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When an old building is hopelessly dilapidated, what methods can be
devised for its restoration and preservation? To pull it down and
rebuild it is to destroy its historical associations and to make it
practically a new structure. Happily science has recently discovered a
new method for the preserving of these old buildings without
destroying them, and this good angel is the grouting machine, the
invention of Mr. James Greathead, which has been the means of
preventing much of vanishing England. Grout, we understand, is a
mixture of cement, sand, and water, and the process of grouting was
probably not unknown to the Romans. But the grouting machine is a
modern invention, and it has only been applied to ancient buildings
during the last six or seven years.[65] It is unnecessary to describe
its mechanism, but its admirable results may be summarized. Suppose an
old building shows alarming cracks. By compressed air you blow out the
old decayed mortar, and then damping the masonry by the injection of
water, you insert the nozzle of the machine and force the grout into
the cracks and cavities, and soon the whole mass of decayed masonry is
cemented together and is as sound as ever it was. This method has been
successfully applied to Winchester Cathedral, the old walls of
Chester, and to various churches and towers.
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