Page:The Building News and Engineering Journal, Volume 22, 1872.djvu/328

 510 THE BUILDING NEWS. Aprm, 19, 1872; on eee eee ee India Office by Sir Digby Wyatt should be seen. Ido not know the cost of this work. With regard to the fountain of which an illus- tration is given, I should mention the diameter is 18in., and the height about 20ft.; the cost of this was £120, exclusive of the water- pipes. My reader, with the dimensions I have given, and this drawing, can work out what the cost would be in stone. It cer- tainly is wonderful that artificial stone should be used for such a purpose, but that it can stand frost and all the changes of temperature has beenadmitted for some years past. Non-osmatic action.—This is stated to beso by, I think, all the makers of artificial stone, but I know of no experiments by eminent chemists to which I can refer for confirma- tion. Strength.—According to Professor Ansted’s experiments, it appears that the strength of Ransome’s silicated sandstone is to that of Portland stone, in the ratio of 2,122 to 7593, or nearly threefold, and the best Portland stone is four times the strength of the best Bath stone. Does not require preserving processes.— This must be a great advantage if stone cannot be used in large towns without the application of these processes. No burning necessary.—Herein it has a great advantage over terra-cotta, as there can be no warping, and the buildings will not be delayed by reason of unsuccessful burning, as sometimes happens with terra-cotta. Nore.—May it be considered an advantage to have the warrant for the stone from manu- facturers whose direct interest it is that it shall be good over the natural quarry stone, where the stone merchant is bound to supply, and where the good beds may be worked out, or from other causes, only aninferior stone can be supplied. This is worth consideration ; one thing is clear, the artificial stone manu- facturers can, if they choose, supply their stone invariably of the same quality. Disadvantages. — Uniformity. Prejadice. Temptation to use existing moulds. Nothaving been sufficiently long known to be able to judge of its enduring character. Uniformity.—No doubt the temptation to repeat ornament because it saves expense is really a drawback. Unquestionably the artist architect would like each ornament to differ from all the rest, and as unquestionably the British public do prefer having a quantity for their outlay, and will give preference, there- fore, to artificial stone. Prejudice. — Professor Kerr, in his en- deayour to combat the prejudice, began by showing that mortar is artificial stone, think- ing, no doubt, that if he showed that what we were accustomed to use was scientifically considered artificial stone, he would succeed in breaking down a barrier to the use of this new material. He went on also to give the scientific description of perfect concrete. It is a calcareous stone magnified in scale. Still, however, the prejudice or dislike continues. Temptation to use existing moulds.—I haye already shown that this is a serious drawback, which can only be prevented by architects putting in their contracts that the moulds shall be broken up, directly the speci- fied number are made. Not having been sufficiently long known to be able to judge of its enduring character. —This can scarcely be classified amongst dis- advantages, but should be more properly called a reason for the careful use of the material, and the watching year by year the atmospheric effect thereon. Treatment.—Is it right to treat artificial stone as the natural stone is treated? This is fairly a debatable point. It may be urged on the one side that it is really stone, and can be worked with the chisel, and, there- fore, is entitled to the same decorative treat- ment. On the other side, it may be said, that to use it in its cheapest form, it should be made in moulds, and that it would be absurd to make square blocks and work them into the form required, when they can be moulded at once; and that, therefore, the treatment should be distinct, and that it should not be manufactured to deceive people, and make them believe they are looking at natural stone. I do not think that enough has been made of this material by the manufacturers. I believe a great and new field is still open. There exists a great demand for colour in external work, and probably the demand is extending in the direction of masses of warm colour, not the small cut-up pieces of coloured brickwork which are so justly condemned. If this be so, what scope does this material afford—instead of expensive polished marbles (which must be polished to bring into full effect the colour, to which I have pre- viously referred and pointed out the objec- tions) we have a material which may be made any colour, into which varied-pat- terned coloured work may be let in during manufacture. I saw (I may mention) at East Greenwich, a chimney-piece in imita- tion of red granite, with an inlay of dif- ferent colours that was a very clever imi- tation. I think there are so many beautiful colours and decorations without any direct imitation of Nature, that I consider it un- necessary to imitate (even though it can be done so successfully as in this case) even if it could be justified by the canons of Art. Another method of treatment I would suggest, either alone or in combination with the last. The use of large blocks, larger than can be obtained of the natural stones, monolithic pilasters, and columns of varied tints or plain colour: something that, by its very size, shall be the antithesis of the brick, to which has been applied the un- pleasant term of a mean material. With such treatment I would endeavour to have little in common with stone. I would have incised work