House and Garden 
INFLUENCE OF SEA-WATER ON 
MORTARS 
M E. CHANDLER, in a recent pa- 
• per, describes the action of sea¬ 
water on mortars, and his investigations 
in the harbor of La Rochelle since 1856 
are of much value, as they extend over 
a period of forty years. Blocks of sixty 
centimetres in length were exposed to 
the open sea from 1856 to 1875, and 
were above the water-surface at low 
tide. The mortars were ol hydraulic 
limes of different origin, of natural 
cements from Pouilly, Vassy, etc.; of 
artificial pozzuolanas mixed with lime 
and sand; of trass from Andernach, etc. 
Nearly all blocks had completely lost 
their cohesion after different periods. 
The few blocks of Portland cement 
experimented upon were in good con¬ 
dition; but blocks of neat cement (Eng¬ 
lish and French) were decomposed. 
From these tests Viennot draws the 
following conclusions: (1) Neat ce¬ 
ments are destroyed more rapidly than 
mortars of a certain composition; (2) 
mortars made of one volume of cement 
to one of sand, and, again, of one volume 
of cement to two of sand, are those which 
offer the greatest resistance to sea-water. 
They will last for twenty, thirty-six, and 
thirty-eight years. Thurninger com¬ 
menced new tests with blocks of masonry 
and concrete made of lime and Speil 
mortar, with a length of edge of forty 
centimetres. In 1895 the masonry 
blocks disappeared, their destruction 
having commenced four years after their 
exposure, and out of thirty-two con¬ 
crete blocks only twenty-six remained, 
but they were in advancing decomposi¬ 
tion. In 1880 other tests were com¬ 
menced on blocks submerged, of various 
limes. Many of these have perished. 
“Out of thirty-one masonry blocks 
laid in Portland cement mortar, and 
submerged between 1881 and 1892, 
twenty-three are still intact, while some 
have commenced to disintegrate.” Vien¬ 
not points to the following conclusions: 
(1) Mortars of hydraulic lime, mixed in 
any proportion, in most cases commence 
to disintegrate after one or two years’ 
immersion in sea-water; they crumble 
into pulp after periods varying in length, 
but apparently not exceeding fifteen 
years. (2) Concrete resists better than 
masonry, owing to the greater density 
imparted to it by ramming. (3) Rapid¬ 
setting cements may commence to dis¬ 
integrate after six or eight years, but 
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DEPT. 10 
CHICAGO 
Landscape Architects 
and Engineers 
Plans for the development of private estates, parks, 
cemeteries and boulevards made and executed 
SOUTHERN WORK A SPECIALTY Established 1856 
P. J. BERCKMANS CO. Augusta, Ga. 
FORMAL AND NATURALESQUE GARDENS 
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COPLEY SQUARE BOSTON, MASS. 
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