1.
Woodcut
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Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that the artist cuts away carry no ink, while characters or images at surface level carry the ink to produce the print, the block is cut along the wood grain. The surface is covered with ink by rolling over the surface with a roller, leaving ink upon the flat surface. Multiple colors can be printed by keying the paper to a frame around the woodblocks, single-leaf woodcut is a term for a woodcut presented as a single image or print, as opposed to a book illustration. Among these the best known are the 16th century Hieronymus Andreae, Hans Lützelburger and Jost de Negker, all of whom ran workshops, the formschneider in turn handed the block on to specialist printers. There were further specialists who made the blank blocks and this is why woodcuts are sometimes described by museums or books as designed by rather than by an artist, but most authorities do not use this distinction. The division of labour had the advantage that a trained artist could adapt to the medium relatively easily, there were various methods of transferring the artists drawn design onto the block for the cutter to follow. Either the drawing would be made directly onto the block, or a drawing on paper was glued to the block, either way, the artists drawing was destroyed during the cutting process. Other methods were used, including tracing, in both Europe and the Far East in the early 20th century, some artists began to do the whole process themselves. In Japan, this movement was called sōsaku-hanga, as opposed to shin-hanga, in the West, many artists used the easier technique of linocut instead. Compared to intaglio techniques like etching and engraving, only low pressure is required to print, as a relief method, it is only necessary to ink the block and bring it into firm and even contact with the paper or cloth to achieve an acceptable print. In Europe a variety of woods including boxwood and several nut and fruit woods like pear or cherry were commonly used, in Japan, there are three methods of printing to consider, Stamping, Used for many fabrics and most early European woodcuts. Used for European woodcuts and block-books later in the fifteenth century, also used for many Western woodcuts from about 1910 to the present. The block goes face up on a table, with the paper or fabric on top, the back is rubbed with a hard pad, a flat piece of wood, a burnisher, or a leather frotton. A traditional Japanese tool used for this is called a baren, later in Japan, complex wooden mechanisms were used to help hold the woodblock perfectly still and to apply proper pressure in the printing process. This was especially helpful once multiple colors were introduced and had to be applied with precision atop previous ink layers, printing in a press, presses only seem to have been used in Asia in relatively recent times. Printing-presses were used from about 1480 for European prints and block-books, simple weighted presses may have been used in Europe before the print-press, but firm evidence is lacking
2.
Harper's Weekly
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Harpers Weekly, A Journal of Civilization was an American political magazine based in New York City. Published by Harper & Brothers from 1857 until 1916, it featured foreign and domestic news, fiction, essays on many subjects and it carried extensive coverage of the American Civil War, including many illustrations of events from the war. During its most influential period, it was the forum of the political cartoonist Thomas Nast, along with his brothers James, John, and Wesley, Fletcher Harper began the publishing company Harper & Brothers in 1825. Following the successful example of the Illustrated London News, Harper started publishing Harpers Magazine in 1850, in 1857, his company began publishing Harpers Weekly in New York City. By 1860 the circulation of the Weekly had reached 200,000, among the recurring features were the political cartoons of Thomas Nast, who was recruited in 1862 and worked with the Weekly for more than 20 years. Nast was a feared caricaturist, and is called the father of American political cartooning. He was the first to use an elephant as the symbol of the Republican Party and he also drew the legendary character of Santa Claus, his version became strongly associated with the figure, who was popularized as part of Christmas customs in the late nineteenth century. Harpers Weekly was the most widely read journal in the United States throughout the period of the Civil War, so as not to upset its wide readership in the South, Harpers took a moderate editorial position on the issue of slavery. Publications that supported abolition referred to it as Harpers Weakly, the Weekly had supported the Stephen A. Douglas presidential campaign against Abraham Lincoln, but as the American Civil War broke out, it fully supported Lincoln and the Union. The photograph inspired many free blacks in the North to enlist, some of the most important articles and illustrations of the time were Harpers reporting on the war. Besides renderings by Homer and Nast, the magazine also published illustrations by Theodore R. Davis, Henry Mosler, and the brothers Alfred and William Waud. In 1863, George William Curtis, one of the founders of the Republican Party, became the editor of the magazine. His editorials advocated civil service reform, low tariffs, and adherence to the gold standard, after the war, Harpers Weekly more openly supported the Republican Party in its editorial positions, and contributed to the election of Ulysses S. Grant in 1868 and 1872. It supported the Radical Republican position on Reconstruction, in the 1870s, the cartoonist Thomas Nast began an aggressive campaign in the journal against the corrupt New York political leader William Boss Tweed. Nast turned down a $500,000 bribe to end his attack, Tweed was arrested in 1873 and convicted of fraud. Nast and Harpers also played an important part in securing Rutherford B. Hayes 1876 presidential election, later on Hayes remarked that Nast was the most powerful, single-handed aid had. After the election, Nasts role in the magazine diminished considerably, since the late 1860s, Nast and George W. Curtis had frequently differed on political matters and particularly on the role of cartoons in political discourse. Harpers publisher Fletcher Harper strongly supported Nast in his disputes with Curtis, in 1877, Harper died, and his nephews, Joseph W. Harper Jr. and John Henry Harper, assumed control of the magazine
3.