and diaper (taking care that the diaper should be larger in pattern as it is placed further from the eye), panelled work, deep lintels with heavy mouldings, few, if any, arches, and those few-eut out of the stone. These suggestions, if well thought over, would enable some of one’s professional brethren, should he find a client who will let him thus give play to his inventive faculty, to give the world a new method of expression in this new material. Book. —————- 6° ON THE CLEANSING OF RIVERS. HAT rivers have become most terribly polluted in this country is well known. In the manufacturing districts they have been for a number of years used not only as common sewers, but as places of deposit for ashes and all kinds of refuse, and in other parts of the country where the sanitary laws enacted some 30 years or more ago have been put in force rivers haye been commonly adopted as the natural ontfalls of the sewage of towns, until they have been rendered unfit for any use. The chief result of the recommendations of the Rivers Pollution Commissions has been to turn the attention of town authorities to the irrigation of land with the sewage as the best means of purify- ing it before its entry imto rivers; but another method of accomplishing the end in view has recently been set forth by Mr. C. Ki. Austin, M. Inst. C.E., who has had a plan in operation for four years at West Worthing, and for some months at Surbiton, by the adoption of which, supplemented by other works and appliances which he men- tions, he thinks everything will be accom- plished that is required. It may be said that on the sewage question Mr. Austin is original both in his plan and in his words. As if he thought that the word sewage had been wrongly derived, he has it ‘‘sulliage,” and says the present day is the infaney of the study of ‘cloacial necessities,” and calls the contents of sewers ‘* cloacial sulliage.” However, without quar- relling with new terms, let us see what his plan is. Mr. Austin treats the subject under three heads—viz., (1) the integrate matter which passes into the natural watercourses ; ©) the disintegrate matter, the produce of the former, and all matter in suspension; (3) the decomposed matter, precipitated and in solution ; and his plan is to exclude the two former and allow the latter to be absorbed by the natural animal and vegetable occu- pants of limpid waters, and thereby restrain it from becoming either noxious or deleterious to man. The first-named of these matters (the in- tegrate) he considers to proceed from the dust and other refuse thrown into the water- courses, the second (the disintegrate) from the surface of land bordering the watercourses, and the third from the sewers. It is hoped, as the authorities in whose charge the natural watercourses are placed become more strict, and as the inhabitants of the towns, who now dispose of their refuse by means of the nearest stream, become better informed of the means established for its collection and utilisation, as well as of the injury done to the whole community by the pollution of its water- supply, that this first source—yiz., the illicit disposal of refuse in the nearest stream, will cease and determine, and thus the first source of impurities will be diverted. The impurities flowing from the second source of pollution are proposed to be ex- tracted in the following manner :— A floating boom and grating are to be con- structed for this purpose, and placed above each and every weir, in such a manner, and at such a distance, as to allow fish to pass up and down stream between the boom and the top of the weir. It is intended to be so formed as (1) to arrest any floating dead matter in its downward course; (2) not to impede the flow of water in the river ; and (3) to be easily cleared by a man with a rake, who should daily remove all the floating matter from the boom to a strainer hung below the weir opposite an opening in the grating. The extracted matter is to be used on the spot as fuel or as manure. Besides this means of excluding from the river impurities brought down by floods, a ditch, of a general width of six feet, is to be cut on both sides the river, all along the line of the ordinary flood-level, and a hedge or close fence planted on the side next the river. This ditch would, in the neighbourhood of towns, generally serve the purpose of an m- tercepting sewer for the effluent water puri- fied in the manner hereafter to be described, and should in such situations be of a depth sufficient to contain water at all times during the ordinary summer flow, and have direct communication through screens or gratings with the river. It is to be stocked with fish, and, where it could be done, the ditch should be widened and filled with water plants. — Having in this manner dealt with the inte- grate and the disintegrate impurities, Mr. Austin proceeds to describe the method of dealing with the sewage, or, as he says, the sulliage. From the sewers the solid matters are to be extracted daily by placing in the branch sewers strainers so constructed that whilst not impeding in any material degree the flow of the sulliage, they should catch all the matter in suspension, and, when re- quired, impregnate the passing fluids with deodorants and precipitants. These strainers are portable, and are placed in shafts or chambers, placed at such points on the drain- age as that each shall receive the sewage of a population of about 3,000. Inthe centre of the chamber a manure box is fitted in such manner as to receive all the solid matter passing from the sewer ; and the manure box is enclosed in a strainer, sO ar- ranged as to allow the fluid portion of the sewage to flow through it into the chamber, but to detain the solid parts, and cause them