Page:The Building News and Engineering Journal, Volume 22, 1872.djvu/48

 32 eee ooNa—raaeeeeeee j together do whatever in them lies to produce such a result as will be both creditable to them, and a blessing, as well as an honour, to the community at large. The noble and now venerable monuments of the past before alluded to were not produced by magic—modern science having fairly disposed of the pichts, gnomes, and fairies of our youthful ideas !— they were produced by each individual in his own sphere doing the work that lay to his hand well. The smith had to make and sharpen the tools, the mason had to use them, and though only classed and looked upon as “labourers,” yet we see what noble results able supervision could cause the Egyptian slave and the English “labourer” to produce. To come to the point, however, we must now go on with our remarks upon plumbing. “The roof is ready” is generally the signal which brings the plumber upon the scene. The mason begins at the foundation or the bottom, the plumber begins, however, at the top. The mason (or bricklayer, &c., as the case may be) has carried up the walls to their destined height, the joiner has done his share, so far, by laying the joists and doing the woodwork of the roof, and now the plumber has to do his part at making things water- tight, and conveying away the rain-water which may fall upon the roof. There are many ways of doing this, just as it happens to be a large or a small roof, a simple or a complex one, a cheap job, where nothing but plain half-circle runs are allowed, or one where tons of lead may be required for the gutters, sques or flashings, flanks or valleys, skylight openings or win- dows, points, ridges, and perhaps one or more platforms, &c. If it be a plain roof with two gables, we will say that only simple half- circle iron rhones are to be put along the eaves on back and front of house. In such a case a 44in. rhone or run, which is a common size, may do ; although they can be had from 3in. diameter upwards. These 44in. cast iron rhones, of which this is a section, are generally cast in 6ft. lengths, Mica! with a faucit at one end; but, of course, short pieces can be had to any length, or as much can be cut or chipped off a full length as to reduce it to the size desired, and anew hole for rhone- bolt has then to be drilled. Angles, also, can be had of different shapes to fit or turn all sorts of corners. If one rhone is merely to go along the front of house, and another along the back, then, for whatever length, this may be the style of rhone, with two close ends and a drop, or pap, which drop is, of course, inserted into the top of the conductor or rain-water pipe, or rather, as the rhone is generally put up first, the conductor is slipped up upon it, thus. The close ends may behad Go —SCsether loose or cast on, but V7 the pap is cast along with rhone. In cases where the conductor has an ornamental rain-water head at top, then the drop and one close end is often dispensed with. and the rhone allowed to run quite openly into the head, thus. The drop is best, however, and both prevents water run- ning back under rhone and makes the best finish. The iron rhone we have been speaking of is supported by malleable iron hooks about 14 or 1jin. broad, and from jin, to Jin. thick. This hook is made to fit outside of run, so that rhone may lie in it, and while at highest end of rhone the hook is shallow, at other end, owing to the declivity which the rhone requires the hook has to be deeper, thus. The hooks are fastened with twoslate nails or with screws, as shown. In Some cases they have to be let into the stone, when THE BUILDING NEWS. they are either wedged in firmly, or else, hole being cut in stone, top end of hoop is bent down, and being inserted into hole, the hole is run with lead thus, just as the exigencies of the case may re- quire and the circumstan - ces allow. To make the hooks for a 44in. SGA__sthone about (say) 48ft. long (which gives eight six-feet lengths, minus about 14in. off for each slip if lengths are cast exactly 6ft. long) will re- quire about 27ft. of hoop iron, as allowing two hooks for each length, or one hook every 3ft., there will be seventeen hooks, and each piece of a different length. The shortest piece of iron for hooks is 18in. long, which allows 1lin. to go up the roof, and 7in. to support rhone; every other piece is cut a little longer, say, one-eighth of an inch, which in this case where the rhone is supposed to have arun all to one end, gives about two inches of decli- vity, or a quarter of an inch to each length. When cut the piecesare arranged so, andamark struck across from A to C, A being 7in. from end B, and C 9tin. from end D, which gives 7 + 11 = 18in. as length for shortest hook, and 94 + 11 + 201in. as length of longest hook, the others being all interme- diate between these. The pieces at ends B D may then be heated and bent square ——~--—. at mark A — C, and being again f heated at same end the points B— D are, one by one, put into the nose of an iron mould, and the hook formed by the hoop iron being bent over it as sketch. Two or three holes haying been punched for nails, as before shown, the hooks when brought to a mild heat are tarred, and after cooling are ready for use. In place of tarring the hook, when time allowsit may be painted, first with a coat of red lead, and then a coat of paint same colour as the rhones.