be cause for serious concern. It is reasoning of the most elementary
kind, which shows that if shear and adhesion are equal, the width of a
reinforced concrete beam should be equal to the sum of the peripheries
of all reinforcing rods gripped by the concrete. The width of the beam
is the measure of the shearing area above the rods, taking the
horizontal shear to the top of the beam, and the peripheries of the rods
are the measure of the gripping or adhesion area.

Analysis which examines a beam to determine whether or not there is
sufficient concrete to grip the steel and to carry the shear, is about
at the vanishing point in nearly all books on the subject. Such
misleading analysis as that just cited is worse than nothing.

The ninth point concerns the T-beam. Excessively elaborate formulas are
worked out for the T-beam, and haphazard guesses are made as to how much
of the floor slab may be considered in the compression flange. If a
fraction of this mental energy were directed toward a logical analysis
of the shear and gripping value of the stem of the T-beam, it would be
found that, when the stem is given its proper width, little, if any, of
the floor slab will have to be counted in the compression flange, for
the width of concrete which will grip the rods properly will take the
compression incident to their stress.

The tenth point concerns elaborate theories and formulas for beams and
slabs. Formulas are commonly given with 25 or 30 constants and variables
to be estimated and guessed at, and are based on assumptions which are
inaccurate and untrue. One of these assumptions is that the concrete is
initially unstressed. This is quite out of reason, for the shrinkage of
the concrete on hardening puts stress in both concrete and steel. One of
the coefficients of the formulas is that of the elasticity of the