Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/35

* PILE. 10 PILES. gunpowder driver and the water-jet driver. The giinjiowder driver is seldom used and is worthy of mention chiefly for its novelty. It consists essentially of a heavy hollow cylinder with its bottom resting on the pile and its top open, which is called the gun. Into the top of the gun lits a sort of piston carrying on its top a mass of iron weighing about 1500 pounds, which is called the ram. In operation the ram is raised, a cartridge of from two to three ounces of gun- powder is placed in the gun, and the ram is let fall. In falling the piston enters the gun. com- pressing the air and causing sufficient heat to explode the cartridge, when the expansive force of the powder forces the pile down and the ram up. . cartridge is thrown into the gun each time the ram ascends. With this machine thirty to forty blows per minute can be struck with a fall of from eight feet to ten feet. The water jet is not strictly a pile-driver, but it is such a well- known method of pile-driving that it merits mention here. The method is very simple ; a jet of water is forced into the soil just below the point of the pile, thus loosening the soil and allowing the pile to sink either by its own weight or with very light blows. The water is conveyed to the point of the pile by a hose which is held to the pile by staples during sinking and pulled up to be used again after the pile is sunk. Timber piles sunk by the meth- ods just described support their loads partly by the friction of the soil on the sides of the pile and partly as a column by the point resting on an impenetrable mate- rial. There are two methods of determining the supporting power of a pile : I 1 ) to note its re- sistance to penetration under the last blow of the pile-driver ham- mer, and (2) to load the pile and observe the weight that it will safely stand. The former method is the one generally used, the latter being used simply as confirmatory evidence in doubtful cases. See Fouxdations. As previously stated, the two most common forms of iron piles are screw piles and disk piles. Sometimes the stem of such piles is of wood, while the screw and disk are of metal. Screw piles for engineering work usually have a shaft from three inches to eight inches in diameter, with screws from three feet to six feet in diameter. They are driven by rotating the shaft just as an ordinary wood screw is driven, capstan bars being usually employed to secure the screwing motion, although hydraulic screwing de- vices have been occasionally employed. Screw piles will ))enetrate all ordinary soils. Thej' are sel- dom used in the United States, but are commonly employed abroad. Disk piles are sunk by the water-jet. At the ocean pier at Coney Island, New York, disk piles were used having wrought- iron shafts 8% inches in diameter and disks two feet in diameter and nine inches thick. Some of these piles stand seventeen feet in the sand, and carry loads of over sis tons per square foot of disk. Consult Baker, Treatise on Masonry Con- 8CBEW PILE, structioH (Xew York, I'JOO). See Foundations; Lighthouse; Bbidue. PILE (AS. pU, from Lat. pilum, javelin, pestle). In heraldry (q.v.), one of the charges known as onlinarics. PILE-DRIVER. See Pile. PILE DWELLING. See Lake Dwelling. PILES (from Lat. pila, ball), or Hemor- Rlioui.s. Small vascular tumors situated either within or on the verge of the anus. They consist of dilated veins containing either fluid blood or a solid clot, covered with inllamed, infiltrated or permanently thickened mucous membrane. They are termed internal when situated above or within the sphincter; external when below or outside it. Piles vary greatly in size and struc- ture, and in the symptoms they produce. They may Ije merely little knots of varicose veins in the submucous tissue: these may in time in- crease in size, be forced in and out during defecation, become inflamed and strangulated, and even ulcerated and gangrenous. External hemorrhoids usually do not bleed: the internal variety, which extend above the sphincter for an inch or more, are soft, pvirple irregular masses, and bleed readily when irritated by hardened fa'cal masses. Arterial piles contain, besides a large vein, arteries of some size. These bleed easily and freely, but are comparatively rare. Children are occasionally afflicted with capillary piles, small, sessile tumors, which also bleed. Hemorrhoids are caused by any circumstance which produces long-eontinued venous congestion in the rectum. Constipation, enlargement of the prostate gland, pregnancy, tumors of the uterus or its appendages, congestion or cirrhosis of the liver, certain diseases of the heart and lungs, sedentarj' occupations, and relaxing climate, are a few of the causes. Over use of harsh cathartics and horseback riding are also mentioned as fac- tors. The following are the general symptoms of this aflfection. The patient, after having experi- enced for a varying time a feeling of heat, full- ness, and dull pain about the lower part of the bowel, becomes conscious of a foreign body in the anus: and, on examination, discovers a small tumor, which either remains outside or is re- tracted, according as it originated without or within the sphincter. This tumor gradually increases, and others form around it. until a mass at length fesults as large as a pigeon's egg, or larger. In its ordinary indolent state the tumor has little sensibility, and occasions com- paratively little annoyance: but when inflamed it is exquisitely tender to the touch, and is the seat of burning and stinging sensations, render- ing the evacuation of the bowels (and sometimes of the bladder also) difficult and painful. In women an inflamed pile may cause pain in the back, and other anomalous symptoms. In severe cases the patient can neither stand nor sit with comfort, and only finds relief in the horizontal position. Piles may be prevented by active exercise, mild saline catharsis, a light laxative, non-stimulating diet. These measures may also avail to cure or hold in abeyance the aflTcction in its earlier stages: and. with the exception of the first, are always indicated in conjunction with other means of treatment. Scrupulous cleanliness must al-