Practical masonry; a guide to the art of stone cutting, comprising the construction, setting-out, and working of stairs, circular work, arches, niches, domes, pendentives, vaults, by Purchase William R

Author:Purchase, William R
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Masonry, Stone-cutting
Publisher: London : C. Lockwood and son
Published: 1904-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

BUILDING STONES.

BUILDING STONES.

THE importance of choosing a good building stone for durability is well known, but unfortunately too little attention is generally given to the selection of the stone in order to obtain a perfect structure. Yet, however careful the selection may be, it should be borne in mind that there are no stones of any kind, whether they are the hardest and most intractable of the syenites or granite, or the softest lime or sandstone r that are not perishable in a greater or lesser degree in the course of time.

The physical forces and agencies, within and without, which produce this effect are apparently invisible, although always present, each working in its own way, with the same result, that the stones begin to disintegrate and gradually fall away into dust.

A high authority has observed that "in modern Europe, and particularly in Great Britain, there is scarcely a public building of recent date which will be in existence a thousand years hence. Many of the most splendid works of modern architecture are hastening to decay in what may be justly called the infancy of their existence, if compared with the dates of public buildings that remain in Italy, in Greece, in Egypt, and the East" (Gwilt's "Encyclopaedia").

Should this be true, it is a serious outlook, and it is therefore obvious that the mason should have a full and accurate knowledge of the general structure of rocks, as well as of the situations where the best materials may be obtained, the composition of the stone he uses, and the destructive agencies that it will have to face, so as to direct his choice in the selection of particular stones, and enable him to estimate the advantages to be gained from their proper application for building purposes.

He should also know whether the material is good or poor, whether it is perfectly adapted for the particular work he has in hand, how it should be handled to produce the best results and fulfil the conditions of economy, utility and good workmanship.

It should not be forgotten that a bad selection of stone cannot be rectified when once used in a building, and is a lasting testimony to want

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