John Newman

“ It is always well to remember that in sidelong ground a hill may be reposing at the steepest slope of stability, and when the earth is rock it may dip in the direction of a cutting or be imposed upon a perishable stratum, such as porous or inferior shale. Support upon the valley side is then absolutely necessary to restore its normal equilibrium, and every care should be taken to prevent water reaching the embankment or trickling under its base, and to control all water that may permeate through fissures in the rock face, especially should it be loosely bedded. ”

“ That was just the case here, for it was to one of these toad-stool contractors that the directors let the first contract, and engineers who do not advise their directors to have nothing to do with such public works contractors (!) I think deserve all the trouble they get into. Surely it is better to have a contractor who knows what work is and should be, even if he has but a small capital, than one who knows next to nothing about construction, and is financed by some loan-monger, or is at the mercy of some wire-puller? ”

“ A considerable margin of stability should in all cases be allowed. Although it may not be absolutely necessary to experiment when the nature of the ground is well known, wherever stability is of great importance, the cost of a practical experiment being so small, there is no sufficient reason why an actual test of the sustaining power of the soil should not be made in the majority of instances, for there are many earths whose friction and cohesiveness can alone be depended upon for resistance to displacement. In such cases the initial pressure upon the earth should not be much exceeded. ”

“ I never ram the concrete, but gently cast it in. It is only a sort of anti-rust covering, and is put in for that and to keep water out, and no weight comes upon it‌—‌it is not like the hearting of cylinder bridge piers. Ramming the concrete is not far from being a mistake, because the pile should have a chance of contracting without straining, and may be it will crack; and it is just as well to remember that although by ramming tightly you may get more solid filling and better protect the inside from rust, the pile may be strained, and it is a choice of evils, possible rust, or strain. ”

“ Merely comparing the weight of a train with that of an embankment, and assuming that the results of vibration at the same rate of speed are so governed is incorrect, for the effect of vibration at the formation level is not regulated by the height of an embankment or the depth of a cutting. The weight of a train may bear a very small relation to that of the quantity of earth slipped, yet the soil may have gradually become in such a state of delicate equilibrium that at last the least vibration will destroy it, even a little of the top soil falling upon the slope ”

“ This was drawn up by a civil and mechanical engineer, which is a big-drum kind of title, and I should think covered corkscrews and manufacturing machinery, and everything else under the sun that can be handled at any time, including a 6-inch drain, the Forth Bridge, and the Channel Tunnel thrown in. It's too much, it seems to me, for one man to completely understand; and I once heard a celebrated engineer say that, with a few brilliant exceptions, such a man knew thoroughly neither civil nor mechanical engineering‌—‌life was too short. ”

“ The configuration of a country governs to a great extent the flow and quantity of the rainfall that sinks into the earth, as in a hilly country and in impervious soil the water is quickly discharged into an adjacent river, taking the easiest course. In a flat country and pervious soil rain percolates the earth and saturates the ground, or reappears in springs.
As by drainage the retentive power of the soil is not allowed free operation, water rapidly flows into the drains instead of being chiefly held by the earth and watercourses, and channels are sometimes created ”

“ What a beautiful sharpener of one's brain 'extras' are!
"It is not always an experimental pile is screwed so as to judge of the distance the permanent piles should penetrate, and therefore a guess has to be made from the experience of screw piles under the same conditions of screwing and in the same soil. There is a good deal of chance about it, for although the soil may be of the same general character it often varies in hardness; and that is where the bother is, for it makes the 'extras' to be wrong way about for some time. ”

“ With regard to the inclination and the form of a slope, and the prevention of slips in earthwork, in any slip the surface must be affected; therefore, to determine the slope of permanent stability of any earth, whether in a cutting or an embankment, is of great importance. An unnecessarily flat slope is not only a monetary waste but may be a cause of instability, for it exposes a larger surface to deterioration by the weather. ”

“ Unless always well buried and at such a depth that neither the moistness nor condition of the earth vary, I scarcely believe in timber pile foundations at all, except in very peculiar cases, and as a kind of aid to the main support or to help to prevent the toe of a wall from being thrust forward, but for cofferdams, jetties, piers, and such structures, of course they are useful. ”

“ Rocks which oppose vegetation are usually hard and weather-resisting, and the faults and fissures local; but it is not so much the equal weathering of the face of rocks that is to be feared, as the presence and interspersion of seams, breaks and fissures, and it should always be borne in mind that the condition of a rock varies considerably—it may be sound in one place, and be fissured, disintegrated, and quickly weather in others—and that all laminated and fissile earths are liable to slip because of the percolation of water down veins and crevices. ”

