It is something to be wondered at, the slowness with which the
advantages of concrete, as a building material, have been developed
and accepted by practical men. As a foundation it is beyond all
doubt the firmest, simplest, and most economical. But, its merit is
not confined to underground operations; for, as has been repeatedly
maintained during the last twenty years, it is capable of making walls
of unsurpassing strength and durability, giving comforts which no other
material will. It is true that certain parties have sought to astonish
the world with securely patented _inventions_, by which Nature’s humble
efforts at making granite were at once surpassed, and the old fogy way
of the consolidation, by the tedious action of time, of grains of mica,
quartz, and feldspar, set aside by the use of this invaluable mode of
making as good an article with one man power at a rate fully equal to
supplying the demands of all who want stone houses erected rapidly from
the raw material!
All this is arrant folly, and should not be listened to, much less
patronized. The making or undertaking to make stone in blocks is a
step, aye, a long stride backwards.
The object of cementing together blocks, whether of brick or stone,
is simply to produce one solid mass. And it is because we cannot
conveniently carve out in a _monolith_ or mass together in one
_tumulus_ the desired dwelling or temple, that we are forced either
to break blocks of stone into fragments, or mould and burn earth
into bricks. Now the idea of forming artificial stone into blocks
still leaves the expensive necessity for cementing them together; and
therefore instead of improving our condition, actually leaves us worse
off, by giving us, as a substitute for Nature’s well-tested material,
a most unreliable article, which has already too clearly proved its
utter worthlessness. However, this should not cause the friends of
progress to give up all idea of simplifying and economizing the mode of
wall structure. On the contrary it should stimulate them to make that
exertion in the right way, which has hitherto been so persistently and
blindly made in the wrong.
In Europe they are taking this subject into serious consideration.
In England, under the name of CONCRETE; in France, under the title
of BÉTON. In the latter country, much has been done lately, and all
arising out of the excellent work on cements given to the world by M.
VICAT, whose name should be enshrined forever in the Temple of Fame,
for the amount of good, present and prospective, which his earnest
labors have done the Art of Building.
One of the most indefatigable and successful of experimenters in
_béton_ is M. COIQUÉT, who has proved beyond all cavil the excellence
of that composition when applied to the sustaining of weight or
resistance of pressure.
In London we find Messrs. Drake, Brothers and Reed, under Her Majesty’s
Letters-Patent, undertakers of Building in Concrete.
It is the machinery they use that is patented, we believe, and not the
material; for there are many others in this branch of business. Mr.
JOSEPH TALL, of London, has also a patent for a peculiar method of
building in concrete, and has executed some contracts in Paris, where,
in 1867, he took a prize at the Exposition.
It is evident, then, that concrete is forcing its way, and that it
is not an unworthy subject for the inventive minds of our astute
countrymen.
What we particularly need in order to give an impetus to construction
in concrete is a well-systematized apparatus, movable and always
available, and that men should be drilled to work to the greatest
possible advantage; for it is the want of these requisites that makes
concrete to-day a material so little known and so seldom used.
Let an active company, with sufficient capital, start the business in
any of our large cities, and concrete will soon assert its excellence
as a building material, and an investment will be secured, giving
profit to its holders and satisfaction to a very large section of
our population, to whom economy must prove the key to comfortable
independence.
* * * * *
The quarry companies in Connecticut were never doing a heavier business
than this season. Three quarries now employ over one thousand laborers,
seventy-five horses and one hundred yoke of cattle.