Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/96

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NOTES AND QUERIES, [io< s. m. JAN. 2s, 1005.

in many parts of this city up to a dozen years ago. The method of opening and closing the doors was somewhat ingenious. There was no conductor, and passengers were supposed to place their fares in a box with a glass front placed at the remote end of the bus. Immediately under the driver's feet was a j wooden arrangement of the nature of a lever, to which was attached a strap. This strap went along the top of the bus (inside) and was fastened to the top of the door. To open the door the driver took his foot from the " brake," and the door flew open ; to close the door he would again press the lever with his foot. CHAS. F. FORSHAW, LL.D.

Baltimore House, Bradford.

1 take the following from a diary of 1845:

" When we landed [at Aberdeen], poor dear papa had great difficulty in getting a minibus, and grand- j mama was so ill, he thought, after we got into the I minibus, he must have stopped it and got a doctor." I

" Mamma and my sister and brother came to meet us in a minibus at Granton Pier [Edinburgh], but as they were a little late, we were already out of the boat into the omnibus; however, my mother came to the door, and my beloved papa gave me out to her, and followed with the luggage."

" It poured a deluge of rain, and my dearest papa hired a minibus, and took us to call on Mrs. Hay and Miss Monro, also some shopping."

Edinburgh, 7 March, 1846 : "My sister and I went in a minibus with mama to Major Hope's, at Seatield, where we had lunch."

According to the above, " minibus " would appear to have been the then name for a cab, and to be distinct from "omnibus."

In New York in 1870 omnibuses had doors, to which was attached a strap, the other end of which was fastened to the driver's foot, so that he might be aware of the ingress or egress of any passenger, there being no guard. II. BARCLAY-ALLARDICE.

Lostwithiel.

MAZE AT SEVILLE (10 th S. ii. 508 ; iii. 54). From the vantage ground of an English sick- bed it gives me exquisite pleasure to look down on the lines of the little maze in the pavilion at the Alcazar in Seville. This I am enabled to do by the kindness of your correspondent A. F. G., to whom I feel very grateful. The brotherhood of 'N. & Q.' is a good and excellent thing ; but that needs no insistence from ST. SWITHIN.

BLOOD USED IN BUILDING (10 th S. ii. 389, 455 ; iii. 34). It was not sugar, in the English sense of the terra, that the natives of India used, and use, for hardening their mortar, but jaggery, an exudation of the palm tree, from which sugar can be, and in many places is, made. Probably the very

matter which makes it useful in hardening mortar is extracted when the sugar of com- merce is produced. The spire of St. Mary's, Fort St. George, was built with mortar hardenedinthisway. Thisison record (see'The Church in Madras,' p. 394). There can be no doubt that it was the custom at that time (1794) for the Company's engineers to use jaggery. At the present day it is regarded as an unscientific method ; but the natives continue the use of it. FRANK PENNY.

I doubt whether blood would be used in building for any but superstitious reasons. The explanation of its supposed use in ancient buildings given by DE. BRUSHFIELD is probably correct. Many years ago I was engaged in experiments, for the Public Works Department of the Madras Presidency, on the amelioration of the very unsatisfactory mortar made from the fat lime of Southern India : that is to say, with lime from shells, chalk, or other pure forms of limestone. Such mortar has very little strength, and even that is only acquired by drying ; but if the lime, before the addition of sand, be mixed with two or three parts of pounded brick (surkhi) it makes a cement which not only gives a mortar of great strength, for masonry, for concrete work, or for plastering, but also becomes strongly hydraulic, its tenacity being greatly increased if it sets under water, or is otherwise kept wet. The light brick colour of this mortar would very possibly be attributed by persons ignorant of its composition and fond of the marvellous to an admixture with blood. This cheap and strong hydraulic mortar was used by the Pvomans, pounded brick being used when natural puzzolana was not obtainable. The Indian builders of old used it with great success.

A question having been asked about the use of sugar for the improvement of mortar and plaster, I may mention that the Pro- ceedings of the Madras Government, Public Works Department, for 1875, contains, with an account of i\\Q surkhi mortar experiments, that of some investigations on the strength of fat-lime mortars made with the addition of some other substances ; among them the effect of sugar was considered. It was found to improve somewhat the strength of mortar and plaster made from fat lime, but the results were very poor compared to those of surkhi mortar, and the sugar mortar is quite devoid of hydraulic quality.

With regard to a statement that blood is used in South Africa to keep earth floors hard, it is possible that it might have that