Timothy H. O'Sullivan
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Timothy H. OSullivan was a photographer widely known for his work related to the American Civil War and the Western United States. OSullivans history and personal life remains a mystery for many historians as there is information to work off of. For example, he was born in Ireland and came to New York City two years later with his parents or his parents traveled to New York before he was born. There is no way of finding out which of the two stories is true and we do know that as a teenager, he was employed by Mathew Brady. There is no record of him fighting and he most likely did civilians work for the army such as surveying, and he took photographs in his spare time. After being honorably discharged, he rejoined Bradys team, in July 1862, OSullivan followed the campaign of Maj. Gen. John Popes Northern Virginia Campaign. By joining Alexander Gardners studio, he had his photographs published in the first Civil War photographs collection. In July 1863, he created his most famous photograph, The Harvest of Death, in 1864, following Gen. Ulysses S. Grants trail, he photographed the Siege of Petersburg before briefly heading to North Carolina to document the siege of Fort Fisher. That brought him to the Appomattox Court House, the site of Robert E. Lees surrender in April 1865, from 1867 to 1869, he was the official photographer on the United States Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel under Clarence King. The expedition began at Virginia City, Nevada, where he photographed the mines and his job was to photograph the West to attract settlers. In so doing, he one of the pioneers in the field of geophotography. OSullivans pictures were among the first to record the ruins, Navajo weavers. In contrast to the Asian and Eastern landscape fronts, the matter he focused on was a new concept. It involved taking pictures of nature as an untamed, pre-industrialized land without the use of painting conventions. OSullivan combined science and art, making records of extraordinary beauty. In 1870 he joined a team in Panama to survey for a canal across the isthmus. From 1871 to 1874 he returned to the southwestern United States to join Lt. George M. Wheelers survey west of the 100th meridian west. He faced starvation on the Colorado River when some of the boats capsized
4.
United States Patent and Trademark Office
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The USPTO is unique among federal agencies because it operates solely on fees collected by its users, and not on taxpayer dollars. The USPTO is based in Alexandria, Virginia, after a 2005 move from the Crystal City area of neighboring Arlington, the head of the USPTO is Michelle K. Lee. She took up her new role on January 13,2014, on March 13, she formally took office as Director after being nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U. S. Senate. She formerly served as the Director of the USPTOs Silicon Valley satellite office, the USPTO cooperates with the European Patent Office and the Japan Patent Office as one of the Trilateral Patent Offices. The USPTO mission is to maintain a permanent, interdisciplinary historical record of all U. S. patent applications in order to fulfill objectives outlined in the United States Constitution. The legal basis for the United States patent system is Article 1, Section 8, an additional building in Arlington, Virginia, was opened in 2009. The USPTO was expected by 2014 to open its first ever satellite offices in Detroit, Dallas, Denver, the first satellite office opened in Detroit on July 13,2012. In 2013, due to the sequestration, the satellite office for Silicon Valley. However, renovation and infrastructure updates continued after the sequestration, and the Silicon Valley location is due to open in San Jose City Hall in mid-2015. As of September 30,2009, the end of the U. S. governments fiscal year, of those,6,242 were patent examiners and 388 were trademark examining attorneys, the rest are support staff. They are generally newly graduated scientists and engineers, recruited from universities around the nation. They hold degrees in scientific disciplines, but who do not necessarily hold law degrees. Unlike patent examiners, trademark examiners must be licensed attorneys, all examiners work under a strict, count-based production system. For every application, counts are earned by composing, filing, and mailing a first office action on the merits, the Patent Operations of the office is divided into nine different technology centers that deal with various arts. Prior to 2012, decisions of patent examiners may be appealed to the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences, the United States Supreme Court may ultimately decide on a patent case. Similarly, decisions of trademark examiners may be appealed to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, with subsequent appeals directed to the Federal Circuit, under the America Invents Act, the BPAI was converted to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board or PTAB. In recent years, the USPTO has seen increasing delays between when a patent application is filed and when it issues, to address its workload challenges, the USPTO has undertaken an aggressive program of hiring and recruitment. The USPTO hired 1,193 new patent examiners in Fiscal Year 2006,1,215 new examiners in fiscal 2007, in 2006, USPTO instituted a new training program for patent examiners called the Patent Training Academy
5.
