You are on page 1of 1

392

THEORY OF A UCimECTUR K.
Book
11.
Sect. I X.
WALLS AND PIEHS,
1500. The micknt'ss wliich is to be assigned to walls and points of support, that tbeii
stability may be insured, depends on the weight they have to sustain, and on their forma-
tion with proper materials
;
still more on the proportion which their bases bear to their
heights. The crushing of stone and brick, by mere superimposed weight, is of extremely
lare occiirrenc-e in practice, even with soft stone and with bad bricks. The result of S(ime
few experiments that have been inade as to the resistance of some of our bricks and stones
to a crusliing force, by George Rennie, in 1818, are here subjoined. Some later experi-
ments made by the Conmiissioners mentioned in Book II. chap, ii., and appended to their
Report on Stone, &c., in 1839; with a few others; as well as some important trials made
in 1864 by a committee of the Institute of Britisli Architects, given in Transactions,
1863-64, are likewise added.
Table of Crushing Force of Materials, by George Rennie (^Pliil. Trans. 1818).
Materials,
Specific
Gravity.
Cnisliing
Weight.
los. Avoir.
Portland stone, 2 inches long, 1 incli square ...
-
805
Statuary marble, 1-incli cube
. -
3216
Cragleith stone, ditto
. .
86sa
Chalk
- .
1127
Pale red brick
-
- - -
.
2085 l'-'65
Roe stone, Gloucestershire
. -
1449
Red brick
..... .
216S 1817
Hammersmith brick . - - y
. -
2254
Ditto burnt
....
5
-
.
3243
Ditto fire-t)rick
5 _
.
3864
Derby grit
.... ^
.
2316 7070
Another specimen
...
S .
2428 9776
Killala white freestone - - -
"s
-
2423 10,264
Portland stone
....
^
.
2428 10,28 I
Cragleith white freestone
rt
2452 12,346
Yorkshire paving, with the strata put;
2507 12,856
Ditto, ditto, against the strata
o . -
12,856
White Stat nary marble
- - -
5
- 2760 13,632
Bramley Fall sandstone
.
2506 13,632
Ditto, against the strata
- - . -
13,632
Cornish granite
... .
2662 14,302
Dimdee sandstone
...
2530 14,918
Portland stone, a 2-inch cube -
-
2423 14,918
Cragleith stone, with the strata
- [ .
2452 15,560
Devonshire red marble - - .
1
- - -
.
16,712
Compact limestone . . -
o ..
2584 17,354
Peterhead granite
...
.2 -
-
18,636
Limerick black compact limestone
^ .
2598 19,924
Purbeck stone
- - - .
| .
2599 20,610
Freestone, very hard - - -
"3 "
2528 21,254
Black Bral)ant marble
-
3
"
2697 20,742
White Italian marble -
o -
2726 21,783
Aberdeen blue granite -
o
- 2625 24,556
1501. The above experiments lose much of their practical value from our knowledge
that the interior particles in granulated substances are inotected from yielding by the
lateral resistance of the exterior ones ; but to what extent it is impossible to estimate,
because so much depends on the internal structure of the body. We are, however, thus
far informed, that, taking into account the weight with which a point of support is loaded,
its thickness ought to be regidated in an inverse ratio to the crushing weight of the
material employed. In Gothic structures we often see, for instance, in chapter houses

You might also like