Page:The Building News and Engineering Journal, Volume 22, 1872.djvu/327

 Aprit 19, 1872. THE BUILDING NEWS. 309 THE BUILDING NEWS. ad LONDON, FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 1872. HOW TO BUILD SCIENTIFICALLY WITH THE AID OF MODERN IN- VENTIONS.—XI. ARTIFICIAL STONE. HAT we have to consider artificial stone as a building material shows how neces- sary it is for us to keep adding to our store of knowledge, and not to continue building with the old materials simply because our fore- fathers used them. No, we must inquire into all novelties, and endeavour to find out if they are good, and then use them tenta- tively at first, and after proving them by time we may advise general adoption. In speaking of the artificial building stones, T need not go farther back than the year 1864, when the Institute received the report of a committee they had appointed in 1863 on this subject. We find they experimented on Mons. Coignet’s patent stone, Wheeble’s patent concrete stone (Reading Abbey), Bodmer’s patent compressed stone bricks, and Ransome’s patent stone. Unfortunately their yaluable report is limited to the behaviour of the various materials under one test only— namely, strength under pressure, and it, therefore, gives us little assistance in con- sidering the general advantages and disad- vantages of the material. It may be well to enumerate the various materials of which the different stones were composed : they were as follows :—Mons. Coignet’s stone consisted of different proportions of the following materials :—Coarse sand and gray stone lime ; sand, gray stone lime and Portland cement ; sand and blue lias lime; sand, blue lias lime, and Portland cement. Ransome’s: Sand, ballast, and clay; sand and chalk ; ballast, sand, andchalk. Wheeble’s : Gravel and hy- draulic lime. Bodmer’s: Silicious sand and hydraulic lime. Though only seven years have passed, so rapid has been the progress made, that the artificial stone of to-day is a great advance on that tested by this committee. Thinking of this progress when I had to consider and put on paper the exact position I consider artificial stone should hold now, I determined to try and see the material in the various stages of manufacture, so that I might be sure I was acquainted with the latest facts and methods. Of course, I could under- stand all the manufactures where the processes consisted in the mere admixture of the mate- rials, which comprised all the methods known, I believe, until Mr. Ransome commenced his new method of boiling down flints. I therefore wrote to Mr. Ransome, asking permission to visit his works at Greenwich. Receiving such permission, I spent several hours there, and acquired much information. If I were asked with what portion of the pro- cesses I was most struck, I should certainly reply with the boiling down of the flint into a liquid, and the use of the sucker to draw Lh ba fe eh 8 i" ‘ Sip to the results, leaving to that science the difficult words, caustic solution, chloride of calcium, silicate of soda, silicate of lime, chloride of sodium, oxychloride of magne- sium, &e. Speaking, then, of artificial stone as a build- ing material, let us first (pursuing the method we have heretofore adopted) consider its Advantages.—Use of materials otherwise use- less. Cheapness. Power of production of large quantities with diminished expense. Non- osmatic action. Strength. Does not require preserving processes. No burning necessary. Use of materials otherwise useless.— Though this advantage appertains more to the question of general prosperity of the country, still, to a limited extent, it does con- cern the architect. It must also be a satis- faction to feel one is giving elegant form to dust and rubbish. Cheapness.—The price of plain work, com’ pared with the Bath and the other cheaper kinds of stone, is less, but the difference is very trifling ; of course it will be affected by the relative distance from the quarry and the works to the required spot. In ornamental work the expense does not increase in the same ratio as stone work with increased ela- boration of ornamentation. Power of production of large quantities with diminished expense—As the same moulds when once made will produce almost any quan- tity, this advantage is self-evident, and there- fore where a large quantity of one pattern is required, artificial stone is very much cheaper than the cheapest stone that can be used. As examples of this, | would quote the prices charged for the vases and terminals supplied for the new 8. Thomas's Hospital in accord- ance with the designs of the architect. Height. Greatest width. Price each. ft. in. ft. in. 2%, S000: fh Die coher DT A ces 414 6 Ol Ometenere. OO ete SaOm Bin ds.) ee org. ae 6 6 0 A Oren tes Sips Ol Dicaeare 515 6 Mr. Henry Currey, speaking favourably of this material, says, ‘‘ that had it not been for this useful material, I should have probably had to be content with the long line of balus- trading unbroken by any vase or terminal, The pedestals would have remained vacant, as they do in many instances where designed for sculpture, but the sculpture never arrives. It harmonises well with the Portland stone, and although many of our professional brethren would hesitate to use any artificial material, I venture to think that such hesita- tion may be carried to excess.” through the stones the solutions to harden them. It matters little to the architect what the | st material be made from, for he has to deal | New Zealand. with the result. The explanations belong more to chemistry ; I therefore pass at once ' 1lin.,price £6 ds. Further to enable my reader to compare supplied for the Government Post-oflice, Composite capital for pilaster 1ft. 6in. by The elaborate screen at the ,
 * prices, I would quote the cost of the capitals