1844.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



299 



I think the compi'tition of builders for the Birmingham termini pre- 

 viously related is a sufficient answer to the inattention to quality by 

 architects, and the study of builders to find out an easily wrought 

 stone, and also the inability of merchants to find a market for stone 

 of better quality than now supplied. The latter gentlemen are the 

 only ones who escape censure ; and let me inform your readers that 

 they have a complete monopoly of the London market, and that Bath 

 and Portland are almost the only oolitic, and Park Spring BramleyFall 

 stone the only grit now known in the market, exclusive of the Flat 

 York paving. The commission charged on sale ofstone is as much 

 as the royalty, or Id. per cubic foot, and fully fifty per cent, of 

 the profits of the most calculating and persevering of the provin- 

 cial suppliers of the London market. But to return to the object 

 first contemplated in the paper, viz., the relative cost of masonry, 

 which will vary as the size of stones and quantity of workmanship ; 

 and for the purpose of fixing the price of stone, there is appended a 

 table of prices of stone proportionate to the size, and by reference to 

 the schedule of prices enumerated in the body of this paper in the 

 case of Mansfield stone, any party at all conversant with this subject 

 can calculate the work on the bed, face, superficially, &c. ; and if any 

 size of stone is assumed for a cornice or architrave, and any figured 

 section or profile assumed, no difficulty will be found in apportioning 

 the labour to the cubic contents, and then arriving at the value of any 

 such architrave or cornice per lineal foot, or as a summary. With 

 reference to cubic content only, the price of labour for the whole may 

 be taken at ^d. per cubic foot for tooled work ; 4.d.ior moulded work,and 

 2<i. for rubbed work. The inferior sorts of masonry to Ashlar are — rub- 

 ble work, as the stone comes from the quarry of all manner of shapes: 

 coursed rubble, in courses of accidental thickness ; block iu course, 

 with courses 7 to '.) in., which is usually dressed with the hammer, and 

 goes by the name of hammer-dressed work, and is generally backed 

 with common walling or rubble. These sorts of masonry are generally 

 measured in bridge work, not by feet but cubic yards, and the price 

 may be taken as follows — random rubble 5s. Od. per cubic yard, 

 coursed ditto 7s. 9d., hammer-dressed His. Gd., or as generalization, 

 Ashlar as unity, the prices of the others would diminish by thirds as 

 the descent in quality of workmanship; and as a further view of the 

 cost, as regards different degrees of hardness of material, it is stated in 

 the Journal that granite Gothic moulding is treble the price of that 

 of Portland stone. 



The different customs as to the modes of measurement of stone in 

 the various localities likewise have soine influence on the cost or 

 price of stonework; and Railway Companies have been careful to 

 insert that only the net measurement will be allowed, notwithstanding 

 any custom to the contrary, &c., and so rigidly have 1 known this rule 

 followed out in estimating the cubic content of masonry, that in 

 coping, whether simply weathered or saddle-backed, an average or 

 mean, in the first instance of two and the latter of three, dimensions 

 has been taken. Under such rigid rule no ordinary contractor can 

 obtain fair play, and it has b<'en the means of having two schedules of 

 prices appended to contracts, the first by which the tender is com- 

 puted, and the second containing a list of prices of the extra works. 

 This is much fairer to the contractor than having the value of all ad- 

 ditions or deductions from the specific work computed from one sche- 

 dule, as in the case of excessive competition the contractor is induced 

 to shave close, and not be remunerated for his trouble ; and the dis- 

 honest contractor resorts to the feint of pricing his schedule different 

 from the body of his tender, in the hope that the excess of alterations 

 will be on the side of additions ; when it is otherwise, and the excess 

 is in the deductions, the consequences are obvious that he must be 

 ruined. Many parties have a great dislike for the price of work be- 

 coming known out of the trade, but I think this is founded in error, as 

 when the real value is known to those who have work to let, it pre- 

 vents them giving it to parties tendering who are not able to complete 

 the work ; and the trouble, litigation, and the dislike of third parties 

 to enter upon broken work, is one of the most perplexing positions for 

 an engineer to be placed in, and causes immense difficulty in closing 

 accounts for works done. In conclusion, I beg to draw attention to the 

 Appendix No. 1, of the prime cost of stone proportionate to the size 

 of the blocks ; and to Appendix No. 2, which is a copy of instructions 

 for stone to the quarry, so that they can be worked there and marked, 

 and only have to be fixed when sent to the work ; the order is first, 

 length, then underneath the breadth, and again underneath the thick- 

 ness, and the little figures on the left the number of times the dimen- 

 sion is required to be repeated, and the marginal notes of the kind of 

 work. 



