Page:The Building News and Engineering Journal, Volume 22, 1872.djvu/209

 Marca 8, 1872. THE BUILDING NEWS. 193 a The only objectionable feature in the project seems the price of admission. The expense will be to most Londoners really doubled by the cost of access, and the penny Sunday admission will fail to attract many respectable workmen. We think the company might very well fix a lower rate of ad- mission. They will have no heavy rent charge to pay, and the cost of their water supply will be much lighter than that borne by other bath proprietors, none of whom charge more than the new company proposes to do. The proprietors of the Endell-street swimming bath provide c/ean water, a dressing-box in which it is possible to turn without grazing one’s elbows, and two large well-warmed towels, for 4d. But for the great drawback of its very limited area, it would be the best bath in London. With water and locus standi, in all probability for next to nothing, we'think the new company might very well adopt a fourpenny rate of admission. —__>——_ PUBLIC WORKS IN INDIA. N previous occasions we have referred to the blundering and mismanagement which seem to prevail in the Indian Public Works Department. In alecture delivered recently at the United Service Institution, Captain Ross, R.A., threw a strange light on some of the recent failures in Indian public works. In order to enforce the need of greater chemical knowledge in officers entrusted with the supervision of public works, he cited the contrast between the strength of old native buildings, which have stood and will stand for centuries, and the constant tendency of the fine new Indian barracks to tumble down. An inquiry into one of these failures resulted in showing that the mortar used in building the barracks contained only 5 per cent. of lime. This led to the late Lord Mayo’s demand for infor- mation as to the best materials for making good cement. To us (says Allen’s Indian Mail) at the time it seemed strange that such a question should have to be asked in such a country as India, where old buildings and good lime have always abounded. We now learn from Captain Ross that the cause of the above-named failures was really due less to native rascality than to our own officers’ ignorance of chemistry. It turns out that the well-known hunka, used in India for road metal, and by the Public Works’ officers for making mortar, is not car- bonate of lime, nor lime in any shape, although it possesses some of the properties of lime. Under the action of rain, the cement made from -this hunka is rapidly washed away, and the building tumbles down. It is pleasant to think that if English officers had understood chemistry, a good many millions might not have been thrown away on huge buildings, which not only serve as heat-traps, but fall to pieces in wet weather. If all this be true, it is time that something should be done to render these Public Works’ failures impossible for the future. —————— THE OLD CESSPOOLS OF LONDON. T the time of the introduction of the water- closet and sewerage system into London, the old cesspits were in comparatively few instances emptied of their contents and filled up with earth, as they should haye been. They were covered in as they were, so that in all the older suburbs of London are to be found at the present time (though their existence is frequently unsuspected) a large number of these accumulations of filth, which, besides con- taminating the well-water in their neighbourhood, in the hot weather give off most poisonous exhala- tions. The carrying out of a new railway or a new street in such localities reveals the extent to which the mischief resulting from this hideous honeycomb- ing of the soil might possibly go, and, in addition, necessitates the entire abolition of all the cesspits in its way, and so far a great sanitary benefit results from the execution of such new street or railway. But ought the removal of these old cesspools, chock- full of soil, to be left to such chance accidents as the making of a new street or the laying of a new line of railway? Clearly not. The sanitary authori- ties of the districts in which such cesspools are known to exist should do their duty in this matter, and if not already invested with sufficient powers should seek additional aid from the Legislature. These remarks have been suggested by an incident men- tioned by Mr. W. Lawford, Member Inst. Civil Engineers, in a paper recently read by him before the Civil and Mechanical Engineers’ Society on the con- struction of the city branch of the North London Railway, which extends from Dalston to Broad- street. Mr. Lawford, who was resident engineer to the work, said that