Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/866

 698 The Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal. [May, side the ends. These rods to have nuts and washers, removable on one side, per- manent on the other. The movable nuts to have handles, so as to facilitate their management. The interior dimen- sions of these moulds or boxes might be thirty inches long by fifteen inches wide, and twelve inches deep. When it is deemed advisable to lessen the thick- ness of the wall, new end pieces of the required dimensions are substituted, and the erauge is ensured The first course or round of the walls is to have water-lime in solution, in- stead of quick-lime. By tins means the damp arising from the ground wiH be effectually prevented. The work of wall- raising should be commenced at the corners or quoins, and go round one way ; that is, either from right to left, or, from left to right, observing to leave an interval between each position of the moulds. And when the walls are gone round in this wa}-, put the sides of each box (leaving out the ends) against the newly formed blocks of concrete, so as to enclose the intervals that were left, and fill and pack these soundly, so as to form one un- broken course. When this course is finished, proceed with the next, [observ- ing to break joint throughout] fur although the whole would seem to be one homogeneous mass, yet in the set- ting, if any shrinkage will occur, it must be at the joints. The window and door frames should be, in breadth, the thick- ness of the wall, and let the concrete be worked up to them. The pointed arches over all opes, may be of brick or stone work. The buttresses on the angles may be of masonry ; as also the porch and belfry. The roof may be of shin- gles, but if of slate, so much the better. When the roof is finished, the w r alls may be coated with water-lime cement and sand, equal parts, and the work kept wet during the process. Or, finely powdered brick, four parts, powdered quick-lime one part. Mix with fresh ani- mal blood. Or, sand and lime may be used with blood. But it is necessary to slake and cool the lime before putting in the blood. There are other compositions for out- side covering, and it is very necessary that one should be used, as the liability of concrete, when unprotected, to absorb wet is a serious disadvantage. To this end also the roof should be made to pro- ject sufficiently to shed the walls from the falling rain. The inside of a concrete building is capable of receiving a mere skim coat, and looking well. On the whole this material is not de- sirable for building above ground, if wood, brick, or stone can be had. It is only, at best, a makeshift in the absence of the more fitting material. But, as there are some parts of our country where the use of it is an economic ne- cessity we make it a subject for our pages. There is a common practice amongst builders in concrete to put up wooden trenches around the whole of a building, in which to east the compo- sition without joint. This is not at all as good a method as that which we have described, of moulding boxes. For, there is in the former a very great diffi- culty of avoiding swellings in the wall ; or in fact of keeping the work straight. It is, moreover, far more troublesome and dirty than the latter. The expense of making the moulds is repaid in the repeated use of them in other buildings. In the construction offence-walls, con- crete may be made to serve a gjod pur- pose ; but they should be carefully fin- ished with a sharp saddled coping, suf- ficiently steep to freely shed the rain water, and protect the wall. Such cop- ing or covering should be of shingles, slates, boards or flag stone. If of boards, or shingles, a good coat of gas- tar thickly sprinkled with fine sand, would be desirable. Beton is of French invention and is nothing more than concrete of another form. Indeed it is used by the French engineers more as a material for hjdyau-