“The next paper on the programme was entitled “Factory Tenements,” by Mr. Arthur H. Gulliver, of the Boston Manufacturing Company, Waltham, Mass.

…Mr. Justin A. Ware: Mr. President,

I think that friend Gulliver In his paper, in describing a model tenement house for a factory village, omitted one vital point, and that is the kind of partition that should be used between the two parts of a double tenement house. In the average construction of a double tenement house the thin papered board partition between the two halves has been the cause of more circuses between families than any other point you can mention. That partition should be of brick if it is not a wooden house, and if entirely of wood that partition should be patched with mineral wool or some substance that is sound proof in order to stop the rackets between the two families. As you probably well know, there are quantities of such houses constructed, especially in the South, with nothing but a plain board partition between the two halves of the house and it causes much trouble. Therefore the model tenement house should have a good firm partition between the two halves of the house.

The President: My experience has been, sir, that every partition in the tenement should be of—well, I will say armor plate. (Laughter.)”

Reference Data:

America's Textile Reporter: For the Combined Textile Industries, Vol. 17, 1903, page 565