Si. Mnne'n, 

 Nervcasile-on- Tyne. 



O. T. 



Al'PENDIX, No. L 

 Ta/jlex of Prime Cost of Stone proportionate to Siie. 

 From Paiusher Quarry delivered at Weir. 

 12in. Ashlar, 12 in to 18 in. bed | 7,. per ton of 16 feet. 



5 feet long and under 12 cubic feet 



ditto 

 ditio 



ditto 

 ditto 



30 ditto 

 100 ditto 



9s. ditto. 

 Us. ditto. 



I'rom White Hinge Quarry. 

 12 iu. Ashlar, 12 in. to 18 in. bed, per cubic foot 5d. 

 5 feet long and under 12 cubic feet, per cubic foot, &d. to 7d. 

 Ditto, under 30, 7d. to Sd. 

 Ditto, under 100, \0d. to Vid. 



From Church Quarry. 

 Common Ashlar — 2 0x13x10, not exceeding 30x16x13, 7d. pet 

 cubic foot ; not exceeding 4 x 2 x 1 6, 9(f. per cubic foot. 



Square Blocks — 1 to 2 tons, 19s. per ton, or 1«. 2W. per cubic foot; 2 to 

 4 tons, 24s. per ton, or Is. 6rf. per cubic foot; 4 to 6 tons, 28s. per ton, or 

 Is. 9d. per cubic foot. 

 Scanthng of differeut lengths — 

 2 0x10x10, 5^d. 

 5-0x13x12, 9rf. 

 5 X 1 6 X 9, lid. 

 70x18x1-0, 7irf. 

 3- X 4 X 1 3, 12d. per cubic foot. 



Appendix, No. 2. 

 Stone Marked. Drawing No. h, C, 



prepared two beds and one face 

 two feet faceway and 1 3 high 



5 feet face and 1 3 high, stringcourse 



8)4 2| 

 18 X 7|. 6J caps to piers, one quoin end to each 



82 6 



1 5 string 

 9 



4)8 9 

 16 X 6^ weathered coping 



61 6 



2 X 7 saddle backed coping, weathered to 6 in. 



118 

 2 6 coping 6 in. front edge, 7 in. back edge 



99 



I G 12 in. capping, two fair sides, circular edge. 



O. T. 



MEMOIR OF M. PUISSANT. 



From tie Eloge of M. Arago, delivered at his Funeral, Jan. 12, 1843. 



M, Puissant, a member of the Academy, was in the enjoyment of 

 excellent health a short time previously to his death, the result of 

 sudden illness, which cut him off at the advanced age of upwards of 

 seventy. M. Puissant made his debiit as a teacher of Geometry, and 

 the writer of an useful work as analysis. He was soon afterwards 

 employed as geographical engineer or surveyor in the trigonometrisa- 

 tion of Corsica and Elba, amid the wild and desolate mountains. On 

 his return from this mission he was employed in the Depotde la Guerre 

 or Ordnance Map Department, and devoted his leisure to the conpi- 

 lation of a celebrated Treatise on Geodosy, aud another Treatise, not 

 less valuable, on Surveying and Levelling. M. Puissant took a very 

 active part in the organization and promotion of the corps of Geogra- 

 phical Engineers, and was honoured with admission into the Academy 

 of Sciences. On the retirement of the Colonel Chief of the General 

 Staff, Puissant became the head of the department, and distinguished 

 himself by the arrangement of the immense net work of triangulation, 

 on which the new map of France is founded, one of the vastest opera- 

 tions, and moat useful, says Arago, of which we have any record. 



