the exhibit, for which the Departments Forest Products Research Laboratory at Princes Risborough is responsible. The exhibit covers structural steel, plain and reinforced concrete, cement and cement products, natural stone, limes and plasters, brick and timbercodes of practice for the use of certain of these materials, and aspects of heating and lighting involved in securing comfortable conditions in a building. One of the chief researches is that dealing with steel-frame buildings, to which work the British Steel Work Association makes a substantial contribution. This work has already led to savings amounting to as much as twenty per cent in the cost of steelwork in steel-frame buildings. Various aspects of stone decay and the problems involved in the preservation, cleaning and restoration of stone structures are illustrated on the standmethods of assessing the quality of samples of Portland stone by laboratory tests are also shown. An exhibit on brick and brick-masonry illustrates the procedure used to determine the strength of individual bricks and brick-masonry walls. The section dealing with heating, ventilation and natural lighting includes special instruments devised for comparing different methods of heating, the use of air spaces and metallic surfaces in providing thermal insulation, and the problem of the exclusion of solar heat.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Scientific Research in the Building Trades. Nature 134, 354 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/134354a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/134354a0