Grounding

“ In the construction of a building the weights are concentrated at given points on piers, columns, &c., and these foundations require to be spread so as to reduce the weight to an average. In the preparation of a foundation care must be taken to prevent the lateral escape of the soil or the movement of a bed upon sloping ground, and it is also necessary to provide against any damage by the action of the atmosphere. The soils met with in ordinary practice, such as rock, gravel, chalk, clay and sand, vary as to their capabilities of bearing weight. ”

“ The site of a wall, or the walls of a building, being set out or marked on the ground, a trench is dug in the earth for the foundations, the width and depth being determined on from the thickness and height of the superstructure, and from the nature of the soil. ”

“ In laying the foundation of a building, proper care should be taken to ascertain the nature of the soil, either by a crow or rammer; or, which is still better, with a miner's or well-digger's borer, in order to discover whether it is thoroughly sound, and fit to bear the weight that is to be laid upon it. If the foundation be not very loose, it may be improved by ramming in large stones. ”

“ When the parallels and approaches have to be constructed upon ground sloping downward towards the work, in soil containing large stones, or in which the rock is close to the surface, in marshy ground or that containing much water or liable to be flooded, the difficulty of their construction and defilade are evident. ”

“ Some soils are liable to change in form, expanding and contracting under meteorological influences; such are clays which swell when wetted and shrink when dried. Concrete foundations are commonly interposed upon such soils to protect the building from derangement from this Foundations.cause; or walls of the cheaper material, concrete, instead of the more expensive brick or stone structure, are brought up from a level sufficiently below the ordinary surface of the ground. ”

“ Some of the signs of civilization are wanting: there are no roads and no fences; the fields are divided only by stones. But the divisions are as fixed and as sacred as if the fields were hemmed in by walls ten feet high. ”

“ It is not always that a site answers to this description, and the problem of what will be the best form of foundation to use in placing a building, more especially if that building be of large dimensions and consequently great weight, on a site of soft yielding soil, is one that is often most difficult of solution. ”

“ That form of foundation is pretty good until some one digs a deep hole near by, then, under the weight of the building, the quicksand oozes into this hole, and the building settles badly, sometimes dangerously. ”

“ Where the fall is very slight, that is, where the ground is so nearly level that it slopes away less than six inches in a hundred feet, it becomes necessary to prepare the land by building checks and borders to confine the water for a certain length of time. ”

“ A groundplan is made by the proper successive use of compasses and rule, through which we get outlines for the plane surfaces of buildings. An elevation is a picture of the front of a building, set upright and properly drawn in the proportions of the contemplated work. Perspective is the method of sketching a front with the sides withdrawing into the background, the lines all meeting in the centre of a circle. ”

“ A short and very high embankment may stand where one of considerable length would slip, consequent upon variations in the character and condition of the earth, the bearing capacity of the ground, the state of the weather, the flow of the surface water, general homogeneousness, the configuration of the ground, and other deteriorating influences; but draining, careful deposition, and a judicious adoption of the varying slope system, and other precautionary works, will conduce to stability. ”

“ High grounds, gradually rising, are crowned by a cone of bold ascent, while the country beneath, being cultivated fields, is divided into numerous enclosures, and intersected by stone walls, hedges, and trenches. ”

“ The direction of the resolution of these forces is towards a slope, therefore, the farther the surface of a slope is from the line of action and reaction, the greater is its distance from the disturbing force and the lateral resistance it receives from the mass. ”

“ The filling should be commenced at the wall, and the layers be so deposited that their slope approximates to that of being at right angles to the surface of the slope of the ground rather than parallel to it. When thought desirable and the natural ground is solid, it can be benched, and the backing be damped and rammed. ”

“ Should closing from a single tip head be impracticable, the earth from the meeting point of the toe of the slopes of the tip heads should be similar in character and be deposited in the same condition; in any case additional care should be taken to adopt every reasonable precaution to secure equal consolidation. ”

“ A piece of ground in the rough must first be shaped up by draining, removing trees or stones, planning roads and such things, before the smoothing process can be attempted, and it is in this roughing-out process where the future landscape picture is either made or destroyed. ”

“ If these are not present, a bit of straight coast line, a visible line of fracture, a zone of fault breccia, or the boundary line separating different formations may one or more of them fill in the gaps of the parallel straight drainage lines which by their intersection bring out the pattern. These significant lines of landscapes which reveal the hidden architecture of the rock basement are described as lineaments (Fig. 82, p. 87) . They are the character lines of the earth’s physiognomy. ”

“ As the proportion of mould or clay in the sand becomes greater a flatter slope is necessary according to the nature of the earth with which it is incorporated, the degree of wetness, and also the exposure of the surface. ”

“ In the construction of a road level foundation is sought, and on this is put a heavy layer of crushed rock and brick, which, after having been well packed and rounded, is covered with a layer of earth. ”

“ Benching the ground so as to prevent a movement of the toe, does not aid equal settlement nor keep the portion of an embankment above the level of the ground from spreading, except from the resistance offered by the cohesion and friction of the soil; whereas, if the ground slopes inwards towards the centre the earth has a tendency to rest and come together, and therefore not to slip upon the slopes. ”

“ If a field is to be tilled, it is done by two natives, who are furnished with long poles, pointed at one end. The one thrusts his pole, pretty deeply, and in an oblique direction, into the earth, so that it forms an angle with the surface of the ground. ”