Old Patent Office Building
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The historic Old Patent Office Building in Washington, D. C. covers an entire city block defined by F and G Streets and 7th and 9th Streets NW in Chinatown. It served as one of the earliest United States Patent Office buildings, the building houses two Smithsonian Institution museums, the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Designed in the Greek Revival style by architect Robert Mills, construction started in 1836, United States patent law required inventors to submit scale models of their inventions, which were retained by the Patent Office and required housing. Once home to early government departments, today the structure houses two museums of the Smithsonian Institution, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. In Pierre Charles LEnfants plan for the city, the site of the Patent Office Building. LEnfant envisaged a nondenominational church of the Republic, which he modified to a Pantheon devoted to great Americans. Fireproofing the design was a concern, Mills spanned the interior spaces with masonry vaulting without the use of wooden beams. Skylights and interior light courts filled the spaces with daylight, construction continued under the direction of Thomas U. Walter, one of Mills harshest critics and was completed in 1865, the buildings west wing suffered a fire in 1877, destroying some 87,000 patent models, it was restored by Adolf Cluss, 1877–1885, in the style he termed modern Renaissance. From 1854 to 1857, Clara Barton worked in the building as a clerk to the Patent Commissioner, during the Civil War, the building was turned into military barracks, hospital, and morgue. Wounded soldiers lay on cots in second-floor galleries, among glass cases holding models of inventions that had submitted with patent applications. The American poet Walt Whitman frequented that noblest of Washington buildings, the building was chosen as the venue for Lincolns Second Inaugural Ball in 1865. Whitman worked in Bureau of Indian Affairs, located in the building, from January 24 to June 30,1865, in the 20th century, the building was occupied by the Patent Office until 1932, it then housed the Civil Service Commission. A street-widening sliced away the monumental stairs to its south portico, in 1953, legislation was introduced to demolish the building for a parking lot, but President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation giving it to the Smithsonian in 1958. This was an important victory for the preservation movement in the United States. The Faulkner, Kingsbury & Stenhouse firm of architects supervised the renovation of the interior as museum space starting in 1964, in 1965, the building was designated a National Historic Landmark. The National Museum of American Art and the National Portrait Gallery opened in January 1968, the north wing housed the art museum and the south wing housed the portrait gallery. Office space and a cafe occupied the east wing, the center courtyard had outdoor eating space for the cafe and several large trees
6.
