CEMETERY
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CENCI
ficial stone made from broken granite, trap-rock or screened gravel (the sizes ranging from a walnut to an egg), clean coarse sand and cement. Sand fills the spaces between stones, cement those between grains of sand. The stone, gravel and (if strength be not indispensable) brick, cinders or terracotta form the aggregate, on whose character the concrete's final durability chiefly depends. Reinforced concrete is ordinary concrete in which iron or steel rods or bars are imbedded, and is needed if concrete is exposed to pulling or bending. In 1882 the employment of concrete was virtually confined to foundations and underground work, and reinforced concrete was undreamed of; but in 1885 the twisted bar was invented and the principle and method of reinforcing concrete demonstrated; and in 1906 buildings of reinforced concrete endured the California earthquakes practically unscathed. Now not only are huge warehouses, 800 feet long and nine stories high, built of concrete, but bridges, cellars, chimneys, cisterns, curbs, culverts, dams, drains, floors, hogpens, horseblocks, poultry-yards, porches, shingles, sidewalks, stalls, tanks and troughs.
Portland cement is the sole hydraulic cement that the builder of concrete blocks can seriously consider. Natural and slag cements and hydraulic lime, when exposed to dry air, are its inferiors in strength and durability. Moreover, the speed with which it hardens and develops its full strength would alone throw other cements out of consideration. The price of cement has, for years been lessening steadily, until now, at a fifth of a cent (wholesale) per pound, it is cheaper than stone in general, not seldom even cheaper than brick, while well-made construction cement equals the best stone. The combination of steel and concrete seems as nearly fireproof a composition as men may devise, and will, when generally employed, reduce insurance rates materially. In building on sandy soils, the stone or brick piers that are often built for considerable distance below surface as foundations are filled in with cement, and when this has hardened there practically is a huge single mass of stone. The buildings of the future are likely to consist almost entirely of steel and cement. When cement costs only five dollars a ton, the speediest means of building a house will be to make rough molds and cast the walls from solid cement. Then stone houses can be made for the cost of wooden ones, In view of the expensiveness of lumber already and the impending exhaustion of our forests, this fact is of incalculable importance. Edison is constructing iron molds and devising machinery to cast a 1 full-sized house in twelve hours. At the end of six days the molds can be removed,
and the house will be complete and, after drying six more days, be ready for occupancy.
Slag-cement also is coming into general use. Slag is a product of the blast furnace, resulting from the blending of iron ore and limestone. To the ironmaker it is so valueless that vast piles accumulate as waste. When it is suddenly cooled, dried and mixed with 25% of slaked lime, it forms a fine material for cement. Germany anticipated America in seeing the merit in slag-cement and in establishing factories for producing it. American manufacture of slag-cement began in 1902.
Pure white cement is now made. When mixed with white sand, white quartz and white marble or limestone, it produces pure white concrete. By the addition of small amounts of ordinary pigments to white cement, it yields concrete of brilliant, delicate and lasting colors.
Cemetery (sem'e-ter-y}, (meaning a sleeping place), may mean any graveyard, but it has lately come to be applied to the large ornamental burial-grounds which have taken the place of the old custom of burying within and around churches. Western nations have got this idea from the Turks whose fine burial-grounds, especially around Constantinople, are famous and are dense forests of cypresses. A Mohammedan grave is never reopened, but after each death a cypress is planted. Paris was the first western city (in 1804) to set apart a modern cemetery, Pere la Chaise, which has become famous throughout Europe. The Campo Santo (Sacred Field) of Pisa, an oblong court surrounded by marble arches and adorned with noted frescoes and works of art and the Campo Santo of Genoa, with its wealth of sculpture, are both of them noted in Italy. There is an odd cemetery in Naples. In it are 366 deep pits, one of which is opened each day, and in it all the burials of the day take place, and it is not again opened until the same day in the following year. The park-like adornment of cemeteries has had most attention in the United States. The best known are Spring Grove at Cincinnati, Mt. Auburn near Boston, Greenwood in Brooklyn and Laurel Hill near Philadelphia.
Cenci (chen'che), Beatrice, was the daughter of Francesco Cenci, a wealthy Roman nobleman. According to the popular story, the beauty of Beatrice awakened in him an evil love of his own daughter. The outraged girl, but 16 years old, in revenge planned with her stepmother and brother her father's murder, into whose brain two hired murderers drove a large nail. The crime was discovered, she and her brother were put to the torture, but, though the brother confessed, Beatrice maintained that she was innocent. All three, however, were beheaded. On
