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AN INGENIOUS PLAN FOR STRAIGHTENING WALLS.--Yankees, as a rule, are
equal to any emergency; what the average Yankee mechanic fails to
conjure up at a time when his wits are most needed, leaves very little
room for foreign genius to think and work in. Yet it remained for M.
Molard, a French architect, to contrive an original and ingenious plan
for straightening the walls of the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers,
which threatened an absolute collapse owing to the extreme weight of the
roof. A series of strong iron bars were carried across the building from
wall to wall, passing through holes in the walls, and were secured by
nuts on the outside. In this state they would have been sufficient to
have prevented the further separation of the walls by the weight of the
roof, but it was desirable to restore the walls to their original state
by drawing them together. This was effected in the following manner:
Alternate bars were heated by lamps fixed beneath them. They expanded,
and consequently the nuts, which were previously in contact with the
walls, were no longer so. The nuts were then screwed up so as to be
again in close contact with the walls. The lamps were withdrawn and the
bars allowed to cool. In cooling they gradually contracted and resumed
their former dimensions; consequently the nuts, pressing against the
walls, drew them together through a space equal to that through which
they had been screwed up. Meanwhile the intermediate bars were heated
and expanded, and the nuts screwed up as before. The lamps being again
withdrawn, they contracted in cooling, and the walls were further drawn
together. This process was continually repeated, until at length the
walls were restored to their perpendicular position. The gallery may
still be seen with the bars extending across it, and binding together
its walls.--_Philadelphia Record and Guide_.