Fireproofing
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Fireproofing is rendering something resistant to fire, or incombustible, or material for use in making anything fire-proof. It is a fire protection measure. Fireproof or fireproofing can be used as a noun, verb or adjective, applying a certification listed fireproofing system to certain structures allows them to have a fire-resistance rating. The term fireproofing may be used in conjunction with standards, as reflected in common North American construction specifications, an item classed as fireproof is resistant in specified circumstances, and may burn or be rendered inoperable by fire exceeding the intensity or duration that it is designed to withstand. Because the material was later proven to cause cancer in the long run, endothermic materials have also been used to a large extent and are still in use today, such as gypsum, concrete and other cementitious products. More highly evolved versions of these are used in aerodynamics, intercontinental ballistic missiles and re-entry vehicles, the use of these older materials has been standardised in old systems, such as those listed in BS476, DIN4102 and the National Building Code of Canada. Among the conventional materials, purpose-designed spray fireproofing plasters have become abundantly available the world over, cementitious plasters that contain Portland cement have been traditionally lightened by the use of inorganic lightweight aggregates, such as vermiculite and perlite. Gypsum plasters have been lightened by using chemical additives to create bubbles that displace solids, also, lightweight polystyrene beads have been mixed into the plasters at the factory in an effort to reduce the density, which generally results in a more effective insulation at a lower cost. The resulting plaster has qualified to the A2 combustibility rating as per DIN4102, fibrous plasters, containing either mineral wool, or ceramic fibres tend to simply entrain more air, thus displacing the heavy fibres. On-site cost reduction efforts, at times purposely contravening the requirements of the certification listing, an alternative method to keep building steel below its softening temperature is to use liquid convection cooling in hollow structural members. This method was patented in the 19th century although the first prominent example was 89 years later, money can be saved fraudulently by using apparently suitable fireproofing that is not built to the required standard. Such fraud can be prevented when documentation is required and checked to ensure that all installed configurations meet the certification standards, possible cases include, Entraining too much air in inorganic systems, thus reducing densities below fire-tested, saving on materials and labour. Spraying inorganic fireproofing materials over through-penetrations and building joints that should be firestopped, substitution of intumescent and/or endothermic fireproofing coatings by less expensive paints of similar appearance, sometimes in the packaging of the correct materials. The American and Canadian nuclear industries have, historically, not insisted on listing and approval use and compliance and this has allowed the use of Thermo-Lag 330-1, for which the basis of testing has been proven to be faulty, requiring millions of dollars of remedial work. The Thermo-Lag scandal came to light as a result of disclosures by American whistleblower Gerald W. Brown, as of 2014 certification of fireproofing and firestopping remained optional for systems installed in nuclear power plants in Canada and the United States. Reuse of older materials from demolished buildings, in newer buildings, spray fireproofing products have not been qualified to the thousands of firestop configurations, so they cannot be installed in conformance of a certification listing. If the structural steel is left without fireproofing, it can damage fire barriers, if the barriers are not firestopped properly, fire and smoke can spread from one compartment to another. Where hydrocarbon transports are permitted in tunnel construction and operations, accidental fires may occur, traffic tunnels are not ordinarily equipped with fire suppression means, such as fire sprinkler systems
7.
Henry Leavitt Ellsworth
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Henry Leavitt Ellsworth was a Yale-educated attorney who became the first Commissioner of the U. S. Patent Office, where he encouraged innovation by inventors Samuel F. B, Ellsworth was born in Windsor, Connecticut, son of Founding Father and Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth and Abigail Wolcott. Ellsworth graduated from Yale University in 1810, and studied law at Tapping Reeves Litchfield Law School in 1811, on June 22,1813, he married Nancy Allen Goodrich with whom Ellsworth had three children, including son Henry W. Ellsworth. Later in life, he had two subsequent wives, Marietta Mariana Bartlett and Catherine Smith, Ellsworth was named in part for his grandmothers family, the Leavitts of Suffield, Connecticut. After studying law under Judge Gould in Litchfield, Connecticut, he settled first at Windsor and then at Hartford, in 1811, when he was 19 years old and a freshly minted Yale graduate, Ellsworth undertook the first of several western trips during his lifetime. Ellsworth traveled by horseback to the Connecticut Western Reserve in present-day Ohio to investigate family lands in the region, Ellsworth wrote a small, uneven book about his experiences entitled A Tour to New Connecticut in 1811. Ellsworths mission was straightening out irregularities in land sales by the family agent, along the way Ellsworth made note of attractive vistas, rowdy drunks, solicitous innkeepers and his disappointment in places of which he had heard, like Erie. The journeys rigors were relieved by a meeting with his old friend Margaret Dwight, daughter of Yale president Timothy Dwight IV, here too, wrote Ellsworth, I met with my good old friend Margaret Dwight, we sat down and passed a few hours in social chat. Dwight wrote her own account of her Western Reserve trip, A Journey to Ohio in 1810, over twenty years later, in 1832, Ellsworth traveled west again, this time as U. S. Commissioner of Indian Tribes in Arkansas and Oklahoma, Ellsworth travelled to Fort Gibson to investigate the situation. Louis magnates of the Midwestern fur trade, in 1835, Ellsworth was elected mayor of Hartford, Connecticut, but had served only a month when he was appointed the first Commissioner of the U. S. Patent Office, an office he held for ten years, from 1835 until 1845 and his twin brother William W. Ellsworth was Governor of Connecticut from 1838 to 1842, and served as a U. S. William Wolcott Ellsworth was married to the daughter of Noah Webster, when he arrived at the Patent Office, Ellsworth found one third of the floor-space in his office occupied by over 60 models of inventions, he moved them to a separate room. He also found that no list of patent applicants had ever drawn up. Acting as Patent Commissioner, Ellsworth made a decision that profoundly affected the future of Hartford, the young Samuel Colt was struggling to establish a firm to manufacture his new revolver. Ellsworth became interested in Colts invention, and in 1836 made the decision to issue Colt U. S, in todays world Ellsworth would be described as an early technology adapter. From Ellsworths exposure to the West and knowledge of inventions, he prophesied late in life that the lands of the West would be cultivated by means of steam plows. This prophecy was introduced in the probate of his will in an attempt to prove that he was of unsound mind, by 1845 Ellsworths patent office was performing the functions of a full-fledged agricultural bureau
8.
