Mr. Godfrey is absolutely right in his indictment of hooping as usually done, for hoops can serve no purpose until the concrete contained therein is stressed to incipient rupture; then they will begin to act, to furnish restraint which will postpone ultimate failure.  Mr. Godfrey states that, in his opinion, the lamina of concrete between each hoop is not assisted; but, as a matter of fact, practically regarded, it is, the coarse particles of the aggregate bridging across from hoop to hoop; and if—­as is the practice of some—­considerable longitudinal steel is also used, and the hoops are very heavy, so that when the bridging action of the concrete is taken into account, there is in effect a very considerable restraining of the concrete core, and the safe carrying capacity of the column is undoubtedly increased.  However, in the latter case, it would be more logical to consider that the vertical steel carried all the load, and that the concrete core, with the hoops, simply constituted its rigidity and the medium of getting the load into the same, ignoring, in this event, the direct resistance of the concrete.

What seems to the writer to be the most logical method of reinforcing concrete columns remains to be developed; it follows along the lines of supplying tensile resistance to the mass here and there throughout, thus creating a condition of homogeneity of strength.  It is precisely the method indicated by the experiments already noted, made by the Department of Bridges of the City of New York, whereby the compressive resistance of concrete was enormously increased by intermingling wire nails with it.  Of course, it is manifestly out of the question, practically and economically, to reinforce column concrete in this manner, but no doubt a practical and an economical method will be developed which will serve the same purpose.  The writer knows of one prominent reinforced concrete engineer, of acknowledged judgment, who has applied for a patent in which expanded metal is used to effect this very purpose; how well this method will succeed remains to be seen.  At any rate, reinforcement of this description seems to be entirely rational, which is more than can be said for most of the current standard types.

Mr. Godfrey’s sixteenth point, as to the action in square panels, seems also to the writer to be well taken; he recollects analyzing Mr. Godfrey’s narrow-strip method at the time it appeared in print, and found it rational, and he has since had the pleasure of observing actual tests which sustained this view.  Reinforcement can only be efficient in two ways, if the span both ways is the same or nearly so; a very little difference tends to throw the bulk of the load the short way, for stresses know only one law, namely, to follow the shortest line.  In square panels the maximum bending comes on the mid-strips; those adjacent to the margin beams have very little bending parallel to the beam, practically all the action being