Scientific American Supplement, No. 514, November 7, 1885 by Various

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SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT NO. 514

NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 7, 1885

Scientific American Supplement. Vol. XX., No. 514.

Scientific American established 1845

Scientific American Supplement, $5 a year.

Scientific American and Supplement, $7 a year.

* * * * *

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

I. CHEMISTRY.--Chlorides in the Rainfall of 1884.
Apparatus for Evaporating Organic Liquids.--With description
and 3 figures.

II. ENGINEERING AND MECHANICS.--Relative Costs of Fluid and
Solid Fuels.

The Manufacture of Steel Castings.

Science in Diminishing Casualties at Sea.--Extract of a paper
read before the British Association by DON ARTURO DE MARCOARTER.

Improved Leveling Machine. 9 figures.

The Span of Cabin John Bridge.

Improvements in Metal Wheels. 3 figures.

Apparatus for the Production of Water Gas. 3 figures.

III. TECHNOLOGY.--The Blue Print Process.--R.W. JONES.

Reproductions of Drawings in Blue Lines on White Ground.--By
A.H. HAIG.

A Plan for a Carbonizing House.--With full description and 5
figures.

The Scholar's Compasses.

The Integraph.--With full description and engraving.

Apparatus for the Manufacture of Gaseous Beverages. 2 engravings.

Sandmann's Vinegar Apparatus. 1 figure.

Field Kitchens. 8 figures.

A New Cop Winding Machine. 3 figures.

The Preservation of Timber.--Report of the Committee of the
American Society of Engineers.--The Boucherie
process.--Experiments.--Decay of timber.

IV. PHYSICS, ELECTRICITY, LIGHT, ETC.--Apparatus for Measuring
the Force of Explosives.--With engraving.

Lighting and Ventilating by Gas.--Advantages of gas over
electricity, etc.--By WM. SUGG. 2 figures.

Ander's Telephone. 1 figure.

Brown's Electric Speed Regulator. 1 figure.

Magneto-electric Crossing Signal. 2 figures.

The Chromatoscope.--An aid to microscopy.

V. ART AND ARCHITECTURE.--The Barbara Uttmann Statue at
Annaberg, Saxony.

Improvements in Concrete Construction.--Use of Portland
cement.--System of building in concrete invented by Messrs. F. &
J.P. West, London.

Albany Buildings. Southport.--An engraving.

VI. PHYSIOLOGY, HYGIENE, ETC.--The Sizes of Blood Corpuscles
in Mammals and Birds.--A table.

The Absorption of Petroleum Ointment and Lard by the Skin.

VII. MISCELLANEOUS.--The Missing German Corvette Augusta.--With
engraving.

The Tails of Comets.--The effect by a disturbance of solar
waves, and not by special matter.

* * * * *

ROMAN REMAINS AT LEICESTER, ENGLAND.

The Roman tessellated pavement in Jewry Wall Street, Leicester,
discovered in the year 1832, is well known to archaeologists; it has
also been known as difficult of access, and hardly to be seen in a dark
cellar, and, in fact, it has not been seen or visited, except by very
few persons. Some time ago the Town Council resolved to purchase the
house and premises, with the object of preserving the pavement _in
situ_, and of giving additional light and better access to it, and, this
purchase having been completed in the beginning of the present year, the
work of improvement began. It was now seen that the pavement was
continuous under the premises of the adjoining house, and under the
public street, and arrangements were at once made to uncover and annex
these adjoining parts, so as to permit the whole to be seen at one view.
The pavement thus uncovered forms a floor which, if complete, would
measure 23 feet square; it lacks a part on the west side, and also the
entire south border is missing. It is a marvel of constructive skill, of
variety and beauty in form and color, and not the least part of the
marvel arises from the almost beggarly elements out of which the
designer has produced his truly harmonious effects. No squared,
artificially colored, or glazed tesserae, such as we see in a modern
floor, are used, but little pieces, irregularly but purposely formed of
brick and stone. There are three shades of brick--a bright red, a dull
or Indian red, and a shade between the two; slate from a neighboring
quarry gives a dark bluish gray; an oolite supplies the warmer buff; and
a fine white composition resembling limestone is used for the center
points and borders. In addition, the outside border is formed with
tesserae of rather larger size of a sage green limestone. Speaking
generally, the design is formed by nine octagon figures, three by three,
surrounded and divided by a guilloche cable band; the interspaces of the
octagons are filled by four smaller square patterns, and the outer
octagon spaces by 12 triangles. Outside these is a border formed by a
cable band, by a second band of alternate heart-shaped, pear-shaped, and
bell-shaped flowers, and by alternate white and gray bands; and outside
all is the limestone border already described. This border is
constructed with tesserae about five-eighths of an inch square. The
remaining tesserae vary from one half to one-quarter inch of irregular
rhomboidal form. The construction of the pavement is remarkable. There
is a foundation of strong concrete below; over it is a bed of pounded
brick and lime three to four inches thick, and upon this a layer of fine
white cement, in which the tesserae are laid with their roughest side
downward. Liquid cement appears to have been poured over the floor,
filling up the interstices, after which the surface would be rubbed down
and polished.

