MENACE OF ELECTROLYSIS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 124, 26 May 1923, Page 14

MENACE OF ELECTROLYSIS.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —.ft is with interest I note that the Melbourne city engineer has issued a warning to property-owners with regard to the damage caused to buildings (hi particular) by electrolysis. It may be of interest to architects and electrical engineers to note that the damage occasioned to reinforced concrete buildings in America has reached such an alarming extent to warrant the setting up of an expert commission to investigate its causes and effects. From the report issued the causes are mainly attributed to leaking electrical mains and lighting, earthing"and ' traversing the metal reinforcing. In the cases viewed, investigation proved that the oxidation of- the metal had so increased the bulk of the reinforcing as to cause the concrete to burst away and crumble, leaving the steel supports exposed. The seriousness of the menace does not lie in the fact that the girders are eaten away, but in the formation ot ferric oxide with its attendant disastrous effects to the" concrete. (Personally, I am of the candid opinion that the crumbling appearance of the southern wall facing Wellesley Street of the iSeddon Memorial Technical College is due to no other causes than that which is alleged to be apparent in Melbourne to-day. The electrical atmospherical disturbances which are undoubtedly increasing in violence and frequency in Auckland will, if not guarded against by the erection of sufficient lightning conductors, cause havoc in time to some of our reinforced concrete buildings, and to the amazement and sorrow of many make the effects of electrolysis manifest. —1 am, etc., R.N".