“ You see your work, and all is above board and nothing hidden and no deception. Suits our principles. Now, you are like me, you don't wish to disturb other people's minds, we are built on the lines of love too much, and tenderness is better than anger any day. ”

“ Whenever the surface of the ground bulges or upheaves upon earth being tipped upon it or pressure applied, it shows that the disturbing harbingers of instability are in action and that its sustaining power has been reached, its surface ruptured, and any more soil placed thereon will only sink and displace the earth until it meets the solid ground beneath, or the material becomes sufficiently compressed and dense for it to sustain the load; such a condition of unrest generally proceeds from over-pressure and will loosen the soil, increase percolation, and aid disintegration. ”

“ In hard and most gravelly soil avoid them, and also in sharp sand, if you cannot use the previously-mentioned water-pipe arrangement fore and aft; and although in ordinary clays they drive nicely, and you make a bigger profit than in sand, it puzzles me to discern what is the use of them for permanent foundations, except to help to prevent a wall sliding forward, because when a pile is driven into most clays the clay becomes tempered and softer, and a layer of concrete put in a proper distance down is better and much more certain, and distributes the load more equally. ”

“ In adopting two systems of design of a wall, it is advisable that the change of form be gradual and not made abruptly, or cracks may occur from unequal settlement or load upon the foundations, and also when a concrete bed is used under a wall a lime concrete layer cannot be firmly joined to one composed of more solid and unyielding material, such as Portland cement concrete. Similar walls erected upon different soils are not equally strained, as one earth may scarcely change from the effects of air and water, and another may vary daily according to the weather. ”

“ I have driven a good many iron piles with a ram, but you have to be careful, no matter whether the soil is sand, gravel, clay, or silt. I like a copper ring on the head of the iron pile and a good long timber 'dolly,' not less than 4 or 5 feet in length, and then the ram does not burst the top. When the ground is hard the best way is to make a hole by jumpers of about 3 inches less diameter than the pile to be fixed, and in chalk soil it is doubtful whether they will go down right unless that is done; perhaps they won't drive at all, or a lot of them will be broken. ”

“ In treacherous earth do not locate a railway close to a road, except at a station, as if the line be placed above the road, a slip upon the railway may result in a slip upon the road; and should the line be below a road, the extra weight or vibration may cause the road to follow the railway and act, as it were, in unison with it. ”

“ In clay there is no occasion for such quick-driving, but take care to prevent the piles rebounding. Remember the same system does not do for every soil, for quick driving in hard soil sometimes smashes the piles; perhaps the earth has not had time to become displaced nicely and settle before being jammed again, and then the pile point turns and quivers and soon shreds, and cannot be driven down properly. Anyone that says piles make the ground itself firmer when they are driven into it, and so cause it to support a heavier load, will have to prove it before that can be swallowed. ”

“ Even in clay soils or any having considerable cohesion, trenches diagonally or transversely cut in the surface are generally inexpedient as disturbing and destroying the continuity of support of the surface and increasing its exposure to the action of the weather; and although they may be temporarily effectual as drains, such division of the inclined face cannot but induce a disunited condition which will at once be apparent should the trench become choked and it miscarry as a drain; and a temporary failure may so destroy the existing delicate equilibrium as to cause movement. ”

“ Well, what with, so they told me, big local loan-mongers to work the oracle and swim with them, and general recommendations‌—‌which I never take much notice of unless I know what a man has seen or done‌—‌saying they were full of the sublimest honesty and wisdom as ever had been known, and were that clever as few indeed could hope to be, the game was worked trumps for a time. Tests, not general testimonials, is my motto. What you have done or seen done, not what people are kind enough to say they think you can do, and which they don't know you can do. ”

“ A thorough examination of the site of a slip and the slipped earth is absolutely necessary before the most effectual and economical means of restoration can be determined, for weakness or the presence of a disturbing agent in the upper or lower portion of a cutting or embankment may be the cause of movement. An embankment may be solid in the mass and only portions may slip and subside, but then may become unstable and require different treatment, or local restoration may alone be necessary, and the slipped earth to be removed be small in quantity. ”

“ If I was engineer of an iron pile structure, I should have a few piles screwed at convenient places independently of the pier, but near to it, and have, say, one or two taken up every few years‌—‌say every seven or ten‌—‌just to have a look to see how matters seemed to be, and have a piece of the iron analysed, and compare it with the original analysis; and I should take care the piles were all the same quality of metal, so that the makers should not get up to fun at the foundry. ”

