184].] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



18.- 



NEW AND USEFUL INVENTIONS.- 

 By Philotechmcos. 



-No. 4. 



PIMLICO SLATE W0RK5, UPPER BELGRAVE PLACE. 



These works have been lately erected for the purpose of sawing, 

 planing, moulding, and tiu'ning' slate by machinery worked by steam 

 power, for the manufacture of a great variety of useful and ornamental 

 articles. The slabs are distinguished by their ebon-like appearance 

 and freedom from green spots or stain?. They are produced from the 

 proprietor's own quarries in North Wales, where they have extensive 

 machinery worked by water power, and from whence the slabs are 

 forwarded, roughly planed ; they are here finished in various ways ; 

 the roughly planed are used for paving, wine binns, cisterns, covering, 

 and common purposes, the smoothly planed for sinks, mangers, and 

 shelves for larders and dairies. The snaked or finely rubbed for bet- 

 termost purposes of the same description, chimney pieces, hearths, 

 baths, skirting and sideboards, and when oiled have the appearance of 

 black marble. The next and most beautiful state in which the slate 

 slab is used is when japanned ; by this process it is subjected to great 

 heat, which leaves on its surface a permanent polish, and is used for 

 decorative purposes as a general substitute for marble or scagliola, 

 and a most excellent substitute it is, being of a hard close texture it 

 bears a sharp arris and brilliant polish, and one of its greatest ad- 

 vantages is cheapness. 



Chimney pieces are made to any design, and their manufacture at 

 this establishment forms one of the most useful applications of slate 

 for building purposes; the imitations of conglomerate marbles are 

 matchless, and the correctness with which machinery performs its duty 

 is strikingly exemplified in every part of the work. I sincerely hope 

 this invention will induce architects to introduce marbled slate chimney 

 pieces in every place where the common-looking Portland is now 

 used, to which material it is so superior that there is no compai'ison 

 with regard to appearance, and is but little more in cost. 



Sideboards, tables, chefToniers, and other articles of furniture are 

 likewise manufactured with the japanned and marbled slate, in the 

 panels of which are occasionally introduced beautifully executed 

 paintings, similar in appearance to those on papier mache. A 

 billiard table has been constructed at this manufactory, the whole 

 of which, frame, bed and legs, is of slate ; the legs are massive, and 

 show the capability of slate for purposes of support. 



For culinary purposes slate is particularly applicable from its clean- 

 liness, the closeness of its texture preventing the possibility of im- 

 bibing any thing offensive, and requires only to be occasionally cleaned 

 with soap and flannel to remove any impurities; it is consequently 

 well adapted for sinks, shelves for larders, meat safes, and dairies, 

 paste or butter slabs, salting vats, and many other purposes where a 

 cool and clean material is required. 



In the laundry it is useful for ironing tables, clothes presses, and 

 mangles, the smooth and hard surface of the slate rendering the 

 clothes subjected to its pressure nearly equal in appearance to their 

 having been calendered. 



Shops may be elegantly ornamented with slate, both internally and 

 externally. In the shop front a brilliant effect might be produced by 

 its introduction, with the advantage over marble of its retaining the 

 polish after exposure to the weather; for counter tops and fronts and 

 show tables a novel and pleasing effect may be produced, particularly 

 in confectioners' and chemists' shops, taverns, railway refreshment 

 rooms, and other places of public resort. 



Stables fitted up with slate will have the advantage of superior 

 cleanliness to any other material, its non-absorbent qualities preventing 

 infection, and its hardness being an antidote to crib biting; the man- 

 gers, stalls, linings, and capping can be made of slate, as well as the 

 corn-binn, which latter, being made with a sliding cover, and wholly 

 composed of slate, is most useful, as being cool, cleanly, and proof 

 against vermin. 



Fire-proof buildings may be constructed with the greatest facility 

 by the introduction of slate for the floors, skirtings, stairs, doors, and 

 window frames. The drying-rooms, or, as they may be almost termed, 

 the ovens, at this establishment, are composed principally of slate ; 

 the floors, shelves, and sliding folding doors, running with rollers upon 

 a railway, and roof, are of slate, and subjected to a high degree of 

 temperature. 



I must confess my surprise at often seeing buiidings erected for the 

 purpose of warehousing inflammable or other goods with timbered 

 and boarded floors ; it is an unpardonable oversight not to take ad- 

 vantage of the various kind of materials suitable to this purpose, 

 adapting the material to its use, and the many calamitous fires that 

 have lately occurred, prove too truly the want of this discrimination. 



