Before you is the National Library of Brazil in the city of Rio de Janeiro, its collection is the largest in South America and one of the largest in the world. According to the official reference, the library dates back to 1810, when the Portuguese elite was evacuated from the European mainland to Brazil due to the wars, when it was, in general, the same state. Subsequently, the ruling class returned, but the library fund remained in Brazil. In the period 1905-1910, a building was built for the library with state funds, which is shown in the photo. It is still used for the library with minor changes. An ordinary building in the neoclassical style, of which, it should be noted, there are many on all continents. Actually, two albums were kept in the same library, one of which contained a photo of the period of construction of the building of this library, the other,as they say now, a photo of commissioning. And when you compare them, some oddities are revealed.
As you can see, the photographing of the construction site was clearly not carried out in a day, between these stages of work more than one month passed, considering that there were no tower cranes then. The scope of the construction is amazing. Hundreds of tons of metal were consumed. Is it possible now to build such a house somewhere in Moscow? Probably yes, but its cost will probably approach the cost of buildings from Moscow City. Why, then, could such a third world country as Portugal at that time afford to finance such construction from the budget? Probably, this is from the category of riddles for a novice economist (* - one of these riddles was asked to me in the Far East. From the same plot in a forest on the territory of the Russian Federation, two legal entities completely legally harvest timber, one of them is Russian, the other is Chinese. The Russian carries timber for processing to the Russian enterprise,engaged in the manufacture of ordinary office paper. The Chinese is doing the same, but at its plant in China, with a customs procedure. Paper from a Russian enterprise costs N rubles, and the plant is operating on the brink of profitability. China imports paper for sale to the Russian Federation with a different customs procedure, and its paper costs, other things being equal, 0.5-0.7 N, everything is fine with the yield. Why is that?). Well, and anticipating the debaters about the history of St. Petersburg. Surely similar houses could be built there and at the same time. Production of rolled metal products in Russia reached an industrial level in the second half of the 19th century. Well, if the house is built of bricks with such a metal frame, then it has every chance of being dated to the 19th century. If, instead of bricks, stone blocks are used, and even with reinforcement inside (it also happens),then such construction must be dated to the period when they still knew how to make this rental. According to historical materials, in the Petrine era, they did not know how to do it accurately. It turns out that in history there was a time interval of? -19 centuries, when the production of rolled metal suddenly disappeared, and all over the world. It was renewed only in the second half of the 19th century, when, instead of primitive blacksmith products, they began to make rolled products on an industrial scale. Geopolymer concrete technologies disappeared at the same time, but they have not been restored on an industrial scale until now. We will return to this later, but now let's take a look at the process of building a library.when the production of rolled metal suddenly disappeared, and all over the world. It was renewed only in the second half of the 19th century, when, instead of primitive blacksmith products, they began to make rolled products on an industrial scale. Geopolymer concrete technologies disappeared at the same time, but they have not been restored on an industrial scale until now. We will return to this later, but now let's take a look at the process of building a library.when the production of rolled metal suddenly disappeared, and all over the world. It was renewed only in the second half of the 19th century, when, instead of primitive blacksmith products, they began to make rolled products on an industrial scale. Geopolymer concrete technologies disappeared at the same time, but they have not been restored on an industrial scale until now. We will return to this later, but now let's take a look at the process of building a library.
Why did the brickwork have to be reinforced with such a frame?
Promotional video:
Obviously, this is a view of the roof dome of the rear wing. Conventional space bar construction, all connections are riveted or bolted. Welded joints at that time, apparently, were not practiced or were not widely used.
This is the same building detail, but from a different angle. The frame is powerful enough everywhere.
As part of the building, there are vaults made in the usual way. The metal frame (on the right) goes almost everywhere in the masonry.
The flooring is poured using conventional technology, which is still widely used today. To save concrete, part of the space is forced with a special arched formwork.
Above the resulting poured overlap, a screed with a metal mesh is made. Nothing new, technology hasn't changed through the years.
This is obviously one of the outbuildings. The cornice on a semicircular corner piece is also made of concrete or mortar along the frame. At the same time, very strange pipes are seen coming out of the masonry. What is this, ventilation?
