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"The Siegen industrial region is located in Germany some sixty miles east of Cologne. It is one of the oldest iron-producing regions of Europe. For a long time a law, passed in 1790, regulated the use of wood for building purposes intending to save wood, which, in the form of charcoal, was the energy base for iron-smelting. Owing to this self-imposed restriction an ideal framework structure in housebuilding developed, eliminating all construction elements that served only ornamental purposes."--BOOK JACKET.