The Sun.
London, England, 1860-10-16 00:00:00

SZERELMErS SILICAT ZOPISSA.

The damp climate of this country and the smoky
atmosphere of our great towns are such formidable
adversaries to the architectural details of our prin-
cipal buildings, that any process by which their de-
structive effects can be arrested possess a general
interest and importance. It is, therefore, unneces-
sary to make any apology for introducing to public
notice the method by which M. Sierlemey has
effectually stopped the progress of decay in the
stonework of the New Houses of Parliament. His

specific has now been tested by an experience of
four years, and bids fair to be permanently success-
ful. It is certainly very superior to any other, as
may readily be verified by a personal inspection of
the vast structure to which it has now been par-
tially applied. There may be seen on the river face of
the Palace the rival processes of various inventors,
that of M. Szerelmey being manifestly the only one
hitherto adopted which seems able to arrest the oxi-
dation so painfully at work all over the stonework.
This is effected, too, without blemishing in any way
either the natural colour of the stone or even effac-

ing the traces of the mason's chisel, so that, while

the object sought is accomplished, the general ap-
pearance of the fabric is entirely preserved and even
heightened, as if by the influence of a permanent
cosmetic. M. Szerelmey's process casehardens the

exterior of buildings, rendering them waterproof
and impervious to the soot which makes itself so
disagreeably conspicuous all over London. Rain,
not being absorbed by the stone, washes its surface

and keeps it clean. Moreover, all the delicate de-
tails of carving can now be preserved. and thus the
immense sums which have been, as some think,
wastefully expended upon the architectural decora-
tion of the new palace need not be so entirely lost
as the rapid progress of decay had led most people
to anticipate. M. Szerelmey's process is to be ap-
plied to the entire building, the courts which have
been already treated furnishing satisfactory evi-
dence not only of its indurating virtue but of its
preserving the cleanliress and the natural ap-
pearance of the stone surfaces. It is to be

hoped that in the future selection of building
material for national edifces care vv ill be taken not

to choose one so constituted as to be readily acted
upon by atmospheric agencies, such es damp and
the gases given off from surrounding chimneys large
and small.. It is to bs hoped, also, that we may
not soon have a repetition of such folly as that of
granting immunity even for a term from the provi-

sions of the Smoke Prevention Act to the Lambeth

Potteries, situated between the New Houses and
the south-west, and so close at hand that the pre-
vailing wind from that quarter fails not to give our
legislators constant and abundant lemons on their
own want of discretion. When, however, every-
thing has been done that can be done to preserve
the beauty of our buildings, there will still in this
humid climate and this country of great coal burn-

ing cities be ample scope for the use of such pro-
cesses as that of M. Szerelmey. Unfortunately for
us he keeps his a secret, being unwilling to ti ost to
the security of our patent law for protection against
the race of infringers, who, in his opinion, would be
certain to arise if from his specification they could
ascertain his niodus operandi. There is probably
some foundation for this fear, a chymical invention
being, from its very nature, a difficult one to cover
by a patent. Yet, M. Szerelmey is so far frank
and open-mouthed as to let us know bow and where
he acquired the art of which he makes such good
practical use, to tell us in a general way what his
process is, and to point out the varied prospective
purposes to which it may be applied, not only in
the treatment of stone and cements of every kind,
but with iron, with wood, with paper, and other
substances. eis a Hungarian, and served in
early life as an officer of Engineers in the Austrian
army, While thus employed he was sent to
Egypt to study the great monuments of antiquity,
which 30 years ago were beginning to excite the
learned curiosity and research of Europe. Im-
pressed not only by the grandeur but by the extra-
ordinary durability of what he saw, M. Szerelmey
appears to have given his mind up to the study
of the causes by which the ancients succeeded in
investing their works with this latter characteristic.
He seems to have investigated with particular care
their encaustic and zopissa processes. He considers
that the ancients employed the former in various

forms and with varying ingredients wherever
they wanted to preserve timber, stone, or other
surfaces against destroying atmospheric influences,
and that the importance which they attached to
it was much more on account of its utility in this
way for architectural and ship-building purposes
than for its application to the art of painting.
So also with zopissa, which the Phoenicians and
Egyptians, and after them the Greeks and Ro-
mans, extensively used as a preventive to decay
in their merchant vessels and men-of-war. Study
and reflection thus led M. Szerelmey to seek for
a substance the elements of which would com-
bine so intimately with the material to be pro-
tected as to resist the natural tendency of its
particles to separate and disintegrate. Such a
substance he at length succeeded in producing in
a liquid form, giving it the name of silicat zop-
issa. He keeps to himself the secret of its com-
position, but states that it is simple and inex-
pensive, and these two excellent qualities may be
regarded as established in its favour, since when
once made any unskilled labourer can apply it,
and the cost of its use in the New Houses, when
compared with the importance of the object se-
cured, cannot be regarded as considerable, Though
capable of application to metallic surfaces, and
arresting oxidation in them effectually, where
they are not exposed to friction, and though ex-
tremely useful in such cases as that of the Clock
Tower, where a large amount of gilt decoration
exists upon a groundwork of iron, the silicat
zopissa is less permanent in its effects upon metal
than upon more open and porous substances, such
as wood and stone. These it effectually indurates
and renders waterproof ; on paper, also, it acts
wonderfully, and modifications of it on calico, cloth,
moleskin, and. similar fabrics are capable of being
worked.. up into most surprising imitations of the
claimsalflorfeahsiisbleinevneonutigohn
parobsatabrlytl,inbgut vwarhiieethy,
of
varieties of . dressed. leather. M. Szerelmey
se, must. be practically tested before they can
ueosue
be recognised as well founded. Still they are so
curious, and
they open up so interesting a field
of speculation, that it may be worth while to glance
at some of them. Take the naval architecture
view of the matter, and he offers so to prepare
the timber used in the construction of ships as to
dispense with the necessity for copper bottoms, and
to make the various forms of decay impossible. He
goes further, for he proposes by his zopissa to make
paper planks of almost any size impervious to water,
of surprising strength, and higaly elastic; not
liable to fracture like iron or wood, and all that could
be desired in point of specific gravity. By a similar
application of means he would have portable houses
mwaandetsooft
thezopissaon
colpisat apernd houses well adapted to the
the campaigner, and much
required by both. He makes paper pipes that will
not break under a sudden jar, like those vaunted by
Mr. Gladstone. He shows zopissa bricks made of
chalk and sand, which, without having ever been
fired, are as strong as the best Stourbridge ; and
applying the same specific,
with some modifications,