As to the probable date and occupation of the floor, it may be observed
that the site of this pavement was near the center of the western Roman
town. It is near the Jewry Wall, that is, near the military station and
fortress. It was obviously the principal house in the place, and as
clearly, therefore, the residence of the Praefectus, the local
representative of the imperial power of Rome. The Roman occupation of
the district began with the propraetorship of Ostorius Scapula, A.D. 50.
He was succeeded in 59 by Suetonius Paulinus, who passed through
Leicester from the Isle of Anglesea when the insurrection under Boadicea
broke out. In the service of Suetonius was Julius Agricola, who was
elected consul and governor of Britain about the year 70. He is commonly
described as a wise and good governor, who introduced the arts of
civilized life, taught the natives to build, and encouraged education.
He left Britain about the year 85, and from that time to the decline of
the Roman power is but about 300 years. We shall not be far from the
truth, therefore, if we assign this work to the time or even to the
personal influence of Agricola, 1,800 years ago.--_London Times_.

* * * * *

Some time ago we published the fact that the Empress of Germany had
offered a prize of $1,000 and the decoration of the Order of the Red
Cross to the successful inventor of the best portable field hospital.
Wm. M. Ducker, of No. 42 Fulton St., Brooklyn, sent in a design for
competition. A few days ago Mr. Ducker received notice that his
invention had won the prize. Another instance of the recognition of
American genius abroad.

* * * * *

THE BARBARA UTTMANN STATUE AT ANNABERG, SAXONY.

The question whether Barbara Uttmann, of Annaberg, Saxony, was the
inventor of the art of making hand cushion lace, or only introduced it
into Annaberg, in the Saxon mountains, has not yet been solved,
notwithstanding the fact that the most rigid examinations have been
made. It is the general belief, however, that she only introduced the
art, having learned it from a foreigner in the year 1561. The person
from whom she acquired this knowledge is said to have been a Protestant
fugitive from Brabant, who was driven from her native land by the
constables of the Inquisition, and who found a home in the Uttmann
family. However, the probability is that what the fugitive showed
Barbara Uttmann was the stitched, or embroidered, laces--points, so
called--which are still manufactured in the Netherlands at the present
time. It is very probable that the specimens shown induced Barbara
Uttmann to invent the art of making lace by means of a hand cushion.

[Illustration: BARBARA UTTMANN, INVENTOR OF HAND CUSHION LACE.]

Very little is known of the family of Barbara Uttmann, which was
originally from Nurnberg; but members of the same migrated to the Saxon
mountains. Barbara's husband, Christof Uttmann, was the owner of
extensive mines at Annaberg, and was very wealthy. She died at Annaberg,
Jan. 14, 1584.

The art of making hand cushion lace was soon acquired by most of the
residents in the Saxon mountains, which is a poor country, as the
occupation of most of the inhabitants was mining, and it frequently
happened that the wages were so low, and the means of sustaining life so
expensive, that some other resource had to be found to make life more
bearable. Barbara Uttmann's invention was thus a blessing to the
country, and her name is held in high esteem. A monumental fountain is
to be erected at Annaberg, and is to be surmounted by a statue of the
country's benefactress, Barbara Uttmann. The statue, modeled by Robert
Henze, is to be cast in bronze. It represents Barbara Uttmann in the
costume worn at the time of the Reformation. She points to a piece of
lace, which she has just completed, lying on the cushion, the shuttles
being visible.

