Lecture on the Baltimore Fire.

Mr. C. H. Blackall, of Boston, spoke last evening in Robinson Hall on "The Baltimore Fire." The Baltimore fire, he said, is the first to be studied carefully by architects and contractors throughout the country, and undoubtedly will result in many radical changes in building construction. Though it has shown that an absolutely fireproof building does not exist, yet the seven buildings of first-class modern construction which stood in its path suffered no structural collapse. Often the greatest damage was due to combustion of a building's contents.

Of the building materials, brick, stone, marble and granite were unable to stand the severe tests put upon them. Concrete and terra cotta offered the greatest resistance. Concrete, however, was not exhaustively tested, and terra cotta contains clay, which expands when heated. The ideal material must be at once cheap, hard, flexible and abundant. No city has enough fireproof buildings; thus no city is exempt from such fires as the Baltimore fire.