Electrical installation at Resettlement Tung Yuen Hong Housing (blocks 10 & 11), Shek Lei
(Area "B"), Tsuen Wan. $259,655
Construction of pile caps and erection Hsin Heng Construc- of structural steelwork at Kennedy tion Co. Town Abattoir. Hong Kong. $1.158.136
Construction of a Resettlement Estate Ho Lee Construction School at Tsz Wan Shan (Area "D"), Co. Kowloon. $475,714
Laying of 27 in dia mild steel main- Wo Hing Construction Pok Fu Lam Water Supply, Stage I Co., Ltd. $272.851
Completion of drains. 1oads and sur- Chi Fuk Construction faces at Tai Wo Hau Group of Co. Resettlement Estates. $798,955
Piling to foundations for Cheung Sha The Vibro Piling & In- Wan Abattoir. Kowloon $1.124.069
Foundation
ternational Co., Ltd.
Supply of Siemens traffic light signal The British General equipment. $132,569
Electric Co., Ltd. Chee Cheung Hing &
Construction of a public latrine at Flower Market Road," Kowloon. $75.788 Co.
Electrical installation at Western Fire Tung Yuen Hong Station, Kennedy Town. $55,001
Supply and laying of asphalt roofing to Precast Products Ltd. Block "El". Tsz Wan Shan Resettle- ment Estate. Kowloon. $30,382
Supply of metal windows for annex
Canton Metal Window
Ltd.
School attached to Block "El", Tsz Manufacturing Co.. Wan Shan Resettlement Estate. Kowloon. $14,400
Electrical installation at abattoir in- The British General spectorate Staff Quarters, Kennedy Electric Co., Ltd. Town. $52,809
Supply and fixing of sliding and fold- William Jacks & Co. ing metal doors at Shau Kei Wan Fire (Hong Kong) Ltd. Station. $22.684
Electrical installation Government Primary Territories. $36.262
at Au Tau The British General School, New Electric Co., Ltd.
Piling to foundations for Ma Tau Foundations Ltd. Chung Ambulance Depot. Kowloon $108.660
Books
Building Stones & Rock Materials used in Hong Kong by S.G. Davis. 52 pages.
Price HK$28.
After a coloured frontispiece show- ing eight types of stone Mr. Davis states, in the opening chapters of his booklet, that durability and strength are the two most important considera- tions in choosing a building stone. He then goes on to give detailed descrip- tions of eight local building stones and a brief survey of mosaic, marble and limestone.
The centre of the booklet contains a pot pourri of information on clay products (bricks, tiles, pipes and blocks), cement, lime, aggregates stucco, Shanghai plaster, terrazzo and sand, gravel and ballast. The informa- tion in this part of the booklet is similar to that found in the front of the 'Amateur Builders Pocket Diary'
a combination of facts, chemistry, half-truths and charts.
After this, Mr. Davis is better in returning to home ground, with an interesting chapter on the 'Decay of Building Stone,' in which he gives detailed
descriptions of individual buildings and the way their stones have weathered.
Twelve miscellaneous appendices of tables complete the book, apart from an excellent four page index and two maps showing the geology and distribution of quarries in Hong Kong.
I would suggest that Mr. Davis has neglected to consider appearance as the most important factor in build- ing stone crushing strength in these days of glass and plastic clad- ding is of minor importance. The photomicrographs are useless in a book of this nature and the black and white photographs of stones are as good as useless, looking as they do, like bad photographs of the heavens. A tone of grey differenti- ates Carrara marble from Belgian black whilst the Travertine photo- graph is inverted.
In talking of bricks it is stated that "the crushing strength of a brick is not so important as for stone mason. ry because bricks are smaller (stan- dard size 8 x 34 x 24 in.) and the
strength of brick masonry is more dependent upon the strength of the
mortar.'
++
Appendix 7 (not 10 as stated in the booklet) to which we are then referred, shows that the brick type has far more influence upon struc- tural strength than the type of mortar used. With local brick compressive strengths varying between 145 and 5,200 lbs/sq. in. I advise local archi- tects not to rely too much upon their mortar strengths. The standard size of a brick is not as given in the booklet.
The description of Shanghai plaster implies that sand is used for the finishing coat whereas it is usually specified for the undercoat only. The Code of Practice mentions that mixes richer than 1 cement: 2 aggregate are not suitable for Terrazzo, yet here we find a recommendation to use 2 cement to 1 aggregate! Sand for concrete and mortar, we are told, should be angular, whereas postwar B.R.S. have been saying that the particle shape should be rounded rather than angular.
The tables at the end of the booklet are mainly of American origin (even of 1918 vintage) and give various facts including the weight of snow. Anyone wanting to use some of the tables must first convert short tons per sq.ft. to lbs/sq.in.
At over 50 cents per page for this booklet I can, unfortunately, see no outlet for this publication. Mr. Davis should consider a magazine republish- ing the twenty or so useful pages, if he wishes, as I do, that this material be available to the "busy architects, engineers and building contractors" that he has aimed at.
D.V.T.
A book to browse through, that may also come in useful for settling arguments is the Penguin A Diction- ary of Building by John Scott. 44 in. X 1/4 in. x 36
pages. Six shillings.
It is fascinating to thumb through the pages of this reference book and come across such terms that you never realized were capable of differ- ent interpretation by the building in- dustry.
Far East Architect & Builder September, 1965
a
For example, a 'bar' means 'glazing bar', whilst scotch, gin, lime, gimlet, noggin and grog' are all not necessarily drinking terms any more than 'dragon's blood' is a cocktail.
Most parts of the 'body' from 'head' to 'toe' are used by the in- dustry including those parts that may bring 'blushing' to the 'face' of a 'foreman' right down to his 'boots'.
'Unbuttoning' has nothing to do with a 'stripper' who is not the same as a "taker off. You do not 'shake' and 'twist' at a 'mason's joint' (not Zetland Hall) and of the 'dancing steps' to omit 'hully' is excusable but not 'gully'. "Kiss marks' are not made by 'bird-pecks' but a bearded carpenter could well cut a 'bare-faced tenon'.
No definition is given, of course, to 'Canton tiles', 'Shanghai plaster' nor 'chunam' but I had thought that the 'Time of Concentration' (men- tioned in Hong Kong's Buildings Or- dinance) would qualify for a defini- that odd word tion, along with that odd 'analglypta'. English Bond is men- tioned along with Flemish Bond but not 007.
I was amused to note that for 'alligatoring' one should see 'crocodil- ing'. To find out who or what are the following:-a 'sanitary shoe', 'broad ladies', 'cleavage', 'horsing-up" and a 'bottlenose drip'
you'll have to buy the book.
-
D.V.T.
Small Bore Heating and Hot Water Supply for Small Dwellings, by J.J. Barton, MIHVE, MInstF, AssocIEE. Publishers: Newnes. Price 10s. 6d.
This handbook covers design and practice of combined small bore heating and hot water supply, and deals with estimation of heat losses; piping layout; radiators, pumps and boilers; automatic controls; and estimating fuel consumption and costs. Tables are included to enable estimates to be prepared quickly and easily.
Although intended as a practical manual for all concerned with domes- tic central heating and hot water supply, this book will also appeal to students and apprentices in the plum- bing, heating and building industries, as well as to students of domestic architecture.
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