Brick arches

Darlington engine No. 1, 1857 George Griggs Brick arch firebox for increased... 

In extremely corrosive services (such as sulfuric acid towers), where large-diameter towers are used with ceramic supports, brick arches or piers are often used as the support structure (386). 

Illustrates the upgrading of Network Rail Cl brick arch bridge (New Moss Road Bridge, on the CLC Liverpool to Manchester railway. Greater Manchester). Image courtesy of Network Rail. 

Drip Course. A protruding or recessed course inside the crown of a glass tank, to prevent molten material running down and corroding the breast walls. Drip Test. See slag attack tests. Drop Arch. An auxiliary brick arch projecting below the general inner... 

Glut Arch. A brick arch below the firemouth of a pottery bottle oven (q.v.) for the admission of primary air and the removal of clinker. 

A multi-legged refractory brick arch capped with refractory castable, used in some vertical shaft preheaters in cement manufacture. 

Springing. The radially outward movement or thrust of brick arches or rings when being constructed or removed, a problem if axial restraint is lacking. 

Underarching. Underadjustment of the circumferential joints from true radial alignment in brick arches or rings. It may be due to the use of too many slow taper bricks. 

Early industrialisation consolidated around a new building type. Huge, repetitive mills were casings integral to ranks of looms and belt-driven machinery. The control of fire became paramount. Floors of brick arches, supported on but also shielding iron beams, were fire barriers as well as load-bearing surfaces. 

An undercapitalised rail company racing to open its route promoted a unique set of structures crossing the wooded valleys of Cornwall. Frames of Baltic pine were to be replaced with more permanent brick arches once the money fiowed. A variety of designs show Isambard Brunei expioiting the opportunity to experiment. 

There are also occasional notes of technological excess introduced into his projects to draw attention to themselves. The level of the Great Western railway on its run out of London needed to stay as low as possible for economy and this is made manifest where the line crosses the Thames at Goring. The crowns of the elliptical brick arches of Brunei s bridge are almost un-reasonably thin and he relished both the controversy aroused by the design and the subsequent humiliation of his nay-sayers when vindicated by proving engineers. 

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