PILE-DWELLING 



PILE-DWELLING 



iron wire and embedded in the 

 concrete mass. 



The term sheet piling designates 

 piles driven in contact to form acon- 

 tinuous wall, as that of a cofferdam, 

 to exclude or include water, or sup- 

 port ground. In Fig. 5 is shown 

 a section of ordinary timber sheet 

 piling with splayed or shear shoes, 

 S, S l , S", and in Fig. 6 a special form 

 of sheet piling composed of cast- 

 iron column piles, with cast-iron 

 plates fitted in the space between 



two 



piles. 



This type of 

 piling was used 

 in the building 

 of the present 

 West minster 

 Bridge. Steel 

 plates with 

 their vertical 

 edges shaped 

 to form inter- 

 locking joints, 

 as shown in 

 Fig. 7, are con- 

 venient for 

 sheet piling. 



With the 

 exception of 

 screw piles, 

 which are 

 sunk by rota- 

 tion, a pile is 

 driven by 

 a 1 1 owing a 

 heavy iron 

 ram, weighing 

 from a few 

 h u n d r e d- 



Pile-Dwelling in the Dutch East Indies. Head-man's communal house in 

 Sie village, South Fagi Island, Sumatra 



By courtesy of the Smithsonian Inilitute 



head. In the simplest form of pile- 

 engine the ram is raised by a rope 

 passing over a pulley at the top, 

 pulled up by a hauling gang, and 

 then released. Heavy rams are 

 raised by a hand winch or steam 

 power, and tripped automatically, 

 or by a hand-controlled trigger, on 

 reaching the height desired. An 

 ordinary arrangement is shown in 

 Fig. 8, where A is the steam boiler, 

 B the steam engine driving winch 

 C, D a pile being driven, E the 

 faller or tup, F the trigger gear, 

 which, when pulled by cord G, re- 

 leases the faller and allows it to 

 drop on the 

 head of the 

 pile as 

 shown in 

 dotted lines 

 at H ; J is 

 a weight 

 which 

 causes the 

 trigger to 

 follow after 



File Driving. Details of steam pile-driving machine, 

 steam-hammer pile driver, piles, and piling. See text 



weight up to a 

 couple of tons, 

 to fall re- 

 peatedly on the 



the faller and to pick it up again. 

 A new pile being raised into 

 position for driving is also shown. 

 A form of steam-hammer driver 



is shown in Fig. 9, where A is the 

 steam cylinder; B, hammer head 

 or tup, which, striking the head of 

 the pile, drives it gradually down, 

 the cylinder and attachment 

 moving with it ; C is a cage which 

 slides along the upright, and in 

 which the head of the pile is se- 

 cured by cramps until the pile is 

 driven home. Driving is continued 

 till a specified depth is reached, or 

 the entry per blow sinks to a speci- 

 fied figure. Progress through hard 

 sand is made easier by disturbing 

 and softening the material under 

 the point with water. 



Pile-Dwelling. Primitive habi- 

 tation built on piles. In the neo- 

 lithic and early metallic ages the 

 palafitte type was widespread in 

 central Europe. In England, pile- 

 foundations have been found at 

 Walbrook, London, Barton Mere in 

 Suffolk, and Pickering, Yorkshire. 

 Island strongholds of the fascine 

 type traceable in Holderness, 

 Yorkshire ; at Llangorse, Breck- 

 nockshire ; and in Glastonbury 

 lake-villages are numerous in 

 Scotland and Ireland. In Bosnia 

 pile-villages were erected along the 

 Danube tributaries during the 

 period from the Neolithic to the 

 early Iron Age. 



Pile-construction survives in 

 every continent. Pile-houses, ob- 

 served by Amerigo Vespucci in the 

 Maracaibo Gulf in 1499 whence 

 the name Venezuela, little Venice 

 are still erected in the Caribbean 

 lagoons. In Florida they are built 

 on flood-land. The use of pile- 

 granaries, even when the dwellings 

 are on the ground level, is wide- 

 spread in Africa, and occurs in 

 other parts of the world. See Lake- 

 dwelling ; consult also Lake Dwell- 

 ings, F! Keller, Eng. trans. J. E. 

 Lee, 2nd ed. 1878 ; The Lake Dwell- 

 ings of Europe, B. Munro, 1890. 