in nearly all the small yards or gardens attached to the houses, and even in some of the houses themselves, cesspools were encountered. There was scarcely one yard or garden without one césspool in it, in several there were two or three, and, in one, five cesspools! No wonder, as Mr. Lawford observed, that typhus and scarlet fever, diphtheria, and smallpox had often broken out in that part of the metropolis. In all cases, the cess- pools were emptied of their foul contents (they were all full of soil), and filled up with concrete. Mr. Lawford owned it was a hard thing for the lower classes to be displaced from their dwellings without having adequate accommodation made for them else- where, and said it was a wise provision on the part of our legislature which required railway companies to provide houses, &e,, for those amongst the lower classes who were displaced by the construction of our metropolitan lines. Notwithstanding’these accumu- lations of nastiness, the occupiers of the wretched tenements stuck to them with astonishing perti- nacity. Such ‘accumulations of nastiness” are to be found in abundance in other parts of London than Shoreditch and Kingsland-road; to our own knowledge there are plenty of them in the older parts of Newington and Walworth. Smallpox has been very prevalent of late all over London, and who can say how far that fearful epidemic has been induced by the noxious emanations from cess- pools? An outbreak of cholera has been appre- hended for the last two or three years, and the knowledge that old and long-filled cesspools exist in such numbers is of serious importance taken in this connection. The subject is an old one, and has been written upon over and over again, but the evil, to a large extent, still remains, greatly to the scandal of our boasted progress in sanitary science during the past twenty years. By the way, we should be glad to know which of the metropolitan railway compa- nies has provided dwellings for those displaced by the extension of its lines, and to what extent this has been carried out. —————— THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. A’ the meeting of this Society on Tuesday, the 5th March, Mr. Hawksley, President, in the chair, nine candidates were balloted for and declared to be duly elected, viz.:—Mr. Russel Aitken, late Engineer to the Municipality of Bombay; Mr. Charles Buchanan Ker, Teddington; and Mr. George Thomas Livesey, Engineer to the South Metropolitan Gas Company, as Members; and Mr. Alexander Morton Bell, Lee; Mr. William Henry Fox, Bromp- ton, Kent; Mr. Josiah Harding, Stud. Inst. C.E., Valparaiso, Chili; Lieutenant William Henry Hay- don, R.E., Ex. Engineer, P.W.D., Bombay ; Captain Robert Francis Taylor, Ex. Engineer, P.W.D., Madras; and Mr. Hamilton Ela Towle, New York, as Associates. The Council reported that, acting under the pro- visions of the bye-laws, they had recently trans- ferred Messrs. Joseph Brierley and William Powell from the class of Associate to that of Member; and had admitted the following candidates students of the Institution, viz.:—Messrs. George Edward Abrahams, Roderick William Fraser, Joseph Jones Gardiner, John Prittie Head, James Charles Inglis, Sydney Taber Mowbray, and Charles Reginald Parkes. pa tig THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS. T a special general meeting of this Institute, held on Monday, the 4th inst., the Royal Gold Medal annually bestowed (subject to her Majesty’s sanction) on some distinguished architect or archmo- logist, was awarded to Professor Freidrich Schmidt, of Vienna, President of the Austrian Institute of Engineers and Architects, and holding the Govern- ment office of “ Oberbaurath,” a title nearly equiva- lent to that of our First Commissioner of Works. Professor Schmidt designed the new Roman Catholic Church at Vienna, the “‘Gymnasium” in the same city, the Dominicin Church at Diisseldorf, and many other buildings «’ importance. He is also an Honor- ary and Corres nding member of the Institute. The meet! = evinge next proceeded to consider the recommeudation of the Cuuncil respecting the award of the Soane Medallion and other Institute medals and prizes offered for designs, measured drawings of an- cient buildings, &e., the following adjudication was made :— The Soane Medallion and £50 (subject to the usual conditions as to Continental study) to Mr. Alfred Reading of Hall-road, Handsworth, Birmingham, for his design of a Town Hall. The Institute Silver Medal and five guineas to Mr. Frederick H. Reed, of London, for a series of elaborate and carefully-measured drawings illus- trating Tattersall Castle, Lincolnshire. A medal of merit to Mr. Frederick C. Deshon, of