* Each of above lengths of rhone have a faucit, and a spigot or plain end, the plain end of one lapping over or slipping into the faucit of next length, and the joint made tight with putty or red lead, the spigot of one length and the faucit of the other being squeezed together, and kept tight by means of the rhone bolt and nut, thus :— When rhones are put up it & 4 sometimes happens that they are ae blown down in a gale of wind ; to prevent that, however, the rhone should either be tied to hook with a’ piece of strong copper wire, or else pieces of hoop iron are fixed to the roof at one end, and the other end put over the rhone to protect it and keep it down, thus. For zinc stone the hooks Saal have to be made in the same style, but the lengths of zine rhone, in place of being screwed together, with putty, &e., are soldered; while to keep the rhone in its place a rhone-belt can be passed through bottom of rhone and through a hole made for it in centre of hook, and so keep it fast, as here shown. ‘The rhone . eae c bolts we have J spoken of are about lin. “J long, and quarter inch thick, and holes in rhones are, of course of a corre- sponding size. Sheet lead used to be largely used for these half-circle rhones, but it is now getting out of use in many cases on account of the large adoption of cast iron, or, as in some cases, of malleable iron for the purpose. In our next we shall treat of ornamental rhones, gutters, &e, (To be continued.) tarring are required, Jan. 12, 1872. CIVIL AND MECHANICAL ENGINEERS’ SOCIETY. - 4 A T the usual fortnightly meeting of this ‘society ¢ Past President, in the chair, on Friday evening last, Mr. J. B. Walton, Mr. C. Kinesrorp read a paper ON THE CYLINDERS FOR THE ALBERT BRIDGE. After some introductory remarks, Mr. Kingsford described the general modus operandi of ordinary loam-casting in a foundry, that being the method by which the cylinders for the Albert Bridge are being produced. As this will be familiar to most of our civil engineering readers, and as our space is limited, we pass on to give the substance of the im- mediate subject of the paper. In the arrangement of the piers, as originally designed by the engineer, Mr. Ordish, it was intended to build up the external casings with cast iron flanged plates, bolted together in cylinders, the piers when complete to be filled up with concrete. The lower portion of each pier was to be 21ft. in diameter for the first 9ft. in height, and from thence the piers were to be con- tracted to 15ft. diameter by means of tapering plates for another 9ft., and from thence to the road- way the piers were to have a diameter of 15ft. The circumference of the lower part was to have been cast in twelve segments, each plate to be 9ft. high; the upper parts of the piers in eight segments; all - the flanges, both vertical and horizontal, were to be bolted together and caulked. Plates of these dimen- sions require to be cast with great care in order to keep them from buckling in cooling, otherwise a great deal of labour is wasted in chipping and adjusting them to bring in the bolt-holes, and this would have to be done in the river, causing great delay and expense. It would have been impracticable to transport such large castings as 21ft. cylinders from the country, but the Battersea Foundry being situated so close to the proposed bridge, Mr. Kings- ford thought it quite feasible to attempt to cast them in rings or cylinders in loam, instead of in plates as at first postponed, and he mentioned it to Mr. Ordish, who agreed that it would be preferable if practicable. Before undertaking, however, such large castings, there were several very essential points to be considered. The foundry at Battersea is 150ft. long by 75ft. wide; the portion specially set apart for loam work is traversed by a travelling crane of 30ft. span, carried by the external wall on one side and by a row of columns and girders running down the centre of the foundry on the other. The eupolas (three in number) are situated at the end of the traveller’s run. The only available portion of the loam ground that could be set apart for the purpose* of casting these cylinders was about 80ft. by 30ft. under the traveller, as none of the cranes would be powerful enough to lift such heavy cores and cast- ings. The space necessary to build the cope for the 21ft. cylinders would be at least 30ft., and nearly the same for the core; thus G0ft. of the 80ft. would be, disposed of, leaving only 20ft. for the 15ft. cylinders. It was necessary, therefore, to arrange for casting them alternately, building first a 21it. core, and then a 15ft. core in the same ground, thus economising space, The next point for consideration was how to get the castings out of the foundry, as it was quite evident at a glance that they must be got out on edge, as the doors were only 1dft. wide, and could not be widened without endangering the superstructure. There was sufficient height, for- tunately, to enable them to be lifted clear of the ground in this position, and rolling them down to the water's edge suggested itself as the best mode of delivery. These questions ascertained and settled, Mr. Kingsford’s suggestion that the piers should be cast in cylinders instead of in plates was adopted. The production of such large castings is in reality a matter for the civil engineer quite as much as for the founder, for whereas in most cases the foreman at the foundry is left pretty much to his own re- sources and ingenuity to construct as he pleases his own tools and appliances, in this case it was not necessary for the engineer to aid him in well defining and reducing to accurate calculation the several strains likely to be met with and provided againstin the construction of the mould, and the whole was thoroughly digested and laid down on paper before commencing the work. In spite of a'l these pre- cautions, however, the strength required was under- estimated, for the first cast was a failure, the brick- work in the core being too weak and giving way to the pressure of the metal. It was feared that the traveller was of insufficient power to carry a core of the size required with a wall of brickwork Qin. thick, and which, it was calculated, would weigh, with the necessary iron in it, very nearly 18 tons ; so the core was made of 4}in. work, with piers about 5ft. apart, and its weight did not much exceed ten tons. Every other detail appeared to be satisfac-
 * When galvanized hoop iron is used neither heating nor