An Elementary Course of Civil Engineering |
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abutments advantage angle appareil arch bank boats bottom breadth Briare canal brick bridge caisson calcined called canal canal lock carriages cast iron catchwater causeway chain pumps coffer-dam consequently considerable construction culverts curve determined dimensions direction distance draw earth embankment employed engineer equal excavation expense of water experiments exterior extremity fall feet gates grillage ground harbor horizontal horse hydraulic hydraulic lime inches inclination inclined planes interior jettie joints kind length lime lock manner masonry means method mitre-sill mortar navigation necessary obtained opening opus incertum pass perpendicular pieces piers piles placed plane planks plaster Plate pressure principles prism puzzolana quantity of water rail rail-roads railway ratio reservoir resistance result river road sand side silica slope sluices soil solid species specific gravities stone stream summit level surface theodolite thickness tide timber tion velocity vertical vessels voussoirs weight wheels wood yards
Popular passages
Page 83 - It is a known fact, that a road lasts much longer over a morass than when made over rock. The evidence produced before the Committee of the House of Commons, shewed the comparison on the road between Bristol and...
Page 82 - ... be made quite dry, and a covering impenetrable to rain, must then be placed over it, to preserve it in that dry state ; that the thickness of a road should only be regulated by the quantity of material necessary to form such impervious covering, and never by any reference to its own power of carrying weight.
Page 82 - The roads can never be rendered thus perfectly secure, until the following principles be fully understood, admitted, and acted upon: namely, that it is the native soil which really supports the weight of traffic : that while it is preserved in a dry state, it will carry any weight without sinking...
Page 83 - The thickness of such road is immaterial, as to its strength for carrying weight ; this object is already obtained by providing a dry surface, over which the road is to be placed as a covering, or roof, to preserve it in that state : experience having shewn, that if water passes through a road, and fill the native soil, the road, whatever may be its thickness, loses its support, and goes to pieces!.
Page 191 - But the great advantage of a rail-way will consist in its affording the means of transporting heavy goods with speed and certainty : if it be only so far as to double the speed of the fly-boats, it must be a material benefit. And recollecting that rail-roads are yet in an imperfect state, while the united talents of our civil engineers have been chiefly devoted to canals for about a century, we may confidently hope that there is yet scope for improvement ; and we may fairly infer that for new works...
Page 83 - Having secured the soil from under water, the road-maker is next to secure it from rain water, by a solid road, made of clean, dry stone, or flint, so selected, prepared, and laid, as to be perfectly impervious to water : and this cannot be effected, unless the greatest care be taken, that no earth, clay, chalk or other matter that will hold or conduct water, be mixed with the broken stone, which must be so prepared and laid as to unite by its own angles into a firm, compact, impenetrable body.
Page 82 - ... that it is the native soil which really supports the weight of traffic ; that while it is preserved in a dry state it will carry any weight without sinking, and that it does, in fact, carry the road and...
Page 82 - The roads can never be rendered perfectly secure, until the following principles be fully understood, admitted and acted upon : namely, that it is the native soil which really supports the weight of the traffic ; that while it is preserved in a dry state, it will carry any weight without sinking...
Page 198 - Length for Rails of Rail-Roads. The price of a ton of iron delivered on the rail-road must be known, and also the price of the chair, stones, and setting of one support. Then divide the price of a ton of iron by the price of one support, both being in dollars; square the quotient and multiply it into the breadth of the rail in inches, and this product by A part of the weight of the loaded wagon in pounds, and extract the cube root of the product.