London, for a similar series of drawings illustrating All Saints Church, Edington, Wiltshire. In the same competition, the drawings submitted by Mr. John Langham, of Leicester, and Mr. C. Bryan Oliver, of Bath, were “ honorably mentioned.” The Students’ Prize in books to Mr. William Scott, of London, for his design for a staircase in a domestic building. The Council then announced their decision respect- ing the award of certain money prizes offered by Mr. H. W. Peek, M.P., for the best series of drawings illustrating the restoration of Eastbury Manor House, and the Convent Gateway, Barking, viz. :— The sum of £42 to Mr. T. E. C. Streatfield, for the best set of drawings of Eastbury Manor House; the sum of £20 to Mr. Philip J. Marvin for the second best set of drawing of the same subject; and the further sum of £10 to Mr. Philip J. Marvin for the best drawings of the old Convent Gateway, Barking. It should be understood that these prizes were offered by Mr. Peek, with the sole object of encourag- ing architectural study, and with no view to the “restoration ” of the building, which does not belong to him. It is proposed that the formal presentation of the Royal Gold Medal and the Institute prizes shall take place during the General Conference of Architects, which willbe held later in the season at the Institute. Thenext ordinary general meeting will take place on Monday, the 18thinst., when a paper will be read by Mr. Wyatt Papworth, ‘‘ On the Fall of a Church Dome, with suggestions for its construction on better principles.” ee FIREPROOF FLOORING. N invention has recently been patented by Mr. Lewis Hornblower, architect, of Liverpool, which, according to the Liverpool Mercury, is likely to supply a long-felt want in all large buildings containing valuable property exposed to fire. The question to be solved has been the production of a floor with the minimum amount of inflammable material with the greatest amount of carrying power, the inflammable material to be so placed in the mass that it should be protected from the chance of contact with fire, and at the same time be com- posed of a substance which would be subject to the least disturbance by the action of expansion and contraction, After many experiments, the idea struck Mr. Hornblower of trying a combination of sheet iron, fire-clay hollow tubes, and Portland cement concrete—the sheet iron and fire-clay tubes forming, as it were, the skeleton of the structure, while the concrete would act like the muscles of the human frame, and knit the whole together in a firm and homogeneous mass. Experiments were made, and the result has proved a decided success. In ad- dition to the floor being a non-conductor of heat and perfectly fireproof, the hollow tubes forming the framework of the floor solve the question of venti- lation, and would also act as a conduit for distribut- ing hot air to the various rooms of the house. The space taken up by the depth of the floor is not greater than that of ordinary joists and boards—in fact, only 9in. Two specimens of the flooring have been erected in the building yard of Messrs. Parker and Son, behind the municipal offices in Dale-street. One specimen, 7ft. 6in. bearing between supports, with 3-in. wall hold at each end, and 14ft. wide, was completed January 23. It was loaded on Feb- ruary 10 with 31 tons of dead weight, or 34 tons per superficial yard, distributed over the whole surface. Another specimen, 15ft. Gin. bearing between sup- ports, and 7ft. wide, with Sin. wall hold at each end, was completed February 3. It was loaded February 24 with 6 tons of dead weight, on an area of Lit. 6in. wide, on either side of the transverse central line. This weight is equal to a load of 48 tons dis- tributed over the whole area, or 54 tons per super- ficial yard. The concrete was gauged in the pro- portion of four of well-washed gravel to one of Portland cement. The last sample broke in the centre on Thursday, February 29, by experiments made by Mr. Grant, C.E., associated with Mr. Bazalgette, C.B., C.E., of the Metropolitan Board of Works. It shows that Portland cement concrete does not attain its full tensile strength for years, but surely and gradually gains tensile power. The same principle of construction can be applied to walls, roofs, and partitions; in fact, a partition 44in. thick constructed in this manner would be per- fectly fireproof, and quite as firm and rigid as a 9-in. wall. For warm climates this invention would be in- valuable for floors, flat roofs, Ge. Parquetry floor- ing or boarded floors can be constructed upon the fireproof flooring, and perfectly safe; staircases can with equal facility be formed by this combination of material.