Centraliens - La revue des Arts et Manufactures - Juillet 2013 / N°627 - 57

Léonard et Arthur Beckwith

briques, grimpa sur une plateforme avant de se laisser tomber dessus.
Le comité de l’Institut trouva la démonstration « entièrement satisfaisante » et accorda le contrat à la FPBCNY. Les blocs de la Compagnie
furent utilisés pour le plancher principal, les cloisons et le toit. Ceci
encouragea la Compagnie à ouvrir un bureau à Baltimore. Elle travailla
sur nombre de bâtiments, y compris le grand bâtiment de 7 étages du
Baltimore et Ohio Railroad construit en 1880-1882. (Fig. 4)

architect, George B. Post, ordered curved blocks for the ceilings in the
Ball, Black & Co.’s building in New York City and to fill between iron
beams of an inner dome, which measured 53 feet in diameter, of the
Williamsburgh Savings Bank in Brooklyn, New York. Architect Arthur
Gilman used FPBCNY’s mansard and furring blocks in the Bennett
Building and partition blocks in the Bennett and the Drexel buildings,
both in New York City.
•••

FPBCNY also found clients outside of New York. One was the library
of the Peabody Institute in Baltimore (1875-78), designed by Edmund
Lind. In October 1875, Tartière went to Baltimore to show the Institute’s trustees and the building’s architects his company’s arches and
partitions. He built a sample flat arch 4½ feet wide between iron
beams, loaded it with bricks, and then climbed up on a platform and
jumped down on it. The Peabody committee found the demonstration
“entirely satisfactory” and gave FPBCNY a contract. The company’s
blocks were used for the main floor, interior walls, and roof deck.
This encouraged the company to open a Baltimore branch office, and
it worked on a number of buildings there, including the large, sevenstory office building for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, built 188082. (Fig. 4)
The proliferation of large buildings, like the New York Tribune and
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad buildings, was behind the growing demand for hollow blocks. While the material was useful in buildings of
any size, the light-weight and fireproof blocks were the only practical
material available for the tall, heavy buildings that many American
owners increasingly sought. The pioneer skyscrapers of the 1880s all
had hollow block floors; this material was asessential to the realization
of these buildings as was structural metal.
•••

Fig.4 - Immeuble du Baltimore et Ohio Railroad, Baltimore, Maryland (1880-1882),
E. Francis Baldwin, architecte. Un des premiers très haut bâtiment de 7 étages,
résistant au feu (Maryland Historical Society, MSH Z24).
Fig. 4 - Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Building, Baltimore, Maryland (1880-82),
E. Francis Baldwin, architect. One of the first fireproof, and, at seven stories, very tall
buildings in Baltimore. (Maryland Historical Society, MHS-Z24).

La multiplication de grands immeubles, comme ceux du New-York
Tribune et Baltimore et Ohio Railroad, était à l’origine d’une demande
croissante de corps creux. Alors que ce matériel était utilisé dans les
bâtiments de toute taille, les blocs légers et résistants au feu était le seul
matériel efficace disponible pour les immeubles de grande hauteur et
lourds, que beaucoup de maîtres d’ouvrages recherchaient de plus en
plus. Les gratte-ciel des pionniers des années 1880 avaient tous des
planchers en corps creux. Ce matériel était aussi essentiel à la réalisation de ces ouvrages que le métal de leur structure.

De nouvelles innovations
En plus de leurs efforts pour transformer, un matériel expérimental en un produit commercial, les frères Beckwith présentèrent
de nouvelles formes de hourdis pour les planchers. Dans les
premières formes de hourdis creux pour les planchers, les cotés
et cloisonnements des blocs étaient disposés parallèlement aux
supports. Les frères Beckwith pensèrent que des blocs avec les
cotés courant perpendiculairement aux supports seraient plus
résistants que les formes alors en usage. Arthur fut le premier à
introduire des blocs pour plancher dans cette nouvelle disposition. En juin 1874, il breveta un voûte constituée d’appuis massifs
et d’un voussoir en 5 blocs qui avait ses cotés et cloisonnements
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In addition to helping to turn an experimental material into a commercial product, the Beckwith brothers introduced new forms of blocks
for floors. In the early forms of hollow block floors, the sides and webs of
the blocks ran parallel to the supports. The Beckwith brothers reasoned
that blocks with sides running perpendicular to the supports would be
stronger.. Arthur was the first person to introduce floor blocks in this
new form. In June 1874, he patented an arch made of solid skewbacks
and five voussoir-shaped blocks that had sides and webs perpendicular
to the supporting beams. (Fig. 6) “By this arrangement of the blocks,”
he explained, “…the sides of the hollow space in said blocks are relieved
from transverse pressure, each block being exposed to an end pressure,”
rather than the thrust of the arch being “directed transversely upon the
hollow spaces,” which was liable to crush the blocks. Whether Arthur
proved this theory through tests is unknown; however, tests were made
in the 1890s of floors using “end construction” blocks, as this form came
to be known, and they showed Arthur’s theory to be correct. However,
the FPBCNY did not illustrate this kind of floor in its advertisements,
so perhaps Arthur’s invention was ahead of its time. In the 1890s, end
construction floors began to be used widely.
Leonard also patented an innovative floor system, which was a variation on lintel blocks. His design not only drew on the theory of end
construction, but also substantially simplified the blocks, to make a
strong but economical floor. Only two blocks were required for the
floor: a solid end block and a long, hollow block. The end blocks could
be made in varying depths, to accommodate the different spacing of
beams within a building. (Fig. 7) The system required no centering,
needed less mortar to construct, and eliminated the difficulty of making and working with blocks of several different shapes. It is unknown if this form of floor was ever built, but it too anticipated the
direction of this industry, which was toward simpler floor blocks.
The FPBCNY continued to take large contracts in the early 1880s,

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Centraliens - La revue des Arts et Manufactures - Juillet 2013 / N°627

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