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.
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.
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.
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.
CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION
There is, however, a more decided difference between West's system and those previously in use, for it is marked by the fact that the slabs composing the shell of the whole structure in many cases may be built up before the filling-in is deposited between the slabs, and in none of the other cases can this be done. In fact, only in the first two cases before mentioned can more than one course of slabs be laid before filling-in of some kind must be done. Compared with the ordinary method of building in concrete, this system avoids: 1. The charge for use and waste of wood casings; 2. finishing the face of the work (both inside and outside) after the structure is raised, and, therefore, the bursting-off of the finished face; and 3. the difficulties encountered in working mouldings and other ornaments on the face of the work by the ordinary plasterer's methods. It also provides a face of any of the usual colors that may be obtained in concrete, besides a facing of any other material, such as marble, etc., and produces better and more durable work, at the same time showing a saving in cost, especially in the better classes of work; all of which is effected with less plant than ordinarily required. For engineering work, such as sea walls, the hexagonal slabs, made of greater thickness than those employed for ordinary walling, will answer admirably, especially if the grooves be made proportionately larger. By the use of these slabs the work may be built up with great rapidity. For small domestic work, such as the dwellings of artisans, these slabs; which are of such a form as to render them easy of transport, may be supplied to the workmen themselves in order that they may erect their own dwellings, as, on account of the simplicity of this system and the absence of need of plant, any intelligent mechanic can do the work.
Any arrangement of independent scaffolding may be employed for this system, but that invented specially for the purpose by Mr. Frank West, as shown in Fig. 26 of our engravings, is to be preferred. It not only supplies the necessary scaffold, but also the necessary arrangements for hoisting the slabs, as well as for raising the liquid concrete and depositing it behind the slabs. It is really an independent scaffold, and may be used wherever a light tramway of contractor's rails can be laid, which in crowded thoroughfares would of necessity be upon a staging erected over the footway. The under frame is carried upon two bogie frames running upon the contractor's rail, by which means it is enabled to turn sharp curves, a guide plate inside the inner rail being provided at the curves for this purpose. The scaffold itself consists of a climbing platform made to travel up or down by means of four posts which have racks attached to their faces, and which are fixed to the under frame and securely braced to resist racking strains. A worm gearing, actuated by a wheel on the upper side of the scaffold, causes the scaffold to ascend or descend. A railgrip, made to act at the curves as well as on the straight portions of the rail by being attached to a radial arm fixed to the under frame, assists the stability of the scaffold where required, but the gauge of the rails is altered to render the scaffold more or less stable according to its height. Combined with the same machine, and traveling up and down one of the same posts used for the scaffold, is an improved crane. Its action depends upon the proposition in geometry that if the length of the base of a triangle be altered, its angles, and therefore its altitude, are altered. A portion of the vertical post up and down which the crane climbs forms the base of a triangle, and a portion of the jib, together with the stay, forms the remaining two sides. Hence, by causing the foot of one or the other to travel upward, by means of the worm gearing, the upper end of the jib is either elevated or depressed.
The concrete elevator, which is also combined with the scaffold, consists of a series of buckets carried upon two parallel endless chains passing over two pairs of wheels. On the under frame is fixed a hopper, into which is thrown, either by hand or from a concrete mixer running upon the rails, the material to be hoisted, and from which it gravitates into a narrow channel, through which pass the buckets (attached to the chain) with a shovel-like action. The buckets, a motor being applied to one pair of wheels, thus automatically fill themselves, and on arriving at top are made to tip their contents, and jar themselves, automatically into a hopper by means of a small pinion, keyed to the shaft by which they are attached to the endless chain, becoming engaged in a small rack fixed for that purpose. From the upper hopper the material is taken away to the required destination by means of a worm working in a tube. For varying heights, extra lengths of chain and buckets are inserted and secured by a bolt passed through each end link, and secured by a nut. By using this scaffold, a saving in plant, cartage, and labor is effected. The elevator may also be used for raising any other material besides concrete.
Such is the new system of concrete construction and scaffolding of Messrs. West, which appears to be based on sound and reasonable principles, and to have been thoughtfully and carefully worked out, and which moreover gives promise of success in the future. We may add in conclusion that specimens of the work and a model of a scaffold are shown by Messrs. West at their stand in the Inventions Exhibition.—Iron.
ALBANY BUILDINGS SOUTHPORT. E.W. JOHNSON, ARCHITECT.