Rock Island Argus

HOUSE OF TAGS AND RAGS.
Ohio Man Believes His Idea Beats Edison's Cement Block Dwelling.

John Budd of Defiance, O., has Edison beaten when it comes to building a dwelling house at small cost and of new material. Edison claimed that he could mold a cement block house at a cost less than half the cost of an ordinary frame dwelling, but the great disadvantage of Edison's house is that it is apt to be damp, while a house built of the composition invented by Mr. Budd is waterproof, according to the claims of the inventor, and costs not quite as much as Edison's cement house. Mr. Budd has applied at Washington for a patent and in answer to his application has received notice that his composition is patentable and that steps will be taken at once to give him protection. To give a practical demonstration of his new composition Mr. Budd is building a house of it on Summit street, East View addition. The composition Mr. Budd will not make public at this time, but it is composed of broken bottles, broken brick, mud, feathers, straw and most anything. A framework of the house is built up, and this composition is then poured into it. After it is dried the framework is removed, the walls smoothed off, and any artistic touches desired can be given. The house Mr. Budd is building is to be of the new composition throughout, even to the floors and roof. Proof of the waterproof qualities of the new composition are demonstrated by Mr. Budd by pouring water over a cement block and also over a block of his new material.