Scamping Tricks and Odd Knowledge Occasionally Practised upon Public Works

by John Newman

"Before you begin to tell me how you scamped it, give me a hint or two about piling, and say what you have learned from experience."

"All right. First, when a pile is some distance below the bottom waling, which should be fixed as low as possible, a lot must be taken for granted, and it cannot be controlled much. I know this from drawing many piles; hundreds, I may say. After they are down about 5 or 6 feet they begin to do as they like, and take to irregular habits, and you cannot be certain the points are straight unless the ground is the same throughout, and it hardly ever is. In fact, the resistance they meet with varies, and then they accommodate themselves to circumstances; and even when the ground is very soft they turn to the line of least resistance, and if they have to be driven through several feet of soft earth to reach the solid, they may play tricks and bend about in the soft soil in go-as-you-please style, yet seem to be driving nicely; or they may stick between boulders and can't be driven further and appear to be firm as a rock, and so they may be as long as the boulders do not move, but they often do after a time, should the ground become wet, and sometimes when the next pile is being driven.

"Always be careful to see that the shoe has as large a bearing as possible for the end of the pile, and is long in the point, and more pointed as the soil is harder. Take a 12-inch pile with a 4-inch or so seat in the shoe for the stick. Well, 12 by 12 is 144, and 4 by 4 is 16, and therefore the pile end has a bearing area upon the pile shoe of one-ninth of the area of the pile. No wonder the bottom often becomes ragged and the pile shifts. The shoe should have a good hold of the timber, and be put on true to a hair, so that the point is in the exact centre line of the pile, or look out for squalls. Now high falls and light monkeys are out of fashion, and short falls and heavy monkeys are the thing, not so many piles are injured. Pushing them down is better than breaking them to bits. You should have the monkey so that its centre falls upon the centre line of the pile. The average centre of the pile should be marked on as exact as possible, and the end of the pile be cut to a template, so as to make it fit tightly to the shoe, or it may not drive straightly. I always take a lot of trouble that way and seldom have to draw a ragged one, and believe they used to drive straight. I mean from start to finish about the same number of blows and to the same depth and vertically.

"When hand-driving in soft earth‌—‌it's slow business at the best‌—‌weight the pile when the monkey is being lifted so as to stop the quivering and press it down and keep it from springing. Provided the work was of importance, and I was the Cæsar of it, before any pile was pitched ready for driving it should be inspected, its dimensions taken, it should be numbered, numbers be burnt in, and every foot from top to bottom should be marked on by a brand; and perhaps the numbers should begin at the bottom and work up, as there is not so much chance to tamper with two figures as with one, &c.

"Pile-driving is fickle work, for sometimes the piles stick because the points can't pierce the earth, and at others because they are held by friction on the surface of the piles. I have known the shoe to be cast, and the pile end look like a bass broom, and to be all in shreds. When piles split a great deal and they must be driven, the best thing to do is to get harder wood, lessen the fall and increase the weight of the monkey; same as in tunnel lining, when stock bricks are crushed, blue bricks have to be put in. The nature of the ground should govern the hardness of the wood for piles. I always pick out darkish even-coloured wood, and sniff for the resin, and the more in it the better for me. You don't catch me driving many white wood piles, for they become dry and break off short, and are not the timber for piles. Once a bother arose about some piles. There was a layer of hard gravel, and by the way the piles were driving I knew they would split, so I gave the word that Memel piles were not hard enough for such gravel; and I worked it humble like, and said to the engineer, 'I think you will agree, sir, you can't expect me to be answerable for smashing them until we get into the soft ground again. It wants rock elm or as strong timber for this soil.' After smashing a few to shreds, they supplied us with rock elm piles, and then we managed. It is true to say in the same soil the harder the pile the better it will drive, and therefore with less trouble and expense. The monkey should have an even widened-out base where it touches the pile head, so as to get the weight as near the head of the pile as possible; it also falls straighter than the long thin rams of nearly the same width throughout. Grease the ways well, and take care they are as straight as a die, and exactly vertical if it is upright pile-driving, and you'll save money. Make the blows quickly in fine-grained soil, so that it has not time to settle round the pile. In clay there is no occasion for such quick-driving, but take care to prevent the piles rebounding. Remember the same system does not do for every soil, for quick driving in hard soil sometimes smashes the piles; perhaps the earth has not had time to become displaced nicely and settle before being jammed again, and then the pile point turns and quivers and soon shreds, and cannot be driven down properly. Anyone that says piles make the ground itself firmer when they are driven into it, and so cause it to support a heavier load, will have to prove it before that can be swallowed. It is the friction on the sides of the piles that principally sustains them and not the bearing of the points. In hard soils drive slowly, for it is like chipping up a stone with a hammer. You must do it gently, or it will break the tool; and as you can't clear out the hole in driving piles, it seems to me time is required instead, so that the pressed out soil may settle away and take a bearing. I tricked a chap once pile-driving from a barge."

