Page:The Building News and Engineering Journal, Volume 22, 1872.djvu/186

 170 THE BUILDING NEWS. Marcu 1, 1872. ———O eee eee. Simply that the sentiment in the people should be studied—a sentiment, I believe, as false w@sthetically as it is possible to be, and injurious to the education of the masses. ‘To express it briefly itis, ‘‘ Give me the preference for that which is known to have cost an enormous sum of money to have erected, and to be bigger than anything that can be seen elsewhere, versus elegance, proportion, and beauty.” I have been led to this by finding how true it is that the great difficulty of producing a grand building in brick is due more to the spectator’s preconceived views than to the ab- sence of the power to do amongst my profes- sional brethren. As to colour, Gwilt mentions this as an objection, qualifying it, however, by saying form is much more essential to beauty that colour, Test.—Take two bricks and strike them to- gether, and if a clearringing soundis the result, the quality is good. The edges of the brick should be sharp. Should not absorb much water. (See p. 109 ante, for the quantity a good stock brick immersed in water will absorb in twenty- four hours.) I should not fulfill the duty I have undertaken if I omitted to mention a peculiar test. It is applied to the transverse strength. In an elaborate paper read in 1861, before the Institute, it is thus alluded to: ‘I thought it would exercise a healthy influence over the builder if we could agree upon some standard of quality, or means of testing at any time what bricks really were. Having ex- perienced a like benefit in testing for the last thirty years the strength of pig-iron pur- chased for my foundry, I desired that thirty bricks should be sent to me asanayerage sample of the kind he purposed using. I found that the average strength of these bricks was, as far as I recollect, about 1,3001b. When the bulk of the bricks was delivered, from the appearance not being favourable, we passed a number through the machine, and found the average strength was about 8001b. This same plan I pursue with any bricks I may now have to purchase, and although the transverse strength may not indicate all that itis desirable to know of the qualities of a brick, yet, if it comes up to a good average strength, the the brick is either made of goodmaterials, or, if of bad materials, the burning has been very good. Of course it is not expected that every brick will be tested, but as a couple of men with the testing machine I use can prove at least 300 per hour, that number would suffice to determine the quality of a vast quantity. Of course I do not mean that it can Le ascer- tained what is the breaking point of the bricks, but what is the bearing power up toa certain agreed standard of strength. If, for instance, you wanted to test bricks at Boston, where the mean strength is 5,064Ib., it might be considered that 4,000Ib. was a fair test. If bricks had been purchased at a tested strength in the year 260, at Uriconium, about 3,0001b., or if in London, in 1860, I would advise the bricklayerto limit his guarantee to 360lb., because, unfortunately, some have broken at 3601b. The method I have adopted of testing bricks, as we do our girders and beams, has not, I think, been usually adopted by others, the usual test being that of re- sistance to a crushing force.” Next week I purpose treating of the dif- ferent kinds of bricks. Ba ge PLUMBING.—IV. (Continued from page 96.) N the last article the manner of laying lead in stone cornice gutters, and up skews and flashings, was explained, both back and front gutters being uninterrupted in their whole length. Supposing, however, a building is taken which, in addition to its two gable chimneys, has a chimney C in centre of front elevation, as Fig. 1, of which Fig. 2 gives end or sectional view. In this case it will be seen that while the gutter channel is not in- terfered with, the back of lead gutter, instead of going up roof, stands up against front of chimney, as shown by dotted line D, Fig. 2. It does not, however, go into ragele E, for that would bind the lead too much; but top edge of lead is kept a little below raggle, being allowed to stand up about 3in. or so ; and, to prevent rain getting down the back of gutter, a long narrow strip of lead, called the “apron,” about 44in. broad— more or less according to circumstances—is put along front of chimney so as to overlap back of gutter. This ‘‘ apron” has its upper edge bent into raggle E, where it is held fast by lead bats, and the ragele afterwards filled up with cement or mastic. It has been said that back of gutter front- ing chimney has to be bent straight up, as at D, but as the gutter lead on each side of chim- ney lies back onroof, it followsthat the gutter at each front corner of chimney has to be made to fit said corners; this is done either by ‘‘ working” or beating the lead down so that it both lies on roof and also goes up side of chimney so far. When the lead is to be wrought back into its site, the plumber should take off the sharp edge of the stone corner first, so as both to help himself and prevent tearing the lead. In other cases, instead of working down the lead, some may slit it down close by each end of chimney, and bend it back, which of course does not thin it any, but causes the plumber to solder in a small piece to make up defi- ciency. Another plan is to have a separate piece of lead for the gutter along front of chimney, which would cause the gutter in Fig. 1 to be of three pieces; after laying which, there would require to be two soldered joints, ome at each corner of chimney. In this plan, while the lead for gutter on each side of chimney might be cut out at about 2ft. broad, that in front of chimney would only be about 1ft. 5in. broad. In laying all such gutters as these, the lead, being kept some distance higher at back than at front, should gutter get choked up by dirt or half- melted snow, there is plenty of margin for water running harmlessly over front with- out any getting inside. After gutter has been laid to fit chimney C, a lead “ flashing,” about 1lin. broad or so, has to be put up each side of chimney; its length—taking chimney at 2ft. thick—will be about 2ft. 10in., or more, according to pitch of roof. It bends round chimney a little at bottom, and at top goes up to back of chimney gutter at F, Fig. 2, whatever portion of lead flashing projects above sole, or bottom of gutter, being cut away. This chimney flashing is put into raggle, as described for chimney flashings in former article. After flashings are on, a lead gutter has to be laid along back of chimney, as per dotted line G, Fig. 2. The lead for gutters so situated may be of various breadths, according to pitch of roof, and the way carpenter has been directed to lay the wood ; a breadth often used is 1ft. 6in.—that is, against back of chimney, and the rest across wooden sole of gutter and up roof. And if we take the length of chimney at 9ft.—which is also the length of gutter at its back—then the length of lead will require to be about 10ft. 6in., as it has to extend out at each end as far as the outer edge of chimney flashings. It has also to be bent or wrought down over and round chimney flashings at each end, soas to overlap them. ‘The top of the chimney cutter on roof, as also its ends and the chimney flashings, require ‘‘ doubling” (or wooden fillet) to be put in under lead, as per H, Fig. 2, and I, Fig. 3, which latter shows lead of chimney flashing, as per dotted line. In some cases the plumber may make a small roll on the lead in place of putting wooden fillet underneath it; but the wooden fillet, as at I, Fig. 3, is better, and it pre- ‘vents the slater from beating down the lead to fit his slate, instead of making slate to fit lead. The back of chimney gutter is protected by an ‘‘apron,” put on in same manner as already described for front of chimney. I come now toa different form of gutter, where, instead of the gutter channel being cut out of top of cornice, as shownat page 95, there is a stone ‘‘ blocking-course ” built up above cornice, behind which is gutter, of which Fig. 4 gives section—the dotted line J being lead gutter, and K stone * blocking- course.” In this case gutter is of different shape from that at page 95, although lead required may be of the same breadth— viz., 2ft. When the lead for it is rolled out on roof it is marked off and set up to the shape of gutter, as shown by dotted line J, Fig. +; the 2ft.in breadth being taken up by, Sin. perpendicular upstand-