Notices of the proceedings at the meetings of the members of the Royal Institution of Great Britain with abstracts of the discourses . ependent dams, curved on plan, and the arrangement of sluicesand dimensions of the dam differed considerably from those of theexecuted work. There is no doubt that the single dam, 1J miles inlength, constitutes a more imposing monumental work than a seriesof detached dams, and that it also offered greater facilities to a con-tractor for the organisation of his work and rapid construction; and,further, the straight dam is better able to resist temperature stress
Notices of the proceedings at the meetings of the members of the Royal Institution of Great Britain with abstracts of the discourses . ependent dams, curved on plan, and the arrangement of sluicesand dimensions of the dam differed considerably from those of theexecuted work. There is no doubt that the single dam, 1J miles inlength, constitutes a more imposing monumental work than a seriesof detached dams, and that it also offered greater facilities to a con-tractor for the organisation of his work and rapid construction; and,further, the straight dam is better able to resist temperature stressesfrom extreme heat without cracking. Two dams across the Nile, theold barrage and the Asyut Barrage, have already been described;and it will be hardly necessary to say, therefore, that the AswanDam is not a solid wall, but is pierced with sluice openings ofsufficient area for the flood discharge of the river, which may amountto 15,000 tons of water per second. There are 180 such openings,mostly 23 ft. high by 6 ft. 6 in. wide; and where subject to heavypressure, when being moved, they are of the well-known Stoneyroller 1902.] on the Nile Dams and Beservoir. 191 Although the preliminary studies of Mr. Willcocks aud the otherGovernment engineers occupied some four years, there was neithertime nor money to sink shafts in the bed of the river, to ascertainthe real character of what was called in the engineers report anextensive outcrop of syenito and quartz diorite clean across thevalley of the Nile, giving sound rock everywhere at a very con-venient level. Unfortunately, the rock proved to be unsound inmany places to a considerable depth, with schistous micaceous massesof a very friable nature, which necessitated carrying down the founda-tions of the dam sometimes more than 40 ft. deeper than was originallyanticipated or provided for in the contract. As the thickness of thedam is nearly 100 ft. at the base, this misapprehension as to thecharacter of the rock involved a
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Keywords: ., bookauthorroyalins, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, bookyear1851
