DAVY, Christopher The architect, engineer, and operative builder's constructive manual; or, a practical and scientific treatise on the construction of artificial foundations for buildings, railways, &c. With a comparative view of the application of piling and concreting; also an investigation of the nature and properties of the materials employed in securing the stability of buildings. Part I. All published. London, John Williams 1839. 2nd edn.
8vo. lxvi + 180 pp + 10pp pub. cat. 13 litho plates and a few wood-engraved text ills. Publisher’s cloth, worn and a small portion at head of spine missing. This useful and informative book is concerned with methods of building on soft soil, rather than rock, which thus demanded some form of built-up foundations to prevent settlement. After a discussion on the various types of geological formations in each of the British counties, he describes various boring machines, notably one designed by the engineer, Luke Hebert, and another by John Good, which could be used to establish stratification of the ground.He goes on to describe pile driving and piles, citing various examples, such as the piled foundations of Southwark Bridge. He also gives an account of the development of iron piles, which were particularly applicable for constructing cofferdams, mentioning various examples, notably Hartley’s use of them for the basin of one of the Liverpool docks, and inverted arch foundations widely used in railway engineering, such as the Blisworth Cutting on the London & Birmingham. There is a section on concrete in foundation work, translated from Bélidor, and Davy also has much to say on various types of limestone, and methods of calcining it, together with the composition of mortar. Here he itemises various buildings, giving the composition of the mortar used in their construction, such Grout, Baylis’s silk mill and engine house at Great Yarmouth (3 parts of sand to 1 of Dorking lime), Turkey Street Bridge, Enfield (3 parts of sand to 2 of blue lias lime) and so on. A note in the publisher’s catalogue states that Davy was authorised by the Master-General of the Ordnance to give “all the experiments and highly important results made under the direction of the Board of Ordnanace at Woolwich”.The book was issued in 1839 so possibly this is a reprint made later in the same year. Another edition appeared in 1841 but the advertised second part was never published.
£250
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