Page:EB1911 - Volume 17.djvu/865

 forms dowelling is frequently necessary for greater stability. The joints C and D are more elaborate and much more expensive on account of the extra labour involved in working and fitting.

Where a concentrated weight is carried by piers or columns the bed joints are in many cases formed without the use of mortar, a thin sheet of milled lead being placed between the blocks of stone to fill up any slight inequalities.

Moulded Work.—The working of mouldings in stone is an important part of the mason’s craft, and forms a costly item in the erection of a stone structure. Much skill and care is required to retain the arrises sharp and the curved members of accurate and proportionate outline. As in the case of wood mouldings, machinery now plays an important part in the preparation of stone moulded work. The process of working a stone by hand labour is as follows: The profile of the moulding is marked on to a zinc template on opposite ends of the stone to be worked; a short portion, an inch or two in length termed a “draught,” is at each end worked to the required section. The remaining portion is then proceeded with, the craftsman continually checking the accuracy of his work with a straight-edge and zinc templates. A stone to be moulded by machinery is fixed to a moving table placed under a shaped tool which is fixed in an immovable portion of the machine, and is so adjusted as to cut or chip off a small layer of stone. Each time the stone passes under the cutter it is automatically moved a trifle nearer, and thus it gradually reduces the stone until the required shape is attained.

Iron in Stonework.—The use of iron dowels or cramps in stonework, unless entirely and permanently protected from oxidation is attended by the gravest risks; for upon the expansion of the iron by rusting the stone may split, and perhaps bring about a more or less serious failure in that portion of the building. A case in point is that of the church of St Mary-le-Strand, London, where the ashlar facing was secured to the backing with iron cramps; these were inefficiently protected from damp, with the result that many of the blocks have been split in consequence of rusting. John Smeaton in his Eddystone Lighthouse used dowels of Purbeck marble.