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Two hundred and fifty tons of brick wall carried eighteen inches without injury
152
Editorial.
The introduction of the decimal system into our money has but just been accomplished. (It may be admitted in parenthesis, that it has left us with coins having no known or relative value ; departures from all other coinages, and not interchangeable with each other, to say nothing of the greenback and legal tender bank bills). Many of our readers can recollect when the trading of the country was done in other denominations than dollars and cents, and some can recall when book-keeping was done in _&. s. d. Over fifty years were spent in introducing the system so far that the common purchaser ceased to estimate his values in it. The final absorption of small depreciated silver incident to the postal-currency issue, alone terminated the effort. In France, for many years, the old nomenclature prevailed, and the diverse provincial values were hardly disturbed until the railway of 1830 broke down the local fashions. The want of general education also precluded a rapid progress of any change in that country. We may conclude the evil day is yet far off, but for all that, twenty years will have accomplished the task, and this step in human progress will have been taken.
Origin of the word wane-edged.-Can any of ourreaders give the derivation and correct orthography of the word wain or wane, as used in describing a want at the corner of a board or piece of lumber, occasioned by the log from which the piece was sawn being too small to square up ? Two Hundred Eighteen Inches
and Fifty Tons of Brick Wall Carried without Injury.-About a month ago the
Society St. Vincent de Paul determined to build on the vacant lots in bhe rear of their Twenty-third street building. A survey of the land being made, it was discovered that the wall of the five story brick livery stable adjoining encroached eighteen inches on their property. The owner was notified to remove the wall to the eastward, and Weeks & Brothers, builders, were authorized to tear it down and rebuild. Mr. Weeks did not like to pull down the wall, and proposed to move it, bodily. The plan was ratified by several contractors, while others declared it could not be safely or successfully carried out. Nowhere could be found in the history of building or house-moving an instance where a brick wall had been detached from a building and moved. The wall was thirty years old, and built of second-hand
The Paris Clocks. brick; 70 feet high, about the same length, 16 inches wide at the base, and about 12 inches at the top. Its weight was 250 tons. Ten yellow-pine needles, 12 by 12 inches, planed on the upper surface, were let in horizontally under the wall, at equal distances, just above the foundation, and at right angles to its face. The upper surface of each needle was profusely greased, and a smaller needle with its planed surfa,ce down, inserted along each larger one. Spur-braces fixed at the foot in these upper timbers held the wall plumb. The jack-screws, working horizontally, were set at the ends of the ten upper needles. This being done, an eighteen-inch slice was taken off vertica.lly from the stable building just inside the wall. At 7 o’clock yesterday morning a man at each jack-screw began to work it, and the wall moved an inch safely. At this time one of the ten men did not work his jack as fast as the rest. The overseers were a little nervous at this, but the wall carried the lazy needle along with the rest. By 10 o’clock the 4,900 square feet of wall were pushed up tight against the open side of the stable, and the whole was perfectly plumb and unshaken. The men in the stables pursued their usual avocations during this performance .-Extracted from the N. Y. World, Aug. 24th, 1875.
The PariB Clocks.-M. Leverrier, Director of the Paris Observatory, has just laid before the Prefect of the Seine, a proposal to place all the clocks in Paris in communication with the principal one Balignani at the establishment at the head of which he presides. which is constructed under consays :-“ That piece of mechanism, ditions of almost infallible precision, is placed in the catacombs, SO that it may not be subject to the influence of the trepidation felt at the surface of the ground, serves as a regulator to all the other clocks in the Observatory, and gives the time for all the astronomical works The perfection of its movement is such that it carried on there. According to the varies scarcely a fraction of a second in a year. system suggested by M. Leverrier, a telegraphic wire would unite the regulator at the Observatory with the clock at the Luxembourg Palace, facing the Rue de Tournou, and which would in its turn communicat.e with the Bourse, the Mairies, Palace of Justice, churches, and most of the public buildings. The plan will shortly be submitted to the Muncipal Council.“-The Engineer.