“ In an exceptional situation where a railway must be located in a ravine and close to a river, and the material of which an embankment is made is compact earth or the ground firm, it may be advisable to allow the overflow waters of a river, or the flow of surface water towards it, when the extreme flood level is known, to gently pass over a line of railway, it being kept at such a level as not to impede free working, and to ensure that any back water is not prevented from escaping. ”

“ I never forget what the engineers tell me, and when I hear a discussion among them I always make a note of it, and wait till I have an opportunity of making a bit 'extra' profit by it. What is the use to the likes of us of a bit of education if we can't turn it into gold? Not much; almost sheer waste, and I hate waste‌—‌abominate it. Well, one day the resident engineer was talking to another swell about how a splayed nozzle to a pipe caused an increased discharge. ”

“ In such a case the only means of preventing a slip is by erecting a wall at the toe of the slope, and as it is necessary that the foundations be in the rock beneath the surface earth, the simple operation of excavating may impel the drift down the hill. Also should an embankment be required upon drift soil its weight may be sufficient to cause the mass to slide and a diversion of a railway may be imperative, for the cost of a retaining wall, because of its height and the great pressure it would have to sustain, or be built to sustain, would prohibit the adoption of such a remedy. ”

“ The tide has stopped, but keep at it, lads, we must bury everything and get a good 2 feet higher, for if once the water runs over, the tail-race of the largest mill stream in creation will be a fool to it, and it would only be a question of minutes before the whole earth-bank would burst and let in ten acres or more of dock water, and the sea, and perhaps break up a lot of craft and wreck the whole place. ”

“ In Holland, where the peat is superimposed upon sandy soil, in order to prevent slips in embankments it is found advisable to excavate a trench about 15 to 20 feet in width and as wide as the formation width of a railway or road, until it reaches the subsoil, and to fill it with sand; and when an embankment has to be formed of very porous earth, to make a trench at the toe of each slope, and to fill it with sand so as to act as a counterfort. Peat and sand have been found to laterally spread the most, clay and sand less, and therefore the latter soil stands at a steeper slope. ”

“ Pile-driving is fickle work, for sometimes the piles stick because the points can't pierce the earth, and at others because they are held by friction on the surface of the piles. I have known the shoe to be cast, and the pile end look like a bass broom, and to be all in shreds. ”

“ As cuttings are near the surface and seldom at greater depths than 100 feet, it is hardly possible to know the angle at which a rock dips or whether there are faults and fissures in it, unless an examination is made upon the site, and this notwithstanding the geological character may be thoroughly understood. Local conditions may cause peculiarities which no law can determine, and although at considerable depths, deeper than railway or any works with the exception of well-sinking and mining are likely to reach, the nature of the earth is accurately ascertained ”

“ The same conditions are found in all soils, and the sides of a cutting vary, one may be comparatively compact and free from water, the other in a wet state and disintegrated. They will not permanently repose at the same angle, the slope varying according to the degree of dryness, size, and uniformity of the particles. In all earths in which cohesion is liable to be quickly destroyed, a straight slope is the best as having an even surface, which prevents the formation of depressions and causes the water to drain away, and also offers the least surface to the weather. ”

“ It is my opinion, founded on what I have seen and know, that Portland cement concrete is grand stuff when properly made; but you can't make the 'extra' profit on it you could, unless you can forget to rightly proportion the material. I mean leave out anything on the quiet you find is more profitable when it is absent; and now mixing machines are always used on works of importance where concrete is made in any considerable quantity, that is the only way you get a chance of a bit 'extra,' at least so runs my experience. ”

“ In dock, canal, or any earthworks made for the purpose of containing or expelling water, it is obvious the position is entirely dissimilar to that of railway works: for whereas a slip or a subsidence in an embankment upon railway work may be of slight moment and give comparatively little trouble or anxiety, any movement in earthwork constructed for the purposes named is of grave importance, as it may mean the destruction of the work, loss of life and property, not only upon the site but also in the surrounding district. ”

“ It is useless to declare any earth possesses considerable cohesion when the power can be quickly dissipated by ordinary atmospheric action and even become a cause of movement, and to rely for permanent stability upon such property. In ordinary earths, not rock, it will generally be found that cohesion is small or insignificant in soil having a coefficient of friction of some moment, and the reverse. ”

“ It may be that a dock must be built at a particular place, although the ground may be full of springs, the beds inclined, or a level stratum overlies an inclined bed of rock or softer earth incapable of standing at any but a flat slope, the whole being an unstable mass, for the deposits may extend to such considerable depths that to go below them is impracticable; however, uniform weighting and consolidation by the deposition of firm soils having insoluble particles will generally make it firmer, and by compression and admixture will ultimately cause the ground to be more solid. ”