ClIAF. I, WALI.S AND riEUS.

395
fore, l)e co!)s1c1ltl'(1 a useful prnct'c;ii rule, tliat, bowevur soft a stone i/iay l)e, if it resist tlie
liability of damage until out of tlie masons' liands, there can be little doul)t of its possess-
ing sufficient coliesive strengtli for any i<ind of architectural work. If tlie foundation be
insufficient, or any part of tlie edifice give way, so as to cause an unfair or unequal pres-
oure, a soft stone will, of course, yield sooner than a liard one."
ISQ^d. "Unfortunately," writes Warr, Di/iKunic, 1851, "those experimcntnl results
which we possess were obtained witlmut attention to the fact that the sjKciir.ens should lie of
a certain height to show a proper compressive strength. The bulk of the examples an;
with cubes, a fault excusable witli those exjierimenteis who made their work ])uhlic before
those iiecullarities were well known, but the same cannot lie said of the investigations con-
ducted liy the Commissioners ; these exjieriments, executed with singular minuteness on
some points, would have been useful, from their variety and s|)ecification of the localiti's,
but they were made on (2 -inch) cubes, at a period when the laws of fracture were as publ c
as at ])resent, and are therefore of limited value."
1502e. Ilodgkinson {Phil. Trans., 1840, p. 385), found that in small columns (if one
inch to one and three-c]uarters inch square, and from one to forty inches long, a great
falling ofi' occurred when the height was greater than twelve times the side of the base.
Tims, when the length was

12 times the size of the i)ase, the strength was

- -
138
15 ,, ,,
- -
a little less
24
.,
- -
9f)
30
- -
75
40
- -
52
He also found that with pillars shorter than thirty times the thickness, fracture occurred
liy one ot the ends failing, and as the longer columns deflected more than the shorter, they
presented less of the base to resist the pressure, and therefore more readily gave way.
Thus the practical view from these experiments points out an increase of area at the ends
as lieing most economical, and that in proportion to the middle as 13,766 to 9,595 nearly.
From the experunents it woidd appear that the Grecian columns, which seldom iiad their
length more than about t.n times the diainetjr, were nearly of the form capalde of bearing
the greatest weight when their shafts were uniform; and that columns, tapering from the
bottom to the top, were only capable of bearing weights due to the smallest jiait of their
section, though the larger end might serve to prevent lateral thrust. This last remark
apjilies, too, to the Egyptian columns, the strength of the column being only that of the
smallest part of the section. (British Association for the Advancement of Science, \5 li
Be/iort, 1845, p. 27.)
1502/; It might be asked, how does this apply to those small shafts or colonettes so
freely used with piers in pointed architecture, and which are generally in height upwards
of thirty times their diameter. We would refer the student to the paragraph 1502c.,
respecting the muUioiis in windows, and to the circumstance that the small shafts are not
pinned-in to the work, but are left free, so that they only apjiarently carry the weight
imposed on their capitals. Where no attention has b^en paid to this necessary precaution,
in modern work, the shaft has fractured wiien of soft, or shakv, stone.
1502_i7. Table of the SriiENOTii of Shafts 12 inches long, 3 inches diajieter,
(Being experiments made by a committee of the Institute, as above-mentioned.)
Blaterials. Cracl^ed. Crusfied.
On s(|uare
inch.
Remarks.
Toils. Tons. Tons.
Portland stone : All yielded vertically.
Worked -
. 7-3 10-25 1-48 Bediled in leatlier.
Rough tooled - 8-57 1-00 Bedded in plaster.
Devonshire marbles :
Ipjdepen, mottled red
-
92 10-7 1-37 [with vein.
Poltesco, grey green
- 4-3 4-3 0-60 Went across and not
Ditto
- -
60 0-S4 Went at once.
'1
. 33-5 4-73 Went into fragments.
Signal Staff, red and hlac 20-0 22-5 3-18 Ditto.
12-75 16-25 2-29
Ciidgewith, green f<nd b ack 16-92 17-62 2-49
1502/2. Tairbaim, in a paper read at the Manchester Philosophical Society, and given in
vol. xiv. of ttie Proceedings ; and also in his Useful Infurmation, Sec
,
2nd Series, has detailed
the following lesults of his researches;