Some point, Valenciennes, and Guipure laces are made on a cushion by
hand, with bobbins on which the thread is wound, the pins for giving the
desired pattern to the lace being stuck into the cushion. A yard of hand
cushion lace has been sold in England for as much as $25,000. The
annexed cut, representing the Barbara Uttmann statue, was taken from the
_Illustrirte Zeitung_.

* * * * *

A Boston paper tells of a man who built two houses side by side, one for
himself and one to sell. In the house sold he had placed a furnace
against the party wall of the cellar, and from its hot air chamber he
had constructed flues to heat his own domicile. The owner of the other
house found it very hard to keep his own house warm, and was astounded
at the amount of coal it took to render his family comfortable, while
the "other fellow" kept himself warm at his neighbor's expense nearly a
whole winter before the trick was discovered.

* * * * *

IMPROVEMENTS IN CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION.

Portland cement concrete if made with a non-porous aggregate is
impervious to moisture, and yet at the same time, if not hydraulically
compressed, will take up a sufficient quantity of moisture from the air
to prevent condensation upon the surface of the walls. It not only
resists the disintegrating influences of the atmosphere, but becomes
even harder with the lapse of time. It may also be made in several
different colors, and can be finished off to nearly a polished surface
or can be left quite rough. Walls built of this material may be made so
hard that a nail cannot be driven into them, or they can be made
sufficiently soft to become a fixing for joinery, and, if a non-porous
aggregate be used, no damp course is required. Further than this, if
land be bought upon which there is sufficient gravel, or even clay that
can be burnt, the greatest portion of the building material may be
obtained in excavating for the cellar; and in seaside localities, if the
(salt) shingle from the beach be used, sound and dry walls will be
obtained. The use of concrete as a material for building will be found
to meet all the defects set forth by practical people, as it may be made
fire-proof, vermin-proof, and nail-proof, and in dwellings for the poor
will therefore resist the destructive efforts of the "young barbarian."
Nothing, therefore, can be better as a building material. The system
ordinarily employed to erect structures in concrete consists of first
forming casings of wood, between which the liquid concrete is deposited,
and allowed to become hard, or "to set." The casings are then removed,
the cavities and other imperfections are filled in, and the wall
receives a thin facing of a finer concrete. If mouldings or other
ornament be required, they are applied to this face by the ordinary
plasterer's methods. This system finds favor in engineering
construction, and also in very simple forms of architectural work, but
with very complicated work the waste in casings is very great. Besides
this, however, the face is found sometimes to burst off, especially if
it has been applied some time after the concrete forming the body of the
wall has set, and the method of applying ornament is not economical.

[Illustration: 1.-18.]

A system of building in concrete has recently been invented by Messrs.
F. & J.P. West, of London, illustrations of which we now present. To
this system Messrs. West have given the name of "Concrete Exstruction,"
from the Latin "exstructio," which they consider to be a more
appropriate word than "constructio," as applied to concrete building in
general. In Messrs. West's system of building in concrete, instead of
employing wood casings, between which to deposit the concrete or beton,
and removing them when the beton has become hard, casings of concrete
itself are employed. These casings are not removed when the beton has
set, but they become a part of the wall and form a face to the work. In
order to form the casings, the concrete is moulded in the form of slabs.
Figs. 1 to 18 of our engravings show various forms of the slab, which
may be manufactured with a surface of any dimensions and of rectangular
(Fig. 1), triangular, hexagonal (Figs. 2, 14, and 15), and indeed of any
other form that will make a complete surface, while for thickness it may
be suited to the work to which it is to be applied, that used for heavy
engineering work differing from that employed in house construction. It
is found that the most convenient height for the rectangular slab (Fig.
1) is 12 inches and the breadth 18 inches, as the parts of a structure
built with slabs of these dimensions more often correspond with
architectural measurements. The hexagonal slab (Fig. 2) is made to
measure 12 inches between its parallel sides. Where combinations of
these slabs will not coincide with given dimensions, portions of slabs
are moulded to supply the deficiency. The moulds in which the slabs are
made are simple frames with linings having a thin face of India-rubber
or other suitable material, by the use of which slabs with their edges
as shown, and also of the greatest accuracy, can be manufactured. That
portion of the back of the slab which is undercut is formed by means of
soft India-rubber cores. The moulds for making portions of the slabs
have a contrivance by which their length may be adjusted to suit given
dimensions.

