580

THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE. Book II.

1915&. Grey granite, or inoorstone as it is called in Cornwall, is got out in blocks by split-
ting it with a number of wedges applied to notches pooled in the surface of the stone, about
four inches apart. The pool /wles are sunk with the point of a pick, much in the same way
as otiier hard quarry stones are split. The harder the moorstone tiie nearer it can be split
to the scantling required. Generally speaking, granite has no planes of stratification, and
it works or cleaves equally well in every direction ; but in the porphyriiic varieties tiiere is
a rough kind of arrangement of the crystals
;
and in gneiss thei-e is a species of layer,
formed by plates of the mica, which is plainly discernible. When brought to near tlie size
required, it is first scahbled by a hammer with a cutting face
4^
inches long by li incites
wide, weighing 22 lbs.
;
then brouglit to a picked
face
with a pick or pointed hammer
weigliing
'20
lbs., formed by two acute angled triangles, joined base to base by a parallelo-
gram between them thus
<^
o
^
;
and if to he Jintly icmtyht or
fine
picked, it is further
dressed with a similar pointed hammer, reducing the roughness to a minimun. Tlie finer
finish ov
fine
axed face is (jroduced by a hammer or axe with a sharp edge on both sides,
weigliing 9lbs. ; fov fine
work the "patent axe" is also used, which is a hammer formed
of several parallel blades screwed together, capable of being taken to pieces when required
to be sharpened. Polishing can then be done by machinery, the granite being rubbed
by iron rubbers witli fine sand and water, and finished with other materials.
1915c. Aberdeen red granite possesses the property common to all granites, that of a
distinct plane of cleavage, which, though not perceptible to the eye, is at once recognisable
under the hammer of the workman, and of course can be wrought with much greater pre-
cision and cHect with the bed, than transversely to it. Tliis bed bears no traceable relation
to the natural joints of the rocks, which are indefinite in their directions; and still less
so to their stratification. The grey granites are but slightly affected with cleavage, being
capable of being blocked with the hammer with about equal facility in every direction.
The local varieties of worked granite differ somewhat from those used in England, and are,
I. Hammer-blocked, as in foundations, plinths, &c. 1 1. Scappkd blncks, squared with the
heavy pick, as in docks and heavy engineering works. III. Picked, abetter finish than
No. II, IV. Close picked, the bed and arrisLS made fair, and the outer surfaces made as
fine as the pick will make them
;
used in ashlar work, &c. V. Sinyle axed, a finer finish
than No. IV., and used in quoins, reliates, cornices, &c., in house building. And VI.
Fine axed, the finest finish before polishing, given to dressed granite by means of the
patent axe, used in the best work in house building, cemetery memorials, and as u finish to
contrast with polished work.
WALLINO.
1916. In stone walling the bedding joints are usually horizontal, and this should always,
indeed, be so wlien the top of the wall is terminated horizontally. In building bridges,
and in the masonry offence walls upon inclined surfaces, the bedding joints may follow the
general direction of the work.
1916. Footings of stone walls should be built with stones as large as maybe, squared
and of equal thicknesses in the same course, and care should be had to place the broadest
bed downwards. The vertical joints of an ujjper course are never to be allowed to fall
over those below, that is, they must be made, as it is called, to break joints. If the walls of
the superstructure be tliin, the stones composing the foundatior;s may be disposed so that
their length inay reach across each course from one side of the wall to tiie other. When
the walls are thick, and there is difficulty in procuring stones long enough to reach across
the foundations, every second stone in the course inay be a whole stone in breadth, and
each interval may consist of two stones of equal breadth, that is, ])lacing header and
stretcher alternately. If tliose stones cannot conveniently be had, from one side of tiie
wall lay a header and stretcher alternately, and from the other side another series of stones
in the same manner, so that the length of each header may be two thirds, and tlie breadth
of each stretcher one third of the lireadth of the wall, and so that the back of each lieader
may come in contact with the back of an opposite stretcher, and the side of that header may
come in contact with the side of the header adjoining the said stretcher. In foundations of
some breadth, for which stones cannot be procured of a length equal to two thirds
the breadth of the foundation, the works should be built so that the upright joints of any
course may fall on the middle of the length of the stones in the course below, and so that
tlie back of each stone in any course may iiiU on the solid of a stone or stones in the lower
coiu'se.
1917. The foundation should consist of several courses, each decreasing in breadth as
they rise by sets off' on each side of 3 or 4 inches in ordinary cases. The number of courses
is neccs'^arily regulated by tlie weight of the wall and by the size of the stones whereof
these foundations or footings are composed.
1918. Walls are inost commonly built with an ashlar facing, and backed with brick or
ftibble-work. In London, where stone is dear, the liacking is generally of brick-work,
which does not occur in the north and other ])arts, where stone is cheap and common.
Walls faced with ashlar, and backed with brick or uncoursed rubble, are liable to become