BUILDING RESEARCH.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 307, 27 December 1924, Page 4

BUILDING RESEARCH.

WEATHERING OF BUILDING MATERIAL. "BREATHING" OF SANDSTONE. (From Oar Own Correspondent.) LONDON", November 19. Building as a necessary of life runs food very close under conditions of modern civilisation, and for that reason .' it is good news to hear tuat something iis being done to investigate building i problems scientifically. : The Department of Scientific and •' Industrial Research has a Building \ Research Board, which, it would appear, I is doing good team work on it. ij Home of the foremost scientists in i! this country are now at work. There is, •! for example, the committee that inyestij gates the structure of building. Under I modern conditions of heavy road trausi port ,and, therefore, nef increased vibroa- '■ tion, the problems of the loading and ; strength of such buildings need scientific ■: investigation. The chairman of the Com- ' mittee is Professor C. F. Jenkin, Pro- • fesSor of Engineeriug Science at Oxford. ' This team of scientists are already applying their experience to meet certain exceptional difficulties in the building industry, an industry in which science . ! has never played a large part, and which '. ■ mainly works on certain somewhat vague . I rules handed down from past generations. I j Another problem of house construction rj is caller technically "weathering." It is I\ of fundamental importance in house E building that the materials used should resist the wearing effects of time and b weather, but, unfortunately, compara- , tive.ly little is known by modern science - about this factor in building construe- , J tion. New materials are produced by ; inventors, and without extensive labora--3 tory tests it is sometimes difficult to state with any degree of accuracy whei ther houses built of the new materials T will be satisfactory in respect of "wea--1 ther." Jn order to assist on the chemical and geological aspects of this problem, among others a second committee of five scientists, four of whom are Fellows of the Royal Society, has been appointed j by the Government j I With the assistance of these scientists, 3 endeavours are being made to discover the effects upon materials used in build- , ing and changes in the temperature and 1i of 'the amount of moisture in the r I atmosphere. It is a surprising fact that 3 ! certain materials, as, for example, Yorkf shire sandstone, "breathes," due to a 2 moisture content, i.e.. changes in volume 5 with change in moisture, accompanied l by large changes in strength. The work . already started under the Stone Prei servation Committee, especially concerned - with the decay of stone work, is fully f I reported on in the annual report of the 3 Department." B I I