Bret Harte
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Francis Bret Harte was an American short story writer and poet, best remembered for his short fiction featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the California Gold Rush. In a career spanning more than four decades, he wrote poetry, fiction, plays, lectures, book reviews, editorials, and magazine sketches in addition to fiction. As he moved from California to the eastern U. S. to Europe, he incorporated new subjects and characters into his stories, but his Gold Rush tales have been most often reprinted, adapted, Bret Harte was born in Albany, New York. He was named Francis Brett Hart after his great-grandfather, Francis Brett, when he was young, his father, Henry, changed the spelling of the family name from Hart to Harte. Henrys father was Bernard Hart, an Orthodox Jewish immigrant who flourished as a merchant, later, Francis preferred to be known by his middle name, but he spelled it with only one t, becoming Bret Harte. An avid reader as a boy, Harte published his first work at age 11, rather than attracting praise, the poem garnered ridicule from his family. As an adult, he recalled to a friend, Such a shock was their ridicule to me that I wonder that I ever wrote another line of verse and his formal schooling ended when he was 13, in 1849. Harte moved to California in 1853, later working there in a number of capacities, including miner, teacher, messenger, and journalist. He spent part of his life in the northern California coastal town of Union, the Wells Fargo Messenger, July 1916, relates that, after an unsuccessful attempt to make a living in the gold camps, he signed on as a messenger with Wells Fargo & Co. He guarded treasure boxes on stagecoaches for a few months, then gave it up to become the schoolmaster at a school near Sonora and he created his character Yuba Bill from his memory of an old stagecoach driver. The 1860 massacre of between 80 and 200 Wiyots at the village of Tuluwat was well documented historically and was reported in San Francisco and New York by Harte. When serving as assistant editor for the Northern Californian, Harte editorialized about the slayings while his boss Stephen G. Whipple was temporarily absent, leaving Harte in charge of the paper. Harte published a detailed account condemning the event, writing, a shocking and revolting spectacle never was exhibited to the eyes of a Christian. Old women wrinkled and decrepit lay weltering in blood, their brains dashed out, infants scarcely a span long, with their faces cloven with hatchets and their bodies ghastly with wounds. After he published the editorial, his life was threatened, Harte quit his job and moved to San Francisco, where an anonymous letter published in a city paper is attributed to him, describing widespread community approval of the massacre. Harte married Anna Griswold on August 11,1862 in San Rafael, from the start, the marriage was rocky. Some suggested that she was handicapped by extreme jealousy, while early Harte biographer Henry C, merwin privately concluded that she was almost impossible to live with. Among Hartes first literary efforts, a poem was published in The Golden Era in 1857 and he was hired as editor of The Golden Era in the spring of 1860, which he attempted to make into a more literary publication
9.
