Evening journal., 1898-09-02
HANGING A BUILDING.
A Strange Experiment in Structural
Science Now Being Made I'm
birmingham, England.

birmingham, England.
Few of the hundreds who daily pass
up or down Carr's lane are aware how
fittle separates them FROM the Great
Western railway. If a hole were dug
but three feet deep in the roadway the
pedestrian might drop through direct
on to the line, for only some IS inches
of earth covers the IS inches Of brick
work of which the tunnel consists, and
separates the passer above from the
train below. The shallowness of this
tunnel has frequently been source of
trouble, for when the cable tram con-
duits were laid in Colmore row a spe-
cial form had to bS devised to meet the
difficulty. Again. a large and impos-
ing frontage in Carr's lane is nothing
but huge sham of timber and plaster,
especially devised to present an impos-
ing-very imposing without sta
bility and without weight. The en-
gineer to the Great Western railway
will not allow an ounce of weight to
rest Upon this tunnel, and nowadays
the city surveyor will not allow so
fiimsy a structure to be erected as that
referred to. This has been the cause
that for years has kept open that piece
of land near Carr's lane chapel-at one
time the resting place of ghost shows
and circuses. The price demanded for
the land seemed moderate enough, and
deposits have been paid and plans pre-
pared, only to be condemned alike by
the city surveyor and railway ENGINEER.
Architects and others of recognized
ability have tackled the problem only TO
give it up. The difficulty has been that
the whole of the street frontage is over
the tunnel, and at an awkward angle,
varying from four feet to twenty-five.
but not a particle of weight would the
company allow to rest upon the tunnel,
and cross girders could not be used on
account of the shallow depth.
What the land ewner wanted TO do was
to erect a three-story building, with
very little indeed to rest it upon, and It
was evident that the 25 feet of building
over the tunnel would have to be sus-
pended-held out at arms length, as IT
were. In other words, as the proposed
building was As feet deep and from this
had to be deducted 25 feet of tunnel, il
left but 10 feet of solid foundation to
carry an erection of 45 feet wide and
three stories high. To overcome this
difficulty the architect who had the
work in hand devised an ingenious sys-
tenn of huge cantilevers, six in number
running TONNE feet deep, and estimated
to carry from 100 to 400 tons, and cal
culated to support a strain of SIS tons
We may perhaps render the matter
more ineligible by taking as typical
the cantilever known to the architect
as Al, which projects over the tunnel %
feet, and supports, or will support-its
due share (375 tons) of the building
while only 10 feet of it under the build
ing will rest upon q solid foundation
To add to the safety, from this hangs
a huge mass of concrete some 16 feet
across by IS feet high, and weighing
some 160 tons, suspended by steel bars
p feet long. The whole matter re
sembles the weighing of leg of NUT
ton on the Butchers steelyard-the
cantilever acts as the steelyard-tht
warehouses and shops are supported al
the long end. and the gigantic weight
of concrete bangles from the short one
acting in. some manner as a counter
poise, while the cantilever rests upon {
bed of concrete. 1t has been suggested
that a vigorous sneeze in front por
tion OF the premises, or the simultane
GUS entrance into the premises of TIVE
or three portly customers, might "tiI
the whole thing up" But the drawingi
of building constructed on such move
lines have, naturally, been examined
with the utmost care both by Mr.. Eng
lis, the engineer of>the Great Western
and the city surveyor, and one or TIVE
minor objections have been successful.
met, so that the building is now il
course Of progress. When the girder
are covered in it will present no un
usual features to the eye, and will hav
little TO distinguish it from its fellows
All the same, it will be a monument o
architectural Observation-Disclosures
Daily Mail.