use the modification of the Monier system, consisting of a horizontal network of crossed steel rods buried in the concrete. “Expanded metal” too is admirably adapted for the purpose (fig. 1). In the Matrai system thin wires are used instead of rods, and are securely fastened to rolled steel joists, which form the beams on which the slabs rest; moreover, the wires instead of being stretched tight from side to side of the slab are allowed to sag as much as the thickness of the concrete will allow. In the Williams system small flat bars are used, which are not quite horizontal, but pass alternately over and under the rolled joists which support the slabs.
 Fig. 16. |
A concrete arch is reinforced in much the same way as a wall, the stresses being somewhat similar. The reinforcing rods are generally laid both longitudinally and circumferentially. In the case of a culvert the circumferential rods are sometimes laid continuously in the form of a spiral as in the Bordenave system.
To those wishing to pursue the subject further, the following books among others may be suggested:—Sabin, Cement and Concrete (New York); Taylor and Thompson, Concrete, Plain and Reinforced (London); Sutcliffe, Concrete, Nature and Uses (London); Marsh and Dunn, Reinforced Concrete (London); Twelvetrees, Concrete Steel (London); Paul Christophe, Le Béton armé (Paris); Buel and Hill, Reinforced Concrete Construction (London). (F. E. W.-S.)
CONCRETION, in petrology, a name applied to nodular or
irregularly shaped masses of various size occurring in a great
variety of sedimentary rocks, differing in composition from the
main mass of the rock, and in most cases obviously formed by
some chemical process which ensued after the rock was deposited.
As these bodies present so many variations in composition and
in structure, it will conduce to clearness if some of the commonest
be briefly adverted to. In sandstones there are often hard
rounded lumps, which separate out when the rock is broken or
weathered. They are mostly siliceous, but sometimes calcareous,
and may differ very little in general appearance from the bulk
of the sandstone. Through them the bedding passes uninterrupted,
thus showing that they are not pebbles; often in their
centres shells or fragments of plants are found. Argillaceous
sandstones and flagstones very frequently contain “clay galls”
or concretionary lumps richer in clay than the remainder of the
rock. Nodules of pyrites and of marcasite are common in many
clays, sandstones and marls. Their outer surfaces are tuberculate;
internally they commonly have a radiate fibrous
structure. Usually they are covered with a dark brown crust
of limonite produced by weathering; occasionally imperfect
crystalline faces may bound them. Not infrequently (e.g. in the
Gault) these pyritous nodules contain altered fossils. In clays
also siliceous and calcareous concretions are often found.
They present an extraordinary variety of shapes, often
grotesquely resembling figures of men or animals, fruits, &c,
and have in many countries excited popular wonder, being
regarded as of supernatural origin (“fairy-stones,” &c.), and
used as charms.
Another type of concretion, very abundant in many clays and shales, is the “septarian nodule.” These are usually flattened disk-shaped or ovoid, often lobulate externally like the surface of a kidney. When split open they prove to be traversed by a network of cracks, which are usually filled with calcite and other minerals. These white infillings of the fissures resemble partitions; hence the name from the Latin septum, a partition. Sometimes the cracks are partly empty. They vary up to half an inch in breadth, and are best seen when the nodule is cut through with a saw. These concretions may be calcareous or may consist of carbonate of iron. The former are common in some beds of the London Clay, and were formerly used for making cement. The clay-ironstone nodules or sphaerosiderites are very abundant in some Carboniferous shales, and have served in some places as iron ores. Some of the largest specimens are 3 ft. in diameter. In the centre of these nodules fossils are often found, e.g. coprolites, pieces of plants, fish teeth and scales. Phosphatic concretions are often present in certain limestones, clays, shelly sands and marls. They occur, for example, in the Cambridge Greensand, and at the base of certain of the Pliocene beds in the east of England. In many places they have been worked, under the name of “coprolite-beds,” as sources of artificial manures. Bones of animals more or less completely mineralized are frequent in these phosphatic concretions, the commonest being fragments of extinct reptilia. Their presence points to a source for the phosphate of lime.
Another very important series of concretionary structures are the flint nodules which occur in chalk, and the patches and bands of chert which are found in limestones. Flints consist of dark-coloured cryptocrystalline silica. They weather grey or white by the removal of their more soluble portions by percolating water. Their shapes are exceedingly varied, and often they are studded with tubercules and nodosities. Sometimes they have internal cavities, and very frequently they contain shells of echinoderms, molluscs, &c., partly or entirely replaced by silica, but preserving their original forms. Chert occurs in bands and tabular masses rather than in nodules; it often replaces considerable portions of a bed of limestone (as in the Carboniferous Limestones of Ireland). Corals and other fossils frequently occur in chert, and when sliced and microscopically examined both flint and chert often show silicified foraminifera, polyzoa &c., and sponge spicules. Flints in chalk frequently lie along joints which may be vertical or may be nearly horizontal and parallel to the bedding. Hence they increase the stratified appearance of natural exposures of chalk.
It will be seen from the details given above that concretions may be calcareous, siliceous, argillaceous and phosphatic, and they may consist of carbonate or sulphide of iron. In the red clay of the deep sea bottom concretionary masses rich in manganese dioxide are being formed, and are sometimes brought up by the dredge. In clays large crystals of gypsum, having the shape of an arrow-head, are occasionally found in some numbers. They bear a considerable resemblance to some concretions, e.g. crystalline marcasite and pyrite nodules. These examples will indicate the great variety of substances which may give rise to concretionary structures.
Some concretions are amorphous, e.g. phosphatic nodules; others are cryptocrystalline, e.g. flint and chert; others finely crystalline, e.g. pyrites, sphaerosiderite; others consist of large crystals, e.g. gypsum, barytes, pyrites and marcasite. From this it is clear that the formation of concretions is not closely dependent on any single inorganic substance, or on any type of crystalline structure. Concretions seem to arise from the tendency of chemical compounds to be slowly dissolved by interstitial water, either while the deposit is unconsolidated or at a later period. Certain nuclei, present in the rock, then determine reprecipitation of these solutions, and the deposit once begun goes on till either the supply of material for growth is exhausted, or the physical character of the bed is changed by pressure and consolidation till it is no longer favourable to further accretion. The process resembles the growth of a crystal in a solution by slowly attracting to itself molecules of suitable nature from the surrounding medium. But in the majority of cases it is not the crystalline forces, or not these alone, which attract the particles. The structure of a flint, for example, shows that the material had so little tendency to crystallize that it remained permanently in cryptocrystalline or sub-crystalline state. That the concretions grew in the solid sediment is proved by the manner in which lines of bedding pass through
