Our late '40s place has concrete pillars in the basement - about 7' high,
12"x12", but tapered in toward the top by maybe 2". Fair enough... but I
just noticed that they're also tapered by 2" at the bottom, albeit just in
one axis (I've never noticed before as they've had junk piled
around them - I've just been having a tidy-up though)

Any particular reason for the tapering at the base? I don't think I've
ever seen that before, and can't think of a good reason for it.

cheers

Jules

On Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:13:12 -0600, Jules
wrote:


Our late '40s place has concrete pillars in the basement - about 7' high,
12"x12", but tapered in toward the top by maybe 2". Fair enough... but I
just noticed that they're also tapered by 2" at the bottom, albeit just in
one axis (I've never noticed before as they've had junk piled
around them - I've just been having a tidy-up though)

Any particular reason for the tapering at the base? I don't think I've
ever seen that before, and can't think of a good reason for it.

cheers

Jules

Donno. Crane booms have a taper a both ends.* I imagine the strength
is in the middle?

http://www.craneweb.com/files/imagec...ne/8659233.jpg

Oren wrote:
On Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:13:12 -0600, Jules
wrote:

Our late '40s place has concrete pillars in the basement - about 7' high,
12"x12", but tapered in toward the top by maybe 2". Fair enough... but I
just noticed that they're also tapered by 2" at the bottom, albeit just in
one axis (I've never noticed before as they've had junk piled
around them - I've just been having a tidy-up though)

Any particular reason for the tapering at the base? I don't think I've
ever seen that before, and can't think of a good reason for it.

cheers

Jules

Donno. Crane booms have a taper a both ends.* I imagine the strength
is in the middle?

http://www.craneweb.com/files/imagec...ne/8659233.jpg


Probably was a 2-piece metal mold- fill the bottom, stick in the rebar,
put the top on, and finish filling. They didn't have sonotube back then,
and getting stuff out of an eight-foot mold is a pain. Is there evidence
of any sort of ground-down 'mold flash' line at the mid-point?

Musta been built during war when steel was in short supply or something.
I've probably been in over 1000 basements over the years, and I have
never seen formed concrete basement pillars before. Either steel or wood
or laid-up brick columns.

--
aem sends...

On Dec 8, 6:10*pm, Oren wrote:
Donno. Crane booms have a taper a both ends.* I imagine the strength
is in the middle?

That's because crane booms (usually) have to pivot, and have zero
sheer force on them.

For the pillars, my first guess would be sloppy forms. My second guess
would be aesthetics. I can't think of a functional reason (but that
doesn't mean here isn't one).

Larry Fishel wrote:
On Dec 8, 6:10 pm, Oren wrote:
Donno. Crane booms have a taper a both ends.* I imagine the strength
is in the middle?

That's because crane booms (usually) have to pivot, and have zero
sheer force on them.

For the pillars, my first guess would be sloppy forms. My second guess
would be aesthetics. I can't think of a functional reason (but that
doesn't mean here isn't one).

I'd wager it was combination of aesthetics and ease of pour that controlled.

There is a larger bending moment at the middle that could be argued to
be related but imo the likelihood of there being enough load in a
residence for there to be any need whatsoever for a 12" section at the
middle unless these are extremely tall for a basement would be
approaching nil...

--

On Dec 8, 6:43*pm, Larry Fishel wrote:
That's because crane booms (usually) have to pivot, and have zero
sheer force on them.

Of course, I didn't really mean shear (or sheer) force. More like a
bending/torquing force (and of course there is some in the middle of
the span due to the weight of the boom itself).

On Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:36:10 -0500, aemeijers
wrote:

Oren wrote:
On Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:13:12 -0600, Jules
wrote:

Our late '40s place has concrete pillars in the basement - about 7' high,
12"x12", but tapered in toward the top by maybe 2". Fair enough... but I
just noticed that they're also tapered by 2" at the bottom, albeit just in
one axis (I've never noticed before as they've had junk piled
around them - I've just been having a tidy-up though)

Any particular reason for the tapering at the base? I don't think I've
ever seen that before, and can't think of a good reason for it.

cheers

Jules

Donno. Crane booms have a taper a both ends.* I imagine the strength
is in the middle?

http://www.craneweb.com/files/imagec...ne/8659233.jpg


Probably was a 2-piece metal mold- fill the bottom, stick in the rebar,
put the top on, and finish filling. They didn't have sonotube back then,
and getting stuff out of an eight-foot mold is a pain. Is there evidence
of any sort of ground-down 'mold flash' line at the mid-point?