The foundation of the building was made on ordinary hewn stones, as was always done at that time. The stones were clearly not poured in place, because it can be seen that they did not even have time to cut them down in the doorway.
All bolted connections are meticulously made, there are no missing bolts or mismatched holes anywhere (it was almost impossible to modify such a metal thickness in place at that time). And the photographer recorded such a detail, and there are a lot of such pictures (probably, there is no point in publishing everything).
As a result, at the exit of the construction process, this is the beauty:
There are no utility facilities in the courtyard of the library building. Why? Let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Out of 44 photos, everything is described in the most detailed way, except that there is no photo of the zero cycle. It is a pity, of course, but from what is, there is a lot of material for thought. And still, something is wrong in the album with the construction photos.
The album contains detailed photos of the binding of the building frame, brickwork, filling the ceiling. There is even a photo of the already plastered fourth floor. But for some reason there is absolutely no photo of the plastering of this very fourth floor at least half, although it is clear that this process has been going on for more than one day. But these are not all riddles.
As you can see, when the fourth floor is fully ready for construction, for some reason the brickwork at the top of the porch is not completed. Even the molding of the cornice is already done and is hanging in the air. Maybe a bad angle of the photo?
This is the back wing of a building that doesn't have a fourth floor. And there is the same picture. For some unknown reason, masonry is not made at this place, despite the fact that it is already on top. And the metal frame of the building is clearly visible, which in this place is reinforced with braces. What is it all for? There is only one conclusion - something was walled up in this place that had to be laid after the building was ready for construction. What was it? Let's go further.
Oddly enough, but in the same album there are absolutely no photos of the interior decoration of the premises. No one. Moreover, with all the richness of the library fund, you will not find in it a single photo of the interior decoration of any buildings of this kind in general. The same can be said about all the rest of the world's largest digital libraries. What is the secret of the finishing work of neoclassical buildings? Probably, we should take a look at this finish, at least on the example of the same Brazilian library.
Impressive. Judging by what the frame was at the beginning, the conclusion unambiguously suggests itself that all the columns could not first be carved and then put on it, which is obvious. It turns out that marble or granite, which can be seen even in the photo, is artificial and is poured in place? Yes, this is the very same geopolymer concrete, the technology of which was known, it turns out, back in 1910. One of the photos shows artificial vaults. Considering that arched frames were not made, most likely the vaults have their own reinforcement and these vaults are also made of geopolymer concrete. Moreover, the outer walls of the fourth floor are also made of geopolymer concrete. Someone needed to classify this technology, which is why there is nowhere a photo of the production of these works. But that is not all.
Take a closer look at the abundance in each room of lamps of various shapes and designs. The fact that they are all electric is beyond doubt. Many can see electric bulbs, and the use of gas in such rooms is not safe. And can you imagine how many kVA these luminaires could consume in peak mode? Personally, it's difficult for me, but in this case, the building must have an impressive KTP, or a diesel one with the appropriate dimensions. But, as seen above, there are no auxiliary structures in the library yard. Moreover, the junction boxes accompanying the wiring and the external wiring itself are nowhere to be seen. Without them, it was simply impossible to make power supply networks in large buildings of that time with complex networks. The electrical wires of that time were paper-insulated and very unreliable.therefore, any of their placement was done only outside, thus providing visual observation, maintainability and fire safety. And where are the switching elements (switches)?
As you can see, on the columns there is some kind of "sliders" that complete the chain with an up and down movement. But inside the columns there is only a metal frame, which we have seen perfectly in the previous photos. So this slider just connects the chain from the lamp group to the building frame? There can be no other here. Well, at least, all the columns are still not carved somewhere in the lapidary workshop, but they are still cast in place, there is no doubt about it. In addition, the vaults here are also filled with the same material, which is an order of magnitude more difficult than pouring columns. In total, we have a group of electric lamps interconnected by metal bonds. This metal connection is electrically isolated from the building frame, and is connected to it with such a switch. And this metal bond is hidden in the layer of geopolymer concrete. And we have a conventional classic single-wire power supply circuit for lighting lamps. But as we know, such a scheme is possible only if vases with a special substance are fixed to the frame of the building, and in our case these vases cannot be seen in any way, even in old photos. So what's the secret? We return to construction.
