All varieties of soft, porous, and untested stones are being hurried
into the masonry of the buildings of New York city and its vicinity. On
many of them the ravages of the weather and the need of the repairer
are apparent within five years after their erection, and a resistance
to much decay for twenty or thirty years is usually considered
wonderful and perfectly satisfactory.
Notwithstanding the general injury to the appearance of the rotten
stone, and the enormous losses annually involved in the extensive
repairs, painting, or demolition, little concern is yet manifested by
either architects, builders, or house owners. Hardly any department
of technical science is so much neglected as that which embraces the
study of the nature of stone, and all the varied resources of lithology
in chemical, microscopical, and physical methods of investigation,
wonderfully developed within the last quarter century, have never yet
been properly applied to the selection and protection of stone, as
used for building purposes. Much alarm has been caused abroad in the
rapid decay and fast approaching ruin of the most important monuments,
cathedrals, and public buildings, but in many instances the means have
been found for their artificial protection, _e. g._, the Louvre, and
many palaces in and near Paris, France, St. Charles Church in Vienna,
Austria, the Houses of Parliament, etc., in London, England, etc.
In New York, the Commissioners of the Croton Aqueduct Department
complained, twenty years ago, of the crumbling away of varieties of
the gneiss used in embankments; the marbles of Italy, Vermont, and of
Westchester county soon become discolored, are now all more or less
pitted or softened upon the surface (_e. g._, the U. S. Treasury),
and are not likely to last a century in satisfactory condition (_e.
g._, the U. S. Hotel); the coarser brown sandstones are exfoliating
in the most offensive way throughout all of our older streets and in
many of the newer (_e. g._, the old City Hall); the few limestones
yet brought into use are beginning to lose their dressed surfaces and
to be traversed by cracks (_e. g._, the Lenox Library); and even the
granytes, within a half century, show both discoloration, pitting (_e.
g._, the Custom House), or exfoliation (_e. g._, the Tombs). To meet
and properly cope with this destructive action, requires, first, a
clear recognition of the hostile external agencies concerned in the
process. These belong to three classes: chemical, physical, and organic.
The chemical agencies discussed were the following: sulphurous and
sulphuric acids, discharged in vast quantities into the air of the
city, by the combustion of coal and gas, the decomposition of street
refuse and sewer gas, etc.; carbonic, nitric, and hydrochloric acids;
carbolic, hippuric, and many other organic acids derived from smoke,
street dust, sewer vapors, etc.; oxygen and ozone, ammonia, and sea
salt.
The mechanical and physical agencies discussed were the following:
frost; extreme variations in temperature, amounting in our climate
to 120° F. in a year, and even 70° in a single day; wind and rain,
most efficient on fronts facing the north, northeast, and east;
crystallization by efflorescence; pressure of superincumbent masonry;
friction; and fire.
The organic agencies consist of vegetable growths, mostly confervæ,
etc., within the city, and lichens and mosses without, and of boring
mollusks, sponges, etc.
The internal elements of durability in a stone depend, first, upon the
chemical composition of its constituent minerals and of their cement.
This involves a consideration of their solubility in atmospheric
waters, _e. g._, the calcium-carbonate of a marble or limestone, the
ferric oxide of certain sandstones, etc.; their tendency to oxidation,
hydration, and decomposition, _e. g._, of the sulphides (especially
marcasite) in a roofing slate or marble, the biotite and ferruginous
orthoclase in a granyte or sandstone, etc.; the inclosure of fluids
and moisture, _e. g._, as "quarry-sap," in chemical combination, as
hydrated silicates (chlorite, kaolin, etc.), and iron oxides, and as
fluid cavities locked up in quartz, etc.
The durability of a stone depends again upon its physical structure, in
regard to which the following points were discussed: the size, form,
and position of its constituent minerals; _e. g._, an excess of mica
plates in parallel position may serve as an element of weakness; the
porosity of the rock permitting the percolation of water through its
interstices, especially important in the case of the soft freestones,
and leading to varieties of discoloration upon the light-colored
stones, which were described in detail; the hardness and toughness,
particularly in relation to use for pavements, sidewalks, and stoops;
the crystalline structure, which, if well-developed, increases the
strength of its resistance; the tension of the grains, which appears
to explain especially the disruption of many crystalline marbles;
the contiguity of the grains and the proportion of cement in their
interstices; and the homogeneity of the rock.
Again, the durability of a rock may depend upon the character of its
surface, whether polished, smoothly dressed, or rough hewn, since upon
this circumstance may rest the rapidity with which atmospheric waters
are shed, or with which the deposition of soot, street dust, etc., may
be favored; also upon the inclination and position of the surface,
as affecting the retention of rainwater and moisture, exposure to
northeast gales and to burning sun, etc.