Rain gutter
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A rain gutter or surface water collection channel is a component of water discharge system for a building. Water from a pitched roof flows down into a valley gutter, an eaves gutter is also known as an eavestrough, eaves channel, dripster, guttering or simply as a gutter. The word gutter derives from Latin gutta, meaning a drop, guttering in its earliest form consisted of lined wooden or stone troughs. Lead was a liner and is still used in pitched valley gutters. Many materials have been used to make guttering, cast iron, asbestos cement, UPVC, cast, gutters prevent water ingress into the fabric of the building by channelling the rainwater away from the exterior of the walls and their foundations. Water running down the walls causes dampness in the rooms and provides a favourable environment for growth of mould. A rain gutter may be a, Roof integral trough along the edge of the roof slope which is fashioned from the roof covering and flashing materials. Discrete trough of metal, or other material that is suspended beyond the roof edge, wall integral structure beneath the roof edge, traditionally constructed of masonry, fashioned as the crowning element of a wall. A roof must be designed with a fall to allow the rainwater to discharge. The water drains into a gutter that is fed into a downpipe, a flat roof will have a watertight surface with a fall of 1 in 60, or 1 in the case of lead. They can drain internally or to a gutter, which has a minimum 1 in 360 fall towards the downpipe. The pitch of a roof is determined by the construction material of the covering. For slate this will be at 25%, for machine made tiles it will be 35%, water falls towards a parapet gutter, a valley gutter or an eaves gutter. When two pitched roofs meet at an angle, they form a pitched valley gutter, the join is sealed with valley flashing. Parapet gutters and valley gutters discharge into internal rainwater pipes or directly into external down pipes at the end of the run, the capacity of the gutter is a significant design consideration. The area of the roof is calculated and this is multiplied by rainfall which is assumed to be 0.0208 and this gives a required discharge outfall capacity.022 l/s/m²- while one in Cumbria delivers 0.014 l/s/m². Eaves gutters can be made from a variety of such as cast iron, lead, zinc, galvanised steel, painted steel, copper, painted aluminium, PVC and occasionally from concrete, stone. Water collected by a rain gutter is fed, usually via a downpipe, alternatively it would connect via a gulley with 50mm water seal to a combined drain
10.
Thomas Ustick Walter
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Thomas Ustick Walter was an American architect, the dean of American architecture between the 1820 death of Benjamin Latrobe and the emergence of H. H. Richardson in the 1870s. He was the fourth Architect of the Capitol and responsible for adding the north and south wings, Walter was one of the founders and second president of the American Institute of Architects. Born in 1804 in Philadelphia, Walter was the son of mason and bricklayer Joseph S. Walter, Walter received early training in a variety of fields including masonry, mathematics, physical science, and the fine arts. At 15, Walter entered the office of William Strickland, studying architecture and mechanical drawing, Walter was commissioned by Spruce Street Baptist Church to design its new building at 418 Spruce Street. The 1829 building is home to the Society Hill Synagogue. Walters first major commission was Moyamensing Prison, the Philadelphia County Prison, designed as a humane model in its time, the prison was built between 1832 and 1835. Walter also designed the First Presbyterian Church of West Chester, which opened its doors in January 1834, in March 1834, the Walter-designed Wills Eye Hospital opened on the southwest corner of 18th and Race Streets in Philadelphia. He first came to recognition for his design of Girard College for Orphans in Philadelphia. Walter also designed mansions, banks, churches, the hotel at Brandywine Springs, in 1836, he designed the Bank of Chester County at West Chester, Pennsylvania, a decade later, he designed the 1846 Chester County Courthouse in Greek Revival style. In Lexington, Virginia, he designed the Lexington Presbyterian Church in 1843, the same year he designed the Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. In Norfolk, Virginia, he designed the Norfolk Academy in 1840, the Tabb Street Presbyterian Church was erected at Petersburg, Virginia in 1843. It has also suggested that Walter designed the Second Empire-styled Quarters B and Quarters D at Admirals Row in Brooklyn. Georges Hall, residence of Matthew Newkirk, president of the Philadelphia, Walter also designed the Garrett-Dunn House in Philadelphias Mt. Airy neighborhood, which was destroyed by fire after being struck by lightning on August 2,2009. Among his smaller designs was the 1839 Newkirk Viaduct Monument, commissioned by the PW&B to mark the completion of the first rail line south from Philadelphia, the most famous of Walters constructions is the dome of the U. S. Capitol. By 1850, the expansion of the United States had caused a space shortage in the Capitol. Walter was selected to design extensions for the Capitol and his plan more than doubled the size of the existing building and added the familiar cast-iron dome. There were at least six draftsmen in Walters office, headed by Walters chief assistant, August Schoenborn and it appears that he was responsible for some of the fundamental ideas in the Capitol structure. These included the curved ribs and an ingenious arrangement used to cantilever the base of the columns
11.
