Architects and others often wonder why more tile have not been used in the United States. This question is easily an swered. In the first place this was a timber country, clap boards and shingles were easily made out of timber, and they formed a cheap roof that answered the purpose for a time. Then came slate, and tin, and galvanized iron, and felt, and gravel, that could always be obtained when wanted, were light and cheap. Tile, as made, were heavy, expensive, hard to get, and in consequence were only used on expensive buildings, that could contract for them in ample time. Many have tried to make tile, but the rule has been to follow the old forms of tile, and the old manner of making them, so that there was no profit in it. Both Mr. Morse and Mr. Rospide, quoted above, confirm this fact. The manufacture of tile has not kept pace in advancement with that of any other branch of clay industry. The idea has been to invent a machine to make tile easily and cheaply, while the fact is, there is plenty of machinery exactly suited for the purpose. The brick presses of to-day can make tile just as easily as they can make brick, and the best of these are not expensive. I would not consider a re-press expensive that will make 4,00o tile a day, and cost but $225.00. The German press that forms the tile in plaster moulds is not what progressive Americans want. The application of our improved machinery in preparing clay, and forming tile, is a long step in the direction of increasing the use of tile, improving their qual ity and cheapening their cost.
So far as I have been able to learn, there are only five tile works in the United States. Three of these are in Baltimore and two in Ohio. Terra cotta works have made tiles on or ders, but it is a branch they have not prepared for, and they only make them when they feel compelled to. There are more tile made by one factory in Ohio than by all the balance in the United States. This fact would indicate that making roofing tile has not been profitable in this country, and this is prob ably true, as we find where any business is successful competi tion starts up all around it. In our opinion the reason the tile business has not been more successful is because the old form of tile, and the way of making them in the old country, has been followed in this. The tile is too heavy, has to be laid in cement, and the improved machinery has not been used in making them. And again, stocks have never been kept on hand to fill orders on short notice. When you think of the vast sums that are spent each year in buildings, and that fully one-twentieth of the cost of all these buildings is for the roofs, you can see what a business can be done, if the tile can be had at a reasonable price.
In speaking of the tile factories above, I did not include four that have been started within the last year to make tile under the patents of the Clay Shingle Company. One factory has been started at Baltimore, one at Trenton, N. J., one at Chi cago, and one at Denver. Before this year is out all these fac tories will be making tile on a large scale, and negotiations are now pending for several other factories.
In considering the value of roofing-tile the question of pro tection from fire, and insurance, enters largely into the account.
In these days when so much money is spent in fire-proofing the insides of buildings with hollow brick walls, deadening the floors with terra-cotta blocks, and steel joists and girders, it seems like folly to put materials on a roof, the most exposed part of the building, that will not resist the least heat, but rather attract fire from adjoining buildings, and often when more than a square away. Many of you have had fires, and know what it means to be burned out ; and all of you pay insurance, and know what a heavy tax that is. In Germany, where build ings are constructed under government inspection, with all pos sible protection against fire, and where tile roofs are universal, the rate of insurance is one-tenth of what it is in this country. A risk that will cost one dollar there will cost ten dollars here, and losses by fire there are as one to one hundred here. In the last seventeen years, in the United States, the losses by fire were $1,818,323,306.00—more than the present National debt. In the year 1891 the loss was $143,764,967.00, in 23,313 fires. Of these fires 44 brick and tile works were destroyed. 981 fires were caused by sparks from locomotives and flues, on which the loss was $4,506,184.00. 12,394 business failures were traced directly to the loss by fires in 1891. Last year $40, 600,000.00 of property was destroyed by fire that did not orig inate on the premises, or by exposure to adjoining property. The percentage of loss in 1891 that originated on the premises was and by exposure, 281'6. This is a fearful re cord of loss by fire, and the worst of it is, every one of you have to pay part of it, whether the property was insured or not. This is only the money value of the loss, and if the loss in time and business, by men thrown out of work, was estimated, it would probably be more than doubled. Now, as it is ad mitted and unquestioned fact that there is no material that affords so certain a protection from fire as burned clay, you see the value tile has for roofing. Nearly one-third the fires, and one-third the loss in 1891, was from outside exposures, that might and would have been saved if the buildings had been covered with tile. Can any stronger argument be used in cov ering houses with tile? Another valuable quality in the clay roof covering is that it is a non-conductor. This is evidenced by the use of porcelain insulators on electric lines. They are considered just as good for this purpose as glass. Now it is as important in building a house to keep out the heat in summer as to keep it in in winter. It is the rule that the attics of our houses, and especially if cov ered with slate, are as hot as ovens ; and as long as a single floor and coat of plaster only separate the attic from the sleep ing room, the temperature in the latter nearly equals that of the former. Nothing so effectually overcomes this as a tile roof, which neither attracts the heat nor retains the frost. The sleeping rooms in a house covered with tile are always com fortable—cooler in summer and warmer in winter.