Second Point.—­The remarks on the first point are also applicable to the second one.  Rod 3 provides for the shear.

Third Point.—­In a beam, the shear rods run through the compression parts of the concrete and have sufficient anchorage.  In a counterfort, the inclined rods are sufficient to take the overturning stress.  The horizontal rods support the front wall and provide for shrinkage.  The vertical rods also provide for shrinkage, and assist the diagonal rods against overturning.  The anchorage is sufficient in all cases, and the proposed method is no more effective.

Fourth Point.—­In bridge pins, bending and bearing usually govern, but, in case a wide bar pulled on a pin between the supports close to the bar, as happens in bolsters and post-caps of combination bridges and in other locations, shear would govern.  Shear rods in concrete-steel beams are proportioned to take the vertical and diagonal shearing stresses.  If proportioned for less stress per square inch than is used in the bottom bars, this cannot be considered dangerous practice.

Fifth Point.—­Vertical stirrups are designed to act like the vertical rods in a Howe truss.  Special literature is not required on the subject; it is known that the method used gives good results, and that is sufficient.

Sixth Point.—­The common method is not “to assume each shear member as taking the horizontal shear occurring in the space from member to member,” but to take all the shear from the center of the beam up to the bar in question.

Cracks do not necessarily endanger the safety of a beam.  Any device that will prevent the cracks from opening wide enough to destroy the beam, is logical.  By numerous experiments, Mr. Thaddeus Hyatt found that nuts and washers at the ends of reinforcing bars were worse than useless, and added nothing to the strength of the beams.

Seventh Point.—­Beams can be designed, supported at the ends, fully continuous, or continuous to a greater or less extent, as desired.  The common practice is to design slabs to take a negative moment over the supports equal to one-half the positive moment at the center, or to bend up the alternate rods.  This is simple and good practice, for no beam can fail as long as a method is provided by which to take care of all the stresses without overstraining any part.

Eighth Point.—­Bars in the bottom of a reinforced concrete beam are often placed too close to one another.  The rule of spacing the bars not less than three diameters apart, is believed to be good practice.

Ninth Point.—­To disregard the theory of T-beams, and work by rule-of-thumb, can hardly be considered good engineering.

Tenth Point.—­The author appears to consider theories for reinforced concrete beams and slabs as useless refinements, but as long as theory and experiment agree so wonderfully well, theories will undoubtedly continue to be used.