Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857.djvu/391

Rh who attended me with his servants, and answered all my inquiries, I was enabled to make a more minute examination of the interior of the house, and to record some most instructive cases of disturbance by the shock, giving measures at once of wave direction and of velocity.

Of these, one of the most valuable in deduction, is the overthrown stone and brick breast, of the "camine," or chimney hood, of the kitchen adjoining the great dining-room. This room was in the north wing of the building. The chimney hood was built, against the south side, of a wall running nearly east and west; so that a normal to its face, was north 10° E.

The chimney breast, which is accurately represented from careful measurements, in b, &c. Fig. 175, consisted of three blocks of Apennine limestone; two being vertical side jambs, and the third an imposited lintel, with a little brickwork superimposed, to complete the junction with the flue in the wall.

Fig b, 175 is the "camine," in front elevation, Fig. b, &c., 175 in ground plan, Fig. b, 175 in vertical mid section transverse to the line of wall. The dotted lines, show it as it stood before the earthquake, the hard lines representing the respective positions, in which I found the three blocks of stone lying, on the floor with the loose brick and plaster rubbish (chiefly) in the midst just as they had fallen; and Photog. No. 183 represents their appearance, and that of the wall from which they had been separated. The three blocks of stone merely stood against, the face of the chimney recess of the wall, and were made good to it with mortar, as was also the bit of pyramidal brickwork above the lintel. There was no bonded connection between them, nor any