Reinforced concrete
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The reinforcement is usually, though not necessarily, steel reinforcing bars and is usually embedded passively in the concrete before the concrete sets. Reinforcing schemes are designed to resist tensile stresses in particular regions of the concrete that might cause unacceptable cracking and/or structural failure. Modern reinforced concrete can contain varied reinforcing materials made of steel, Reinforced concrete may also be permanently stressed, so as to improve the behaviour of the final structure under working loads. In the United States, the most common methods of doing this are known as pre-tensioning and post-tensioning, durability in the concrete environment, irrespective of corrosion or sustained stress for example. François Coignet was a French industrialist of the century, a pioneer in the development of structural. Coignet was the first to use iron-reinforced concrete as a technique for constructing building structures, in 1853 Coignet built the first iron reinforced concrete structure, a four story house at 72 rue Charles Michels in the suburbs of Paris. Coignets descriptions of reinforcing concrete suggests that he did not do it for means of adding strength to the concrete, in 1854, English builder William B. Wilkinson reinforced the concrete roof and floors in the two-storey house he was constructing. His positioning of the reinforcement demonstrated that, unlike his predecessors, in 1877, Monier was granted another patent for a more advanced technique of reinforcing concrete columns and girders with iron rods placed in a grid pattern. Though Monier undoubtedly knew reinforcing concrete would improve its inner cohesion, before 1877 the use of concrete construction, though dating back to the Roman Empire and reintroduced in the mid to late 1800s, was not yet a proven scientific technology. His work played a role in the evolution of concrete construction as a proven. Without Hyatts work, more dangerous trial and error methods would have largely depended on for the advancement in the technology. G. A. Wayss was a German civil engineer and a pioneer of the iron, in 1879 Wayss bought the German rights to Moniers patents and in 1884 started the first commercial use for reinforced concrete in his firm Wayss & Freytag. Up until the 1890s Wayss and his firm greatly contributed to the advancement of Moniers system of reinforcing, ernest L. Ransome was an English-born engineer and early innovator of the reinforced concrete techniques in the end of the 19th century. With the knowledge of reinforced concrete developed during the previous 50 years, ransomes key innovation was to twist the reinforcing steel bar improving bonding with the concrete. Gaining increasing fame from his concrete constructed buildings Ransome was able to build two of the first reinforced concrete bridges in North America, one of the first concrete buildings constructed in the United States, was a private home, designed by William Ward in 1871. The home was designed to be fireproof for his wife, one of the first skyscrapers made with reinforced concrete was the 16-storey Ingalls Building in Cincinnati, constructed in 1904. Many different types of structures and components of structures can be built using reinforced concrete including slabs, walls, beams, columns, foundations, frames, Reinforced concrete can be classified as precast or cast-in-place concrete. Designing and implementing the most efficient floor system is key to creating optimal building structures, small changes in the design of a floor system can have significant impact on material costs, construction schedule, ultimate strength, operating costs, occupancy levels and end use of a building
12.
Conflagration
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A conflagration is a large and destructive fire that threatens human life, animal life, health, and/or property. It may also be described as a blaze or simply a fire, a conflagration can begin accidentally, be naturally caused, or intentionally created. Arson can be for fraud, murder, sabotage or diversion, a firestorm can form as a consequence of a very large fire, in which the central column of rising heated air induces strong inward winds, which supply oxygen to the fire. Conflagrations can cause casualties including deaths or injuries from burns, trauma due to collapse of structures and attempts to escape, firefighting is the practice of attempting to extinguish a conflagration, protect life and property, and minimize damage and injury. One of the goals of fire prevention is to avoid conflagrations, when a conflagration is extinguished, there is often a fire investigation to determine the cause of the fire. A destructive fire, usually an extensive one a very intense and uncontrolled fire a large disastrous fire During a conflagration a significant movement of air, hot gaseous products of combustion move upward, causing the influx of more dense cold air to the combustion zone. Sometimes, the influx is so intense that the fire grows into a firestorm, inside a building, the intensity of gas exchange depends on the size and location of openings in walls and floors, the ceiling height, and the amount and characteristics of the combustible materials. Industrial conflagrations include fires at oil refineries, such as the 2009 Cataño oil refinery fire. One or several fire in forests or other areas, i. e. wildfire, may grow up into or unite to a conflagration. An urban conflagration moves beyond a block. In some ships, a large uncontained fire may lead to a ship conflagration. The conflagration of a building is known as a structure fire, an asteroid more than 4.3 miles in diameter colliding with the Earth, spewing out enough ejecta to cause a global conflagration