"How did you do it?"

"Well, it was bound to be driving from a barge or nothing, and there were three pile-drivers for us, almost as many as we could work, as the driving had to be done by degrees. Some of the work was let to a chap I did not like too much, and the rest to me. They gave me the choice of plant, so I said to the engineer, 'May I have two of the pile-drivers upon my barge, as Faggitts'‌—‌that was the other chap's name‌—‌'only wants one.' I got the two. Now Faggitts knew about driving piles on land, but had never done any driving from a barge, so I had a bit in hand of him. If you take any pile-driving and it has to be done from a barge, have more than one pile-driver on it if you have the chance; but don't place them close together, make one steady the other, and have as many as you can conveniently work at once; because, in my experience, the more you have the less the swaying, and the piles drive more regularly and the barge is steadier, and you don't have so much bother with the moorings. Of course, if the monkey does not fall flat upon the pile head the pile does not receive the full force of the blow in the right direction, the pile may be driven slightly crooked and it does not get properly treated and won't penetrate so easily, and therefore you lose money. Old Faggitts found that out in the soft soil we were driving them into. I said nothing to him, but he did to me. I never told him.

"I have read somewhere that it is wearying work going into details, but when you have to do the work yourself, unless you take care of the details you'll find they will make it hot for you; and after all, any one can speak generally, but when they have to explain in detail what they think they mean, and have to do the work themselves, they will soon find out that unless you know the details and attend to them carefully, that you won't make a profit nor anyone else. Anybody can talk tallish after about a fortnight's training, but then they have to pull up or they will fall at the next fence, which I label 'details wanted.' That's by the way, and I may have made it too strong, but it is as well to sound your engineer. No general is successful unless he knows the strength of his enemy and as much more about him as he can, and acts accordingly, and chooses his own time and place for a battle.

"Driving piles in groups, especially if the ground is soft, and not singly, is good. They go down more regularly and fit tighter, and they seem to drive quicker. I have driven cheap fir piles between elm piles that way, and a good many of the soft ones split when we had to drive them singly. Have as few key piles as possible, because they are liable to be jammed before they are down to the right depth, and then, if it is a cofferdam, it is probable a leak will occur under the key pile, because it is the easiest place for the water to soak through, and the other piles being down below it, stop the flow, and it soon finds out the short-driven key pile. When I notice a spot in a cofferdam at which water leaks through the bottom, unless it is an old stream bed, it occurs to me that the piles have not gone down properly, have got bruised, bent, turned up, or broken off, and I have found out that was the case on drawing them when the cofferdam was of no further use. Once I was ordered to drive some three-cornered piles at the turns in a cofferdam on a river front, but said, 'Square or circular shall be driven, but any other shape I will try to get down properly, provided they are carefully fitted and bevelled, but you really can't expect me to be answerable.' They deducted a fixed amount if after the piles were pitched there were more than a certain number visibly damaged or smashed, so you may depend I had a good look at the sticks before they were driven.

"I have driven piles 60 feet in length, kind of giant sticks, but 45 to 50 feet is long enough for good sound piles. Socket pile driving piecework I avoid, for the joints are ticklish business; and if a pile of ordinary length will not do, I throw out a mild hint whether the better system to use would not be Indian brick or concrete wells, or to spread out the foundations so as to get a sufficiently large bearing, or have a fascine platform, and sink it till it is firm, and test its stability properly by a load.