1950s steel

huangyhg

1950's steel
i am working on at water tank that was constructed in the 1950's. there are no plans or specifications.  i need to find the fy for the steel used.  (i know that a-36 was introduced in the 1960's) i found a older 1940's aisc that stated the tension stress could not exceed 20 ksi.  my question is: could i use the ft of 20 ksi in my .66fy calc?  (i collect old engineering manuals and i have a copy of the fifth edition. but it is a home and my wife got frustrated when i called and asked her to find the necessary information.) any suggestions would be appreciated.  
check out our whitepaper library.
20 ksi was the allowable tensile stress. the yield stress for steel for bridges and buildings for that era was 33 ksi.
can you take a hardness reading of the steel, that should give you a ball park for the tensile strength.  the hard part is finding a good place to take the reading.  the last place i worked we had a nice hand held brinell tester.
chris
thanks, i appreciate it.  
tell your boss you need to drive home to get the info - kiss your wife or more if you get lucky - go back to work....
what is the problem here??