Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 February 1914 — CONCRETING IN WINTER [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CONCRETING IN WINTER

Fanners Can Use Spare Time in Cold Weather to Good Advantage by Doing: Concrete Work Then. Must Be Done Properly, However, to Avoid Damage by Freezing.

Accordipg to the engineering maga* zincs, a.number of big buildings were built, during the winter of 1912, of reinforced concrete. 'Of course, as every farmer knows, concrete is damaged by freezing. On the other hand if the contractor can safely and profitably build during the winter months he would save time and money for himself and for the capitalists who were erecting large office buildings. The farmer, especially the corn belt farmer, often has lots of spare time on his hands during the winter months. He may take a trip to Chicago and attend the International Live Stock Show, after which he sort of settles down for the winter. This is a good time to study up on advanced method* of farming, but it is no reason why he should not follow the example of the big contractors, in Chicago and New York, and construct a few useful articles of concrete.

According to the technical magazines these are the essential points to be considered when concreting in winter. First, the bank run gravel must be separated into two piles, by the use of a sand screen; preferably these piles should be placed after heating and screening indoors. The gravel will very likely be frozen with many hard lumps. It must first be heated and the frost taken out of the material. This is accomplished as shown in the picture, by using part of an old boiler—a piece of old iron

pipe, etc, and piling tEe gravel over the tSffc In the railway construction work, illustrated, pipes were run through the fire so that the cold water which flowed from die faucet or water plug through one pipe (an ordinary kettle would accomplish the same purpose) was heated, and forced by_ pressure into the barrel. The warm water in the barrel was used to mix the cement, sand and gravel. The sand and gravel were first heated on top of a piece of old iron pipe or boiler a wood fire being built in it Then the sand and gravel were screened through a quarter inch screen. Everything up to a quarter of an inch in size being called sand and the material from one-fourth inch up to lf4 inches being used for gravel. Then a 1:2:3 mix was used, one cubic foot or one sack of Portland cement, two cubic feet of sand and three cubic feet of gravel. The work was protected for four or five days and by that time the concrete had set sufficiently so it would not be damaged by freezing. In the case of fence posts, for example, this warm sand and gravel could be brought inside the barn and mixed there with the hot water. In ordinary weather the temperature in the ham would be above freezing point and after five days or a week the fence posts could be taken outside, laid on the ground and by spring time they would be well cured. Of course they would have to be put where cattle could not tramp on them.