Among other elevated tanks known to the writer is one having a capacity of 100,000 gal., the bottom being 60 ft. above the ground.[C] The total quantities of material required for this tank are given as 4,480 cu. ft. of concrete, 23,200 lb. of reinforcing steel, and 27,600 ft., b. m., of form lumber and staging. Calculating at the abnormally high unit prices of 40 cents per cu. ft. for concrete, 4 cents per lb. for steel, and $50 per 1,000 ft., b. m., for lumber, the cost of the concrete would be $1,792, the steel, $928, and the form lumber and staging, $1,380. Adding to this the cost of a spiral staircase, at the high figure of $7 per linear foot in height, the total cost of this structure would be $4,598. The factor of safety used in this structure was four, but some engineers who are not familiar with concrete construction may require a higher factor. By doubling the quantities of concrete and steel, which would mean a tensile stress in the steel of only 8,000 lb. per sq. in., and a compressive stress in the concrete of only 225 lb. per sq. in., the cost of the tank would be only $7,318, as compared with the $16,578 mentioned in the paper. This enormous discrepancy between a good design and an amateur design, and between day-labor work and contract work should be a lesson which consulting engineers and managers of large corporations, who prefer their own designs and day-labor work, should take to heart. A. H. MARKWART, ASSOC. M. AM. SOC. C. E. (by letter).--It is the writer's opinion that the steel tank enclosed within the concrete of the upper cylinder, to take up the hoop tension and presumably to provide a water-tight tower, will not fulfill this latter requirement. If a plastered surface on the dome-shaped bottom provided the necessary imperviousness, it would seem that plastered walls would have proved satisfactory. Apparently, the sheet-metal tank is intended to exclude the possibility of exterior leakage, but it occurs to the writer that it will fail to be efficient in this particular, because, under pressure, the water will force itself under the steel tank and the dome thrust rings and out to the exterior of the tower just below the tank, thus showing that insurance against leakage is actually provided by the plastered interior surfaces and not by the sheet-metal tank, and, for this reason, ordinary deformed rod reinforcement, in the writer's opinion, would have proved cheaper and better, and more in line with other parts of the reinforcement. Mr. Kempkey states: