hammer-head for driving spikes and wedges; the wooden handle he
often uses as a lever to tighten knots and cords. Scaffolds should
not be too heavily loaded, and the weight of materials should be
distributed as much as possible. This applies especially to bricklayers
scaffolds, for heavy concentrated loads, even if not sufficient to
cause the scaffold to fail, tend to injure the brickwork.
In Scotland and the north of England much work is done from inside by means of platforms of boards placed upon the floor joists. When the work gets so advanced that it cannot be reached from the floor, trestles and platforms are used. For executing special external features, such as stone carving or plaster moulding, a scaffold will be thrown out on cantilevers projecting through openings in the wall and tied down inside the building. The materials are usually hoisted by derrick cranes.
“Gantry” is the term applied to a staging of squared timber used for the easy transmission of heavy material. The name has, however, come to be used generally for strong stagings of squared timber whether used for moving loads or not. Taking the general meaning of the term, gantries may be divided into three classes: (1) Gantries supporting a traveller; (2) Gantries. Travelling gantries, in which the whole stage moves along rails placed on the ground; (3) Elevated platforms which serve as a base upon which to erect pole scaffolding.
Fig. 1.
A gantry to support a traveller (fig. 1) consists of two sets of framing placed at a convenient distance apart, say 8 ft. or more, and standing independently of each other. These frames consist of standards or uprights standing upon a sleeper or sill resting in a continuous line upon the ground. The tops of the standards are levelled to receive the head or runner. Struts are taken from cleats fixed at a convenient point in the sides of the standards, and meet in pairs under the middle of the head; sometimes a straining-piece is introduced between them. Struts are also taken outwards from the uprights and bedded on foot-blocks or bolted to small piles driven into the ground. The space between the two frames must be kept free from struts and ties of any description so as to leave a free passage for the material while being lifted and moved. The different members are connected by iron, dogs and bolts; dogs are used wherever possible, as they form a strong connexion and do not spoil the wood for other purposes as bolt-holes do. They should be placed on both sides of the timbers to be connected. The size of the timbers varies according to the height of the structure and the weight intended to be carried. The standards may be from 6 to 12 in. squared in section, and the heads and sills are of similar size; the struts and braces are usually somewhat smaller. The traveller consists usually of two wood girders trussed with iron rods and mounted on flanged wheels so as to run along the rails fixed to the head-piece. Along each girder also, a rail is provided upon which moves the hoisting gear; this is worked either by hand or steam power. The ends of the rails are turned up to form a stop for the traveller or crab.
Fig. 2.
A travelling gantry (fig. 2) runs along rails
placed on the ground, and consists of two strong
trusses braced and bolted together and supporting
the two trussed girders which take the crab-winch.
The latter is mounted on wheels, and
by simple gearing is caused to run along the
rails fixed on the upper side of the girders. This
is a most useful form of gantry, and requires a
very small amount of timber for its construction.
The travelling frame is, however, very
heavy, and such an apparatus is usually fitted
with a steam winch, the power from which,
besides lifting the materials, can also be applied
any to move the traveller. Gantries built on this
principle have been used successfully in building
or repairing lofty and wide-spanned steel or other
roofs. After the collapse of the steel “bow-string”
roof of Charing Cross station (London)
in December 1905, huge travelling gantries running
along rails laid upon the station platforms
were employed, and these provided an efficient
and economical means of access to the damaged
portions; as section by section the work was
removed the gantries were shifted along to the
next bay. These gantries were 60 ft. in height.
One, used to strip and remove the coverings of
the roof, was 32 ft. deep, weighed 200 tons and
moved upon 24 steel flanged wheels; the other,
40 ft. deep and with 32 wheels, weighed 250 tons
and was used to take down the structural steel
work of the roof. Four cranes were erected upon
the staging to lower the material as it was
removed. The amount of timber used in these
gantries was 22,400 cubic ft.
In the erection of the Williamsburg Bridge over the East river, New York, for which 19,000 tons of steel were used, “framed timber falsework” was built up of squared timber to a height of 100 ft. and 90 ft. wide at the top. The span was 355 ft. The limbering was in three storeys or stages, and each “bent” had 8 vertical and 4 battering posts. The bents were 20 ft. apart and we reconnected
