Cement For House Construction

1901

The construction of cement houses is under consideration in Pittsburg, where the millions of tons of furnace slag produced every year could thus be utilized, says the New York Post. It has been shown that this slag can be converted into cement by known processes at a less cost than the $1 a barrel suggested by Mr. Edison as the result of an invention on which he is experimenting.

This cement, it is claimed, can be made fully equal to the best that is known as portland, although a lower and a cheaper grade would suffice for house construction. Pulverized and mixed with lime, the slag has been converted into a superior plaster, showing a tensile strength greater than the ordinary sand and lime.

Cement made from the slag would not only be economical for house construction, but would make practically fireproof buildings. Such use of a product now wasted or used only to fill ravines would also be preservative of the forests.

Dwellings of Eskimos

1901

It is a mistake to suppose that the Eskimos of Greenland live in huts made of ice or snow, even though some of the writers of geographies do say so. The huts in which they pass the winter are rudely conical in shape, a little more than five feet high, made of stone, with the cracks and spaces filled with earth and the whole covered with turf or sod.

A passageway about six feet long and less than three feet square leads to the interior, and there is a small window in the hut directly over the passageway. The hut, which is called an igloo, contains only one room and has built around its sides a rude platform or bench of stone.

When summer arrives, the Eskimos abandon their igloos and dwell in skin tents, called tupics. Huts made of ice and stone are never used except temporarily, as, for example, when they are traveling long distances during the winter or when for some reason they do not return to their winter settlements.

Boats Are Hotels

1920

Floating Hostelries Relieve New York Housing Conditions

ALBANY, N. Y. — Floating hotels were put in operation here to relieve the housing conditions, and particularly the congestion which has marked Albany hotels the last two years.

Two of the largest night line steamers plying the Hudson River, after having had their light and water systems hooked up to the municipal supply here, were opened to the public as floating hotels and ready for business.

Each of the boats has accommodations for 400 guests, and on each meals will be served and hotel service maintained. It is believed this is the first time in the history of the country that boats, compelled to cease operations by freezing of a river, have been utilized as hotels.