ON SOME FOUNDATIONS EXPOSED IN ALTERING 

 THE PERAK MUSEUM. 



By L. VVray, Jun. 



In some alterations and additions to the Musevim made 

 in the year 1895 portions of the foundations were exposed, and 

 as an examination of them disclosed several interesting facts 

 which do not appear to be recognised, the following notes made 

 at the time on the sul)ject may perhaps he quoted here with 

 advantage. 



"Lime concrete in the foundations of the work -shop built 

 in 1884 is now (1895) nothing but sand and stones, no trace of 

 lime jjeing visible. Tlie plaster on the outside of the brick walls 

 for a thickness of three quarters of an inch is hard, inside that 

 it is soft and powdery. It has evidently dried before the lime 

 had been changed into carbonate. It crushes at twelve |)0unds 

 per square inch. It is not alkaline to test paper. 



"The foundations of the back part of the Museum, Iniilt in 

 1889, are also now devoid of lime. The only traces to be found 

 are a few pieces of sea shells and one or two small detached 

 lumps of carbonate of lime. The sand and stones are very loose 

 and soft. The wall on these foundations is in the same state as 

 that of the work -shop. 



" The front wall of the eastern 'wing, built in 1888, is also 

 much in the same condition, and the mortar inside it is still 

 strongly alkaline to test paper and to the taste, never having set 

 at all. A piece of this mortar breaks up in the hand much 

 easier than most clods of earth. It crushes at a pressure of 

 twenty -four pounds per square inch." 



The following considerations will help us to understand 

 what has taken place in the foundations: — (a) rich or fat limes, 

 that is lime made from marble, shells on other nearly ]iure car- 

 bonate have no power of setting under water, (h) seven hundred 

 and seventy -two parts of water dissolve, at the ordinary tem- 

 perature, one part of the weight of lime, forming Avhat is known 

 as lime water, (c) lime is converted into carbonate by absorbing 

 carbonic acid gas, either from the atmosphere or from its solution 