I do not know any thing better than slate to serve this end ; light iron 

 joists covered with slate slabs will form an excellent floor or flat, 

 sliding doors can be constructed on rollers, and the stairs made entirely 

 of slate — here then will be a building perfectly fire-proof at but com- 

 paratively small cost, and yet how little slate is used for this purpose. 

 I am most anxious to draw the attention of architects and engineers to 

 this particular point, as it is one of their imperative duties, as far as it 

 is compatible, to render any portion of the building they can, fire- 

 proof, substituting slate for wood in every case where such can be 

 done with advantage. 



Balcony bottoms, steps, and such works as require lightness and 

 strength, can be constructed of slate, as it is calculated to be five 

 times stronger than stone, and is, when only self-faced, comparatively 

 smooth, or can be moulded and rendered perfectly smooth by ma- 

 chinery where a high finish is required. 



Having enumerated several of the many uses to which slate is ap- 

 plicable, I shall conclude with a strong recommendation to the pro- 

 fession to encourage its manufacture as a material entirely of home 

 production, and one capable of much diversity. 



[We have received the foliow'ing communication, showing the 

 strength of the above slate. — Editor.] 



Sir — The following trial of the strength of slate in its capacity to 

 resist pressure, may not be altogether uninteresting. 



Having occasion to cover a subway of considerable length under a 

 carriage road, and being desirous to use slate on account of its non- 

 porositv, it became necessary to test its strength, and I procured a 

 piece from the Pimlico slate-works about 5 ft. 6 in. long, 5A in. wide, 

 and nearly 2i in. thick, planed fair on both sides. Messrs. Bramah 

 and Wool, of the Grosvenor Iron Works, kindly made the required 

 experiment for me. 



The ends of the slip of slate having been placed on supports 5 feet 

 apart, it was loaded in a pyramidal form with ballast iron, the centre 

 loading being about 3 ft. in. high, and the sides from about one foot. 

 When weighted with 1 ton 5 cwt. 3 qrs., the slip broke. I fancied 

 that I could detect a very slight deflection when the last cwt. was 

 added, but although I had a line stretched along the bottom edge of 

 the slip, the deflection was hardly perceptible when it gave way. 



Mr. Magnus, the proprietor of the works, thinks this hardly a fair 

 test of what the slate would bear, its strength being much reduced by 

 the planing, which intersects the natural laminae of the slate. 



Torringlon Square, Your's, &c., 



May 19. Henry Robert Abraham. 



BENEVOLENT INSTITUTION FOR MECHANICAL 

 ENGINEERS. 



We have long regretted in the great advance of the profession, that 

 while it possesses so many excellent scientific institutions it possesses 

 none of a benevolent character. We are well aware that attempts 

 have been made to supply this want, and that the principal cause why 

 such efforts have not succeeded is that the want of benevolent assistance 

 has not been sufficiently felt. It would be a libel indeed on the pro- 

 fession to suppose that while its members are so liberal in encouraging 

 the spread of science, and in educating successors and rivals to them- 

 selves, that they should from pecuniary motives be neglectful of the ma- 

 terial interests of their fellows, that while providing for the mind they 

 should be neglectful of the body. The cause and the only cause has 

 been the one which we have assigned, but we think that it now be- 

 comes a matter of grave consideration, whether the same circumstances 

 should still be allowed to have weight. We have reason to believe 

 that as regards the higher branches of the profession, notwithstanding 

 the hundred and fifty candidates the other day for the Chief Engineer- 

 ship of New Zealand, no serious pressure exists, but with the growth 

 of the profession, and on its assuming a settled form we think it is in- 

 cumbent on us to provide for the future. Further our pride is at 

 stake, for our's is the only profession which is without institutions for 

 the relief of its members, and while we have our universities, our col- 

 leges, and our institutes, we have no benevolent society. It may be 

 a matter of gratification that we do not yet want it, but we must not 

 be sure that this will long be the case, or that the dura pauptriei will 

 be long before it subjects us also to its h.irsh rule. It mast also be 

 borne in mind that if the higher branches do not imperatively require 

 to unite for such a purpose on their own account, there are other classes 

 connected with them the promotion of whose welfare is not less im- 

 perative. The workshops are crowded with hundreds of men, who 

 although enjoying high wages, are too frequently from defective edu- 

 cation, wasteful and improvident, and here we must pause for a minute 



2 G 



