and so on. Accepted things so far treated as almost unassailable no longer hold their own: roofs which need no longer be pointed for purposes of throwing off water, the enormous and handsome window-embrasures which annoy us since they imprison the light and deprive us of it; the massive timbers, as thick as you please and heavy for all eternity, but which will still spring and split if placed near a radiator, whilst a patent board 1/8 inch thick will remain intact. . . .
It was a common thing in the good old days (which still go on, alas!) to see heavy horses drawing enormous stones to the yard, and a mass of human labour unloading them, cutting and dressing them, hoisting them on to the scaffolding, placing them in position and, rule in hand, making lengthy adjustments to every face; such buildings might take two years to construct to-day a building can be erected in a few months; the P.O. have recently finished their immense Cold Storage building at Tolbiac. The materials used are confined to grains of sand and coke-breeze the size of small nuts; the walls are thin like membranes; but enormous consignments are stored in this building. Thin walls to give protection against differences of temperature, and partitions 3 to 4 inches thick in spite of the enormous loads stored there. Things have indeed altered!
The difficulties of transport are at their height: it is clear that houses represent an immense tonnage. If this were reduced four-fifths, that would indeed be up-to-date! The war has shaken us all up. Contractors have bought new plant, ingenious, patient and rapid. Will the yard soon be a factory? There is talk of houses made in a mould by pouring in liquid
