SOME ROMAN CATHOLIC WRITINGS ON PRO-LIFE, FREEDOM, CONSCIENCE et al
SOME ROMAN BUILDING MATERIALS
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ROMAN BUILDING MATERIALS 347 SOME ROMAN BUILDINO MATERIALS. BY NICHOLAS KNIGHT, Cornell College, Mount Vernon, la. / Long ages after the far-famed ^seven hills^ were lifted above the sea by volcanic action, and all the region round about the ^eternal city^ had become dry land, -there came, an era of large fresh water lakes and a river Tiber many times larger than the present stream. These fresh waters were heavily impregnated with carbonic acid, and they dissolved quantities of the lime- stone with which they freely came in contact. This limestone was deposited in various places and is known ^’travertine. The extensive deposits near Tivoli, about twenty miles from the city, at the foot of the Sabine hills, have furnished a large amount of building material. The quarries there located have been utilized from the time of the emperors to the present. The Colosseum is built of travertine, and it -has defied the vicissi- tudes of time during sixty generations of men. This serves to indicate the wonderful staying qualities of the material. The beautiful red sandstone in the British houses of Parliament erected in about 1830 is rapidly becoming disintegrated, al- though in a comparison of this kind it must be remembered that the English climate like the American makes more stren- uous demands upon a building than the milder, dryer climate of sunny Italy. The durability of travertine is still recognized and the new palace of justice, which has been several years in building and which when completed will rank as one of the finest modern structures in all Italy, is being constructed of this material. We have never noticed an analysis of the rock although many have doubtless been published. A specimen analyzed as follows: CaQ>3 ....................................90.50% MgCo3 .................................. 3.65% SiO, ..................................... 3.36% Fe^ ................................... 0.76% ALA .................................... 2.06% 100.33% The chemical analysis scarcely furnishes a clue to its endur- ing qualities which are rather -to be sought in its physical char- acters. It looks durable. It is vesicular, the vesicles lined with
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Transcript of SOME ROMAN BUILDING MATERIALS
ROMAN BUILDING MATERIALS 347
SOME ROMAN BUILDINO MATERIALS.
BY NICHOLAS KNIGHT,
Cornell College, Mount Vernon, la. /
Long ages after the far-famed ^seven hills^ were lifted abovethe sea by volcanic action, and all the region round about the^eternal city^ had become dry land, -there came, an era of largefresh water lakes and a river Tiber many times larger than thepresent stream. These fresh waters were heavily impregnatedwith carbonic acid, and they dissolved quantities of the lime-stone with which they freely came in contact. This limestonewas deposited in various places and is known ^’travertine. Theextensive deposits near Tivoli, about twenty miles from the city,at the foot of the Sabine hills, have furnished a large amountof building material. The quarries there located have beenutilized from the time of the emperors to the present. TheColosseum is built of travertine, and it -has defied the vicissi-tudes of time during sixty generations of men. This serves toindicate the wonderful staying qualities of the material. Thebeautiful red sandstone in the British houses of Parliamenterected in about 1830 is rapidly becoming disintegrated, al-though in a comparison of this kind it must be rememberedthat the English climate like the American makes more stren-uous demands upon a building than the milder, dryer climateof sunny Italy.The durability of travertine is still recognized and the new
palace of justice, which has been several years in building andwhich when completed will rank as one of the finest modernstructures in all Italy, is being constructed of this material.We have never noticed an analysis of the rock although many
have doubtless been published. A specimen analyzed as follows:CaQ>3 ....................................90.50%MgCo3 .................................. 3.65%SiO, ..................................... 3.36%Fe^ ................................... 0.76%ALA .................................... 2.06%
100.33%The chemical analysis scarcely furnishes a clue to its endur-
ing qualities which are rather -to be sought in its physical char-acters. It looks durable. It is vesicular, the vesicles lined with
348 SCHOOL SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS
drusy calcite and light yellowish gray in color. It contains somelong threadlike cavities, apparently of organic origin. It is crys-
talline and an old surface contains no grains that are detach-able by the finger. The specific gravity is apparently higherthan that of ordinary limestone.Rome was fortunate in the variety of its native construction
materials and in its easy accessibility to -the marble quarries ofAsia, Africa, Greece and the islands of the Mediterranean. Au-gustus proudly boasted that he found Rome brick and left itmarble. What a pity that so many of the finest buildings andworks of art, some of the world’s greatest masterpieces, wereruthlessly burned for quicklime! Fragments of these ancientmarbles recently picked up on the Forum (when the custodianswere not looking) gave the following results when analyzed:
CaCo^ ...................................... 90.37MgCo3 ..................................... 2.47SiOg ....................................... 3.17Fe.Os ...................................... 2.46A1A ...................................... 1.37
99.8o.There is quite a striking resemblance in the composition of
the two materials which, one would scarcely expect.Our thanks are due Mr. Irvin B1 Bleeker of the Cornell Col-
lege chemical laboratory for making the foregoing’ analyses.
The quantity of coal consumed in the manufacture of coke in 1907was 61,946,109 short tons, valued at $72,784,851. The value of the cokeproduced from this coal was $11,539,126, a difference of $38,754,275,which represents the profits on the coking operations less the cost ofmanufacturing and the expenses of administration and selling. In1906 the value of the coal used was $62,232,524, and the value of thecoke produced was $91,608,034, a difference to cover all expenses ofmanufacture, administration, and profits of $29,375,510.
Consul A. G. Seyfert of Owen Sound, Ontario, furnishes the followingstatistics concerning cement in Canada:One-half of all the cement manufactured in Canada is manufactured
in the locality of Owen Sound, the daily output here being 3,000 barrels.The demand for concrete material for building the transcontinentalrailroad has increased the output to the full capacity of the plantsduring-the past year. During 1907 Canada produced 2,500,000 barrelsof Portland cement, and imported 1,000,000 more, nearly all from theUnited States.