“ We discovered a piece of level ground, about as large as the ante-room of a cell, and thinking that it was solid, we started to pass over it, but on its bearing the weight of the body, not only did all the ground shake, but the part where we pressed on it, sinking, submerged us also with it ”

“ This is the required inclination to prevent movement provided no pressure is exerted upon the surface, and not taking into consideration the disturbing and weakening effects of vibration and all other deteriorating influences, such as the variable degree of moisture of the soil, the irregularity of its character, the destruction of the continuity of the surface by trenches or drains in a slope, the effect of gravity to detach a mass, the process of excavation or deposition, and the expansion and contraction of soils of an argillaceous nature. ”

“ The ground may fulfil all these requirements up to the last few yards, but in the 26last few yards a sunk ditch, a wire fence, not to speak of more visible obstacles, such as hedges, walls, earthworks, or any of the common features of an ordinary defensive position, may render the whole enterprise nugatory. If the reader will bear in mind the average character of ground in European countries, he will recognize another serious limitation to the employment of shock. ”

“ No one with a knowledge of earthwork would desire to erect an embankment of considerable height of yellow or sandy clay, or excavate a deep cutting in such soil unless a considerable allowance be made to provide against contingencies ”

“ Boundaries.—​The children having got the idea of direction, it will be quite easy to introduce that of boundaries—such and such a turnip field, for instance, is bounded by the highroad on the south, by a wheat crop on the south-east, a hedge on the north-east, and so on; the children getting by degrees the idea that the boundaries of a given space are simply whatever touches it on every side. Thus one crop may touch another without any dividing line, and therefore one crop bounds the other. ”

“ To the labourers was given the heavy task of digging underground channels, the surplus earth of which was thrown up with great force through apertures in the soil until the earth so displaced and amassed formed a high heap, riddled in its interior by hundreds of channels and miniature chambers and apartments. ”

“ As the foreman sings a droning labour song, the men pull simultaneously at the ropes, and the stone or iron is heaved high in the air and falls into the hole, thus tamping down the earth at the point where the foundation stone is to lie. Crushed stone or broken pieces of tile are thrown in and this is all mashed into the earth to make the foundation still stronger. ”

“ But that will not do: they must see themselves. The field is turned up with the spade, all the spine put under, a foot deep; and I have taken out nearly stones enough to build a wall through the field. ”

“ A peculiarity I have noticed in the soft, slaty ranges, is the very great inclination of the sides of ranges and gullies, having a good covering of soil, with grass and trees, and which I have seen considerably greater than that which geologists seem to have assigned as the extreme limit at which rock can carry a soil. ”

“ Should the earth be treacherous and require a flat slope, it may be advisable to reduce the quantity of excavation by the erection of a retaining wall, not only to effect a saving in expenditure, but also to permanently support the soil, and prevent instability. ”

“ If we compare the sloping strata to the roof of a house, a line down the slope of the roof will mark the direction of the dip, the ridge of the roof that of the strike. The strata we are considering dip towards the North ”

“ The necessity for a good ground being so great, as the process became more and more general in England, a race of professional ground-layers grew up, who were paid at a certain rate per square inch for the surface thus covered. ”

“ The ground for ten feet beyond the top lines of all slopes of cuttings shall be cleared in like manner, of all timber and saplings. Wherever additional ground has to be taken in widening excavations to obtain materials, or in widening embankments to dispose of surplus material, or in grading for turnouts or depot grounds, an additional amount of ground shall be cleared in like manner; and when directed by the engineer, wherever additional space is required for outside ditching, or for alterations of roads or watercourses, or otherwise. ”

“ Thus in the whole machinery of springs and Rivers, and the apparatus that is kept in action for their duration, through the instrumentality of a system of curiously constructed hills and valleys, receiving their supply occasionally from the rains of heaven, and treasuring it up in their everlasting storehouses to be dispensed perpetually by thousands of never-failing fountains, we see a provision not less striking, than it is important. ”

“ Then either drive down between and near about the long piles other short piles or firmly imbed rock or other substantial material into the earth or river bed, and, if desirable, slip down over the piles one or more broad and heavy stones or timbers, and imbed the same firmly into the soil, so that they rest down upon the foundation, and form a flat surface. ”

“ The important facts of the intersection of veins are not seen; the segregations of ore in a vein, the change of the contents with the change of ground, with the depth, the underlie, and other influential conditions, must all be taken on the affirmation of the agent, in whose office the stranger expects in vain to find a complete record of the subterranean operations, with all the scientific data which they have revealed. ”

“ The outer portion of many descriptions of rock consists of blocks or layers of stone partially or entirely separated from the main bed, and these, lying in a loose condition, are deceptive and treacherous as a foundation base. The exposed rock should be carefully examined, and all detached or outlying pieces or layers removed before placing any foundation course. ”

“ The Old English word, represented by “groundsel,” appears in two forms, grundeswylige and gundæswelgiæ; of the first form the accepted derivation is from grund, ground, and swelgau, to swallow; a weed of such rapid growth would not inaptly be styled a “ground-swallower.” ”

“ It has often been noted with surprise that features of underground structure which, it might have been confidently anticipated, should have exercised a marked influence on the topography of the surface have not been able to resist the levelling action of the denuding agents, and do not now affect the surface at all. ”

“ Foundations are usually executed by excavators or navvies, and the tools and implements used are boning rods, level pegs, lines, spirit level, pickaxe, various shovels, wheel-barrow, rammer or punner, &c. In digging the ordinary trenches and excavations, should the ground be loose, planking and strutting have to be employed. ”