During the process of casting the slabs, and while they are in a plastic
state, mouldings (if required) or other ornaments, having a suitable
key, are inserted in the plastic surface, which is finished off to them
(Figs. 7, 8, and 10). The slabs may also be cast with ornaments, etc.,
complete at one operation (Fig. 11), but it is more economical to have
separate moulds for the mouldings and other ornaments, and separate
moulds for the slabs, and to apply the mouldings, etc., during the
process of casting the slab. Corbels (Fig. 9), sets off (which would be
somewhat similar to the plinth course slab No. 10), and other
constructive features may also be applied in a similar way, or may be
provided for during the casting of the slab. A thin facing of marble or
other ornamental solid or even plastic material may be applied to the
face of the slabs during the process of casting, thus enabling the work
to be finished as it is carried up, or a key may be formed on the face
of the slab to enable the structure to be plastered afterward.

[Illustration: FIG. 19. FIG 20.]

In Fig. 20, the structure from the bottom of the trenches is shown with
the sides of the trenches removed. It will be seen that the footings are
constructed in the most economical manner by not being stepped. As no
damp-course is required in concrete work, when the aggregate is of a
non-porous material, one is not shown. Upon the top of the footings is
generally laid a horizontal slab, called the wall-base slab, the special
feature of which is that it enables the thickness of the wall to be
gauged accurately, and also provides a fixing for the first course of
slabs. Figs. 4 and 5 show such slabs for internal and external angles,
and Fig. 6 shows one for straight work. The use of a wall-base slab is
not essential, although it is the more accurate method of building, for
in cases where it is desirable to economize labor, or from other causes,
the slabs forming the first course may be made with a thicker base, and
may be fixed by a deposition of concrete, which is allowed to set behind
them. The second course of slabs is laid upon the first course with
breaking joints of half-slab bond, each course being keyed to the other
by means of a quick-setting cementing material poured into the key-holes
provided in the edges of the slab for that purpose, a bituminous cement
being preferred. The key-holes are made in several ways, those shown in
the illustrations being of a dovetail shape; circular, square, or indeed
holes of any other shape formed in the edges of the slab and in an
oblique direction are also employed. Special slabs for cants, or
squint-quoins (Figs. 17 and 18) and angles (Figs. 12, 13, 14, 15, and
16) are manufactured, the angle occurring (if we omit the hexagonals and
take the 18 inch slab) at three-quarters the length of each slab. This
gives a half-slab bond to each course, as on one face of the quoin in
one course will appear a quarter slab and in the course above a
three-quarter slab superimposed upon it, or _vice versa_. Thus are the
walls in Figs. 19 and 20 built up. For openings, the jambs and lintels
(and in window-openings the sill) are made solid with a provision for a
key-hole to the mass of concrete filling behind them. That portion of
the jambs against which the slabs butt has a groove coinciding with a
similar one in the edge of the slab, for the purpose of forming a joggle
joint by squeezing the bedding material into them or by joggling them in
with a cement grout. All the slabs are joggled together in a similar
way.

[Illustration: FIG. 21.-FIG 25.]

The plastic concrete filling or beton which the shells are made to
contain may be deposited between the slabs when any number of courses
(according to convenience) have been built up, and when set practically
forms with the solid work introduced a monolith, to which the face slabs
are securely keyed. With over-clayed Portland cements, which are known
to contract in setting, and with those over-limed cements which expand
(both of which are not true Portland cements), the filling in is done in
equal sections, with a vertical space equal to each section left between
them until the first sections have become thoroughly hard, and these are
then filled in at a second operation. In order to provide for flues,
air-passages, and ways for electric installations, and for gas and
water, pipes (made of an insulating material if required) or cores of
the required shape are inserted in the plastic beton, and where
necessary suitable openings are provided on the face of the work.
Provision is also made for fixing joinery by inserting, where required,
slabs made or partly made of a material into which nails may be driven,
such as concrete made with an aggregate of burnt clay, coke, and such
like. Hollow lintels are also made of the slabs keyed together at their
vertical joints, and when in position these are filled in with beton.
This system, however, is only recommended for fire-place openings
instead of arches.