Editorial.
The introduction of the decimal system into our money has but just been accomplished. (It may be admitted in parenthesis, that it has left us with coins having no known or relative value ; departures from all other coinages, and not interchangeable with each other, to say nothing of the greenback and legal tender bank bills). Many of our readers can recollect when the trading of the country was done in other denominations than dollars and cents, and some can recall when book-keeping was done in _&. s. d. Over fifty years were spent in introducing the system so far that the common purchaser ceased to estimate his values in it. The final absorption of small depreciated silver incident to the postal-currency issue, alone terminated the effort. In France, for many years, the old nomenclature prevailed, and the diverse provincial values were hardly disturbed until the railway of 1830 broke down the local fashions. The want of general education also precluded a rapid progress of any change in that country. We may conclude the evil day is yet far off, but for all that, twenty years will have accomplished the task, and this step in human progress will have been taken.
Origin of the word wane-edged.-Can any of ourreaders give the derivation and correct orthography of the word wain or wane, as used in describing a want at the corner of a board or piece of lumber, occasioned by the log from which the piece was sawn being too small to square up ? Two Hundred Eighteen Inches
and Fifty Tons of Brick Wall Carried without Injury.-About a month ago the
Society St. Vincent de Paul determined to build on the vacant lots in bhe rear of their Twenty-third street building. A survey of the land being made, it was discovered that the wall of the five story brick livery stable adjoining encroached eighteen inches on their property. The owner was notified to remove the wall to the eastward, and Weeks & Brothers, builders, were authorized to tear it down and rebuild. Mr. Weeks did not like to pull down the wall, and proposed to move it, bodily. The plan was ratified by several contractors, while others declared it could not be safely or successfully carried out. Nowhere could be found in the history of building or house-moving an instance where a brick wall had been detached from a building and moved. The wall was thirty years old, and built of second-hand
The Paris Clocks. brick; 70 feet high, about the same length, 16 inches wide at the base, and about 12 inches at the top. Its weight was 250 tons. Ten yellow-pine needles, 12 by 12 inches, planed on the upper surface, were let in horizontally under the wall, at equal distances, just above the foundation, and at right angles to its face. The upper surface of each needle was profusely greased, and a smaller needle with its planed surfa,ce down, inserted along each larger one. Spur-braces fixed at the foot in these upper timbers held the wall plumb. The jack-screws, working horizontally, were set at the ends of the ten upper needles. This being done, an eighteen-inch slice was taken off vertica.lly from the stable building just inside the wall. At 7 o’clock yesterday morning a man at each jack-screw began to work it, and the wall moved an inch safely. At this time one of the ten men did not work his jack as fast as the rest. The overseers were a little nervous at this, but the wall carried the lazy needle along with the rest. By 10 o’clock the 4,900 square feet of wall were pushed up tight against the open side of the stable, and the whole was perfectly plumb and unshaken. The men in the stables pursued their usual avocations during this performance .-Extracted from the N. Y. World, Aug. 24th, 1875.
The PariB Clocks.-M. Leverrier, Director of the Paris Observatory, has just laid before the Prefect of the Seine, a proposal to place all the clocks in Paris in communication with the principal one Balignani at the establishment at the head of which he presides. which is constructed under consays :-“ That piece of mechanism, ditions of almost infallible precision, is placed in the catacombs, SO that it may not be subject to the influence of the trepidation felt at the surface of the ground, serves as a regulator to all the other clocks in the Observatory, and gives the time for all the astronomical works The perfection of its movement is such that it carried on there. According to the varies scarcely a fraction of a second in a year. system suggested by M. Leverrier, a telegraphic wire would unite the regulator at the Observatory with the clock at the Luxembourg Palace, facing the Rue de Tournou, and which would in its turn communicat.e with the Bourse, the Mairies, Palace of Justice, churches, and most of the public buildings. The plan will shortly be submitted to the Muncipal Council.“-The Engineer.