The logical deduction from the proposition that shear rods take tension is that the tension rods must take shear, and that they must take the full shear of the beam, and not only a part of it.  For these shear rods are looped around or attached to the tension rods, and since tension in the shear rods would logically be imparted through the medium of this attachment, there is no escaping the conclusion that a large vertical force (the shear of the beam) must pass through the tension rod.  If the shear member really relieves the concrete of the shear, it must take it all.  If, as would be allowable, the shear rods take but a part of the shear, leaving the concrete to take the remainder, that carried by the rods should not be divided again, as is recommended by the common method.

Bulletin No. 29 of the University of Illinois Experiment Station shows by numerous experiments, and reiterates again and again, that shear rods do not act until the beam has cracked and partly failed.  This being the case, a shear rod is an illogical element of design.  Any element of a structure, which cannot act until failure has started, is not a proper element of design.  In a steel structure a bent plate which would straighten out under a small stress and then resist final rupture, would be a menace to the rigidity and stability of the structure.  This is exactly analogous to shear rods which cannot act until failure has begun.

When the man who tears down by criticism fails to point out the way to build up, he is a destructive critic.  If, under the circumstances, designing with shear rods had the virtue of being the best thing to do with the steel and concrete disposed in a beam, as far as experience and logic in their present state could decide, nothing would be gained by simply criticising this method of design.  But logic and tests have shown a far simpler, more effective, and more economical means of disposing of the steel in a reinforced concrete beam.

In shallow beams there is little need of provision for taking shear by any other means than the concrete itself.  The writer has seen a reinforced slab support a very heavy load by simple friction, for the slab was cracked close to the supports.  In slabs, shear is seldom provided for in the steel reinforcement.  It is only when beams begin to have a depth approximating one-tenth of the span that the shear in the concrete becomes excessive and provision is necessary in the steel reinforcement.  Years ago, the writer recommended that, in such beams, some of the rods be curved up toward the ends of the span and anchored over the support.  Such reinforcement completely relieves the concrete of all shearing stress, for the stress in the rod will have a vertical component equal to the shear.  The concrete will rest in the rod as a saddle, and the rod will be like the cable of a suspension span.  The concrete could be in separate blocks with vertical joints, and still the load would be carried safely.