WELLINGTON COLLEGE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 335, 23 October 1908, Page 8

WELLINGTON COLLEGE.

THE NEW ANNEXE. Standing on a rise in the Wellington College grounds, and .apart from the main building, is the newly-finished college annexe, a two-storied red' brick structure, with white brick and cement embollishments. It represents the practical solution of the "freo place" difficulty—for the boys, at all events over the settlement of which . the College Governors, tho Education Board, and tho Government have negotiated so long. Very little remains, to bo done before the building is handed over to its owners. The structure itself is complete,

are pierced with an archway in tho middle on tho ground-level, so that one could pass under the dam from one side to tho other without leaving the shade of the deckslab itself. This is not" visible in tho accompanying picture, as it. is intended to closo up the back of tho dam for half the height of tho walls with a concreteslab, and to throw against it a quantity of earth (which has to b'e shifted) as a.hnal "stiffener." In the caso of the by-wash'section (107 ft. out of a total of 540 ft.), the back or underneath side of tho dam is walled to the top, and given a graceful curve, .so that tho overflow water can get away easily and quietly. The top of the dam will be lift, in width, but one will not .be able to walk across owing to the break caused by the, by-ivash, which it; is not. proposed to bridge. , Tho great strength needed in tins shelllike structure to compensate for solidity in material is provided in the steel reinforcement of every yard of concrete used. One would doubt the strength of 3ft. of concrete, however carefully mixed antl placed, were it not that it will bo threaded with seven-eighths (of an inch) steel bars embedded in the concrete (two inches from tho dry side) laterally laid six inches apart at tho bottom and oight inches apart towards tho top. The crcst of the dam and the overflow wall will bo reinforced with three-quarter steel bars, laid from s;x to eight inches apart. Tho vertical walls a,re also strengthened with seven-eighths steel bars hardly so closely placed as in the other cases mentioned. Tho great foundation floor, howover, called for great strength, and is to be invisibly chequered with steel bars. Seven-eighths bars, twelve inches apart, are to run across tho gully, and on top of that will bo laid seven-eighths bars, twenty-four inches apart, running tiro way of the stream. It has been calculated that when the reservoir is full there will bo a pressure of 1035 tons on tho ccntro of each' vertical wall, and two tons pressure on every foot of the foundation. It is reassuring to learn that the ferro-concreto floor described above could bear a ton-ton pressure. One of the first queries always met where this stylo of dam construction has been in-