In Fig. 25, circular construction is exhibited as applied to the apsidal
end of a church, slabs similar to those shown in Fig. 21 being employed
for that purpose, while Figs. 22, 23, and 24 show forms of slabs
suitable for constructing cylinders with horizontal axes and domes. In
Fig. 19, which is the upper part of Fig. 20, is shown a system of
constructing floors of these slabs. It is only necessary to explain that
the slabs are first keyed to the lower flange of the iron joist by means
of a cement (bituminous preferred), and the combination is then fixed in
position, the edges of the slabs adhering to, or rather supported by,
the iron joist being rebated so as to receive and support intervening
slabs, the heading joints of which are laid to break with those of the
slabs supported by the joists. For double floors the iron joists are
made with a double flange on their lower edge, and are fitted to iron
girders, which cross in the opposite direction. This provision secures
the covering of the cross girders on their undersides by the ceiling
slabs. The concrete having been deposited upon the slabs, its upper
surface may be finished off in any of the usual ways, while the ceiling
may be treated in any of the ways described for the walls. This system
does not exclude the ordinary methods of constructing floors and roofs,
although it supplies a fireproof system. Where required, bricks, stone,
and, in fact, any other building material, may be used in conjunction
with the slabs.

The system of building construction is intended, as in the case with all
concrete, to supersede brickwork and masonry in the various uses to
which they have been applied, and, at the same time, to offer a more
perfect system of building in concrete. Hitherto slab concrete work has
never been erected in a perfectly finished state (i.e., with mouldings,
etc., complete), but has either been left in a rough state or without
ornament, or else has been constructed so as never to be capable of
receiving good ornamental treatment. Hitherto the great difficulty in
constructing concrete walls of concrete and other slabs has been to
prevent the slabs from being forced outward or from toppling over by the
pressure of the plastic filling-in material from the time of its
deposition between the slabs until it has become hard enough to form,
with the slabs, a solid wall. Besides the system of forming the slabs of
L (vertical or horizontal) section, or with a kind of internal buttress
and shoring them up from the outside, or of supporting the slabs upon
framing fixed against the faces of the wall, several devices have been
used to obviate this difficulty.

In the first place, temporary ties, or gauges, connecting the slabs
forming the two faces of the wall, have been used, and as soon as the
plastic filling-in material has set or become hard (but not before),
these have been removed. Secondly, permanent ties or cramps have been
used, and, as their name implies, have been allowed to remain in the
wall and to be entirely buried in the plastic filling-in material. These
permanent transverse ties or cramps have been of two kinds: those which
were affixed as soon as the slabs were placed in position, and those
which were made to form part of the manufactured slab, as, for instance,
slabs of Z or H horizontal section. Thirdly, a small layer of the
plastic filling-in material itself has been made to act as a transverse
tie by depositing it, when plastic, between the slabs forming the two
parallel faces of each course, allowing it (before filling in the
remaining part) to set and to thus connect together the slabs forming
each face of the wall, a suitable hold on the slabs, in some cases,
being given to the tie by a portion of the slab being undercut in some
way, as by being dovetailed, etc. As the slabs in this latter system
generally have wide bases, they may also be bedded or jointed in cement,
and, provided temporary ties be placed across their upper edges to
connect the slabs forming each face of the wall together, the space
between the faces of the wall may then be filled in with the plastic
concrete.

All these devices, however, are not of permanent utility; they are only
temporarily required (i.e., up to the time that the beton has become
hard and formed a permanent traverse tie between the two faces of the
wall), for it is manifest that the ultimate object of all slab concrete
construction is: (a) To retain and to mould the plastic concrete used in
forming the wall; (b) to key or fix the slabs to the mass which they
themselves have moulded; and (c) to form a facing to the wall. When
these objects shall have been accomplished, there is no further need of
any tie whatever beyond that which naturally obtains in a concrete wall.
In West's system, however, where the slabs are keyed course to course,
any kind of transverse tie to be used during the process of
construction, except that used in the starting course, is entirely
dispensed with, and the courses of slabs above depend solely upon the
courses of slabs below them for their stability and rigidity up to the
time that the plastic filling-in has been deposited and become hard
between both faces of the wall.

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