As we remember, for some reason these places were left unfinished, almost with the complete readiness of everything else. What did they want to walled up in these places? Well, of course, those vases. For some reason, the architect did not want to expose them outside, and used an internal setting. Then we get that the lower frame of the vases was located somehow at this level:
Something like this was once described here. Stop. And what are these round holes that are located in the building at this elevation? The top photos show that they have ceramic (or geopolymer?) Sun-shaped frames inserted into them, most likely without glasses. And what are these window openings like?
As you can see, these are absolutely unnecessary windows in terms of illumination. What were they for? Ironically, in another album there was a photo of exactly the same corner that we see in the bottom photo, but only after finishing.
As you can see, our three windows are covered with panels, which are involved in the design of that section of the wall where there are no windows at all. And there is no indication that these panels were easily removable to allow easy access to these windows. So the version with the purpose of these windows for lighting and even ventilation disappears completely. What were these windows? Actually, everything falls into place if these windows, or rather niches to them, were nothing more than hidden storage places for containers with tain substance, or in the common people called hiding places or hiding places. Apparently, it was not so simple with a system of such electric lighting. Once the building was ready, this lighting system was adjusted by placing the right amount of tain over the porch and in the corners. And after that, they additionally placed the required amount of substance in these built niches,either in one of three, or in two, or in three immediately following the results of the setup, and they were closed. The secret turned out to be simple. But this was only the second tier. Where was the first one? Let's take another look at the building.
And let's try to find a photo of the construction of the frame in that place.
We also observe that there is an area under the dome on the frame, in the same way reinforced with jibs, as in similar places at the corners of the building.
And for some reason this section is also not completed with masonry, although roofing work has already begun.
And it is clearly visible that in this place between the vault and the ceiling there is a certain space where a person can freely move. And outside in this place, clearly metal parts are put on the dome, which suggests that there is some kind of niche behind them:
The situation was similar on the two roofs of the side wings.
The skirted part of the roof is largely hidden inside by a false ceiling.
There was also room for tain containers. And we get that we had three first cascades, or, if at all judging by the elevations, the first was above the central dome, two above the side wings, and the third was along the entire perimeter above the third floor, and there it was dispersed. And such a system provided lighting for such a huge building (and a fence with lanterns near it), moreover, free of charge, without costs when allocating the declared power and without problems with energy supervision and other authorities. Everything was provided by atmospheric electricity, which, if desired and skillful, can provide any power. But some force suddenly needed such a technical solution to bury, and on a global scale. Isn't it time to resurrect?
However, this engineering network provided not only lighting. There were some devices that converted the energy of atmospheric electricity into steam, which in turn converted it into ordinary three-phase electricity. Machines that converted electricity into steam were very widespread at that time, one of our Nizhny Novgorod exhibition demonstrated dozens of them (those same churches). As you may have guessed, now these cars are also polls classified, and their photos can hardly be found at all, even in a Brazilian library with relatively negligent censorship. Nevertheless, there were such machines in the Brazilian library, and they ensured the operation of the compressor, which served the presses and bookbinding machines. As you understand, the same dome system and the same tiers of vases participated here.
As you can see, there is a transmission from the basement to the bookbinding room. It is provided by some device similar to a motor, but it is not entirely clear on what thrust.
And this is the bookbinding equipment in the library basement, obviously pneumatic. All nets are made for outdoor use, although this is not entirely aesthetically pleasing.
And this is the same compressor that creates air pressure for the bookbinding machines. And on the left is some kind of incomprehensible device. It looks like a blower for ventilation, but it runs on an electric motor. But all the devices that generate electricity from steam, oddly enough, are behind the scenes. Now they are probably already in that library and physically not there.
Until next time.
P. S. I suspect that here the entire fourth floor is made of geopolymer concrete, the photos somehow go from its bare frame directly to its finished plastered appearance, with stucco and balusters. But the answer to this question is possible only after being there, which not everyone can do.