"And my concrete furniture will be cheap, as well as strong," says Edison. "If I couldn't put it out cheaper than the oak that comes from Grand Rapids, I wouldn't go into the business. If a newlywed starts out with, say, $450 worth of furniture on the installment plan, I feel confident that we can give him more artistic and more durable furniture for $200. I'll also be able to put out a whole bedroom set for $5 or $6." At present the weight of this concrete furniture is about one third greater than wooden furniture, but Edison is confident he can reduce this excess to one quarter. The concrete surface can, of course, be stained in imitation of any wood finish. The phonograph cabinet shown at the left of Edison in the picture opposite page 281 has been trimmed in white and gold. Its surface resembles enamelled wood. The cabinet at his right is the old style wooden type. This concrete cabinet easily withstood the hard usage of shipment by freight for a long distance. [Illustration: THE WORLD-WIDE USE OF CONCRETE Courtesy of the Atlas Portland Cement Co. An eight-story all-concrete office building under construction in Portland, Maine.] [Illustration: Courtesy of the Atlas Portland Cement Co. A perfect little model of the great Gatun Locks of the Panama Canal.] [Illustration: THE CATSKILL AQUEDUCT, ONE OF THE WORLD'S GREATEST CONCRETE WORKS Laying a level section of the great concrete tunnel through which New York City is to get its drinking water.] [Illustration: THE AQUEDUCT DEEP UNDER GROUND A partially completed section showing the concrete work. Note the size of the tunnel.] Of course, the poured concrete furniture is made in just the same way as the houses except that it is a much simpler process. It is a very easy matter to set up a steel mould for a chair, a cabinet, a dresser, or a bedstead, whereas a house, with its tubs, conduits, stairways, hallways, doorways, window frames, plumbing system, etc., is a most complex matter, requiring a set of moulds that could be put together properly by only a man who combined the highest abilities of an architect, a builder, an engineer, and a mechanic. Although concrete has been used for many years in making garden furniture, Edison's plan for making finished indoor pieces with it is entirely new. But to return to the houses; Edison says it is just as easy to make poured dwellings in decorative designs as in plain ones. It is only necessary to have the moulds cast in the desired shape. It is his idea to have all the poured houses pretty as well as perfectly sanitary and substantial. He intends that there shall be many different kinds of moulds, and also that each set of moulds shall be so cast that it can be joined in different ways, in order to give the houses a variety of appearance. Thus, in a small town where a large number of poured houses were set up, there would be no two exactly alike if the owners preferred to have them different.