Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 January 1911 — GERMANS DOCTOR MASONRY [ARTICLE]

GERMANS DOCTOR MASONRY

Obviate* the Neceesity of Tearing Down and Rebuilding Decayed and Cracked Walla. Ingenious Germans of Hamburg recently hare adopted a method of doctoring masonry that entirely obviates the necessity of tearing down cracked and decaying wadis. la the city of Hamburg two crumbling railway bridges were used in the experiments. They were 51 feet in the arch .spans, and cracks had appeared everywhere, so that the structure barely hung together. Holes were bored through the masonry to get to the depths of the eraeks and a watery Cement mortar was pumped in under b pressure of live atmospheres until all the crevices were filled. When this bad hardened It was found that the bridges were as firm under all tests as new masonry, and were not even Slsfignred by the process. To the antiquary as well as the practical engineer, this should appear as a boon, for ancient stone structures with historical associations, which besome dangerously weak can be given a renewed youth without rebuilding or destroying any of the marks of venerable age. In this country more bridges and other stone structures are torn away because they no longer accommodate their needs than because they are outworn, but there may come a time in America when we Bh&ll have soceslon to do a little patching, and the German methods will serve excel Mtly-