412 THEORY OF ARCIIITKCTUilE. Book 11.

Pressure of Eautii against Walls.

1584. It is not our intention to pursue this branch of the jiractice of walling to any
extent, the detennination of the thicliness of walls in this pre-.'icament being more useful,
ptrhaps, to t!ie engineer than to the arcliitect. We shall tlierefore be contented witli l)ut
a concise mention of it, Rondelet has ('.vitl), as we consider, great judgment) adopted the
theory of Bclidor, in his Science ties Inyenieurs, and we shall folloiv him. Witliont tlie
f-li'jhtcit disrespi'Ct to later authors, we know from our own practice that walls of reiete-
ment may be built, with security, of much less tliicknes'i than either the theories of Belidor
or, latterly, of modern writers require. VVe entirely have out of the question the rubs
of Dr. Hutton in his Mathematics, as at)surd and incomprehensible. (Dobson, Art
nf
Bidldiiig, 18'19, preface, writes,
"
from neglecting to take into consideration the friction
of tlie earth against the back of tlie Mall, the rules given by many writers are inapplicable
to practice;
"
and to Gwilt's observation on Dr. Hutton he says,
"
Dr. Hutton's formnbe
are strictly correct, and only reqnire the correction for friction to make thtm agree with
modern practice.") Tlie fact istliat,.in carrying up walls to sustain a bank of earth, the
earth mu^t be carefully r.immed down, layer by layer, as the wall is carried up, so as to
prevent the weiglit of the earth, in a trianjiiilar section pressing upon the wall, which is
the foundation of all the theory on the sulyect If tliis precaution be taken, the thickness
resulting from the following investigations will be more than sufficient.
1585.
Earth left to itself takes a slope proportionate to its consistence; but for our
purpose it will sufficiently exhibit the nature of the investigation, to consider the substance
pressing against the wall as dry sand or pounded freestone, which will arrange itself in a
slope of about 55]^^ with the vertical plane, and therefore of
341"
with an horizontal plane,
as Rondelet found to be the case when experimeriting on the above materials in a box, one of
whose sides was removable. Ordinarily, 45
is taken as the mean slope into which earths
recently thrown up will arrange themselves.
1586. Belidor, in order to form an estimate for the thrust or pressure into which we are
imiuiring, divides the triangle EDF
{fig.
611.) representing the mass of earth which
creates the thrust, by parallels to its base
pjD, forming slices or sections of equal
thickness and similar form
;
whence it
follows, that, taking the first triangle aVb
as unity, the secotid slice will be .S, the
third 5,
the fourth 7,
and so on in a pro-
gression wliose difference is 2.
1587. Each of these sections being
supposed to slide upon an inclined plane
parallel to ED, so as to act upon the lace [BE __
\
"vxf
l-'D, if we multiply them by the mean
^fc^
-__
""Xi/
^^
height at which they collectively act, the
^ ^' ''"
sum of the products will give the total
Fir.
6il.
effort tenditig to overturn the wall
;
but as this sum is equal to tlie product of the whole
triangle by the height determined by a line drawn from its centre of gravity parallel to
tlie base, this last will be the method followed, as much loss cinnplicated than that which
15elidor adopts, independent of some of tliat author's suppositions not being rigorously
correct.
1588. The box in which the experiment was tried by Rondelet was Ifilin. (French)
long, 12 in. wide, and 17iin. high in the clear. As the slo))e which the pounded free-
stone took when unsujiported in front formed an angle with the horizon of
34J
,
the height
AE is 11^,
so that the part acting against the front, or that side of the box where would be
the wall, is represented by the triangle EDF.
1589. To find by calculation the value of the force, and the thickness which should lie
giv'.-n to the opposed side, we must first find the area of the triangle EDF=
-
h^^
=93.i
;
but as the specific gravity (or equal mass) of the pounded stone is only
{f
of that of the
stone or other species of wall which is to resist the effort, it will be reduced to 731 ^
^
=81.
This mass being supposed to slide upon the plane ED, its effort to its weight will be as
AE is to ED::14 : 20, or 81 xy|=45-9,
which must be con.sidered as the oblique
power qr passing through the centre of gravity of the mass, and
acting at the extrennity of
the lever ik. To ascertain tlie length of the lever, upon whose length depends the thick-
ness of the side which is unknown, we have the similar triangles qsr, qho, and kin, whose
sides arc
proportional : whence qs ; sr Wqli :
ho
;
and as ho =hh ho, we have qr
;qs\'.
hk

ho : ik.
^^ hence, ik= -
. ;
The three sides of the triangle qxr are known from the position of the angle
q
at the centre
of gravity of the great triangle EFD, whence each of the sides of the small triangle is
etiual to one third of those of the larger one, to which it is correspondent.