Hong Kong Builder
THE STEEL FRAME WORK
OF THE NEW BUILDING
(Left)
Work on the erection of the steel work nearing completion.
(Below)
Detail photograph of the wall and roof framing.
urgent reinforced concrete work and actually some 50 tons was incorporated in the building. A considerable saving in time was effected by the use of vibrators as it was found on testing that it was possible to remove supports under floors in three days and from the sides of walls in less than eight hours. Vibrated concrete stood up to a stress of 3,000 lbs. per sq. in. in three days. The difficulty was to persuade the sub-contractors to make their supports strong enough, as although they were specially designed for vibrating, he often considered that the design was sheer waste of good timber.
The most satisfactory feature of the whole work, however, was that, in spite of the height of the buildings and the loads which had to be lifted, there was no fatal casualty from accidents on the job. There were a few One hospital cases resulting chiefly from carelessness. coolie for instance stepped off the bridge spanning the intake culverts and dropped 25 feet on to solid rock. He was fortunate to get off with broken legs. Another man inserted a crowbar into a motor to try to find out what had become of the rotor! Unfortunately it was only the machine that was damaged. We believe that the coolie is still running!
Notes on Equipment
The firm of B. J. Lacon & Co., supplied a variety of materials for this building. The teak parquet flooring, teak skirting and picture rails, and the teak slab doors with Masonite faces for the office and administrative section were all supplied and fixed by them.
In addition all the wired and plain glass for the win- dows and the "CALOREX” sun-resisting glass for the roof lights were supplied by them.
They also supplied the labour for fixing the Newall's 85% Magnesia Boiler Lagging used for all piping, steam drums, headers, etc., for the new boiler. Finally, the 700 gallons of Griffiths Bros. "FERRODOR" paint in white, red, grey, purple, silver grey and aluminium for painting the intakes, ducts, piping, boiler, turbine, hand rails, etc., were obtained from this firm.
There are eight 54" diameter Robertson's Patent Ventilators installed on the roof of the Turbine House. The ventilators were supplied with motor rings on which a 48" diameter G.E.C. will be mounted. These fans will operate at 300 r. p.m. with an air displacement of 19,200 cubic feet per minute each, boosting up the capacity of
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