The thickness of the walls in which these arches are placed is 1 ft.
11 in. They are built of Japanese bricks bound together with ordinary
lime. The span of the arches is 8 ft. 3 in., and the height of the arch
from the springing-line to the crown 4 ft. 1 in. The height of the
abutments is 7 ft. 1½ in. The voussoirs of the arch are formed of a
light grey soft volcanic rock, and on their faces show a depth of 12
inches. The width of the intermediate columns between the arches is 4
ft. 6⅞ in.
To determine whether at the time of an earthquake there was any
variation in the dimensions of these arches, a light stiff deal
rod, about 2 in. by ½ in. in cross section, was placed across the
springing-line of the arch. One end of this was firmly fixed to the
top of one abutment by means of a spike; on the other end, which was
to indicate any horizontal movement if the abutments approached each
other, there was fixed a pointer made out of a piece of steel wire.
This rested on a piece of smoked glass fixed to the ledge on which
the loose end of the rod was resting. If the abutments approached or
receded from each other a line would be drawn measuring the extent of
the motion. As a further indication of motion, a second smoked glass
plate was fixed on the transverse rod, which plate was marked on by a
pointer attached to a vertical rod hanging down from the crown of the
arch.
As a general result of these experiments it may be said that the
portions of the building which were examined usually either did not
move at all, or else they practically synchronised in their movements.
When they did move, the extent of motion was small, and the small
differences in movement which were observed were in every probability
far within the elastic limits of the structure.
_Observations on Cracks._—To determine whether the walls of a building
which have once been cracked, when subjected to a series of shocks,
similar to those which they experienced before being cracked, still
continued to give way, the extremities of a considerable number of
cracks in the N.E. end of the museum buildings of the Engineering
College were marked with pencil. Although since the time of marking
there had been many severe shocks, these cracks did not visibly extend.
These marks were made on the outside wall of the building. On the
inside, one of these same cracks showed itself as a fissure about ¼
inch in width. Across this crack a horizontal steel wire pointer was
placed. One end of this wire was fixed in the wall; the other end,
which was pointed, rested on the surface of a smoked glass plate placed
on the other side of the crack. After small earthquakes there was no
indication of motion having taken place, but after a shock on February
21, as indicated by a line upon the smoked glass plate, it was seen
that the sides of the crack had approached and receded from each other
through a distance of about 1/16 inch.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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