Musta been built during war when steel was in short supply or something.
I've probably been in over 1000 basements over the years, and I have
never seen formed concrete basement pillars before. Either steel or wood
or laid-up brick columns.

Pics would help, being, it is "late '40s place has concrete pillars in
the basement "

I'm interested.

On Dec 8, 8:24*pm, Van Chocstraw
wrote:
It's *more surface area to resist settling.

I assumed he meant they were narrower at the bottom than in the
middle, but I guess it's not clear which way he meant it.

On Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:54:29 -0800, Oren wrote:
Pics would help, being, it is "late '40s place has concrete pillars in
the basement "

I'm interested.

Sure, quick one at: http://www.patooie.com/temp/pillar.jpg

cheers

Jules

On Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:54:29 -0800, Oren wrote:
Pics would help, being, it is "late '40s place has concrete pillars in
the basement "

I'm interested.

Sure, quick one at: http://www.patooie.com/temp/pillar.jpg

cheers

Jules

On Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:36:10 -0500, aemeijers wrote:
Probably was a 2-piece metal mold- fill the bottom, stick in the rebar,
put the top on, and finish filling. They didn't have sonotube back then,
and getting stuff out of an eight-foot mold is a pain. Is there evidence
of any sort of ground-down 'mold flash' line at the mid-point?

No, nothing at mid-point. Various vertical casting lines though, which
suggests to me that they made a mold from wooden strips.

I just did some proper measuring too (that'll teach me to take a quick
look and then post in a hurry!) and they're actually 12"x16", and 11"x16"
at the top and bottom (so not 12x12 square like I said in the OP, and the
tapering's less pronounced than it looks to the eye)

I took a quick photo - see reply to Oren...

Musta been built during war when steel was in short supply or something.
I've probably been in over 1000 basements over the years, and I have
never seen formed concrete basement pillars before. Either steel or wood
or laid-up brick columns.

Yeah, the guy who did the home inspection when we bought the place said
he'd never seen ones like that before.

Lots of the construction around this area was done by the family who
previously owned our place though, and it appears they were happy to work
with whatever materials they had (our barn's rather oddball in its
construction, too). Makes me wonder if they just happened to know someone
who could supply concrete, or someone owed them a favor, so they did
that rather than using wood or metal.

12"x16" seems overkill, though. The basement walls are all poured concrete
too, 10"-12" thick; it's pretty solid down there.

One other possibility is that the pillars weren't cast in-place, but were
brought in from somewhere else and were maybe originally intended for some
other construction project. I still can't think of a good reason why
they'd need to be narrower at the bottom, though (I mean, if they had to
sit on something that was 11"x16", then why not just make them 11"x16" all
the way up...)

cheers

Jules

On Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:36:10 -0500, aemeijers wrote:
Probably was a 2-piece metal mold- fill the bottom, stick in the rebar,
put the top on, and finish filling. They didn't have sonotube back then,
and getting stuff out of an eight-foot mold is a pain. Is there evidence
of any sort of ground-down 'mold flash' line at the mid-point?

No, nothing at mid-point. Various vertical casting lines though, which
suggests to me that they made a mold from wooden strips.

I just did some proper measuring too (that'll teach me to take a quick
look and then post in a hurry!) and they're actually 12"x16", and 11"x16"
at the top and bottom (so not 12x12 square like I said in the OP, and the
tapering's less pronounced than it looks to the eye)

I took a quick photo - see reply to Oren...

Musta been built during war when steel was in short supply or something.
I've probably been in over 1000 basements over the years, and I have
never seen formed concrete basement pillars before. Either steel or wood
or laid-up brick columns.

Yeah, the guy who did the home inspection when we bought the place said
he'd never seen ones like that before.

Lots of the construction around this area was done by the family who
previously owned our place though, and it appears they were happy to work
with whatever materials they had (our barn's rather oddball in its
construction, too). Makes me wonder if they just happened to know someone
who could supply concrete, or someone owed them a favor, so they did
that rather than using wood or metal.

12"x16" seems overkill, though. The basement walls are all poured concrete
too, 10"-12" thick; it's pretty solid down there.

One other possibility is that the pillars weren't cast in-place, but were
brought in from somewhere else and were maybe originally intended for some
other construction project. I still can't think of a good reason why
they'd need to be narrower at the bottom, though (I mean, if they had to
sit on something that was 11"x16", then why not just make them 11"x16" all
the way up...)

cheers

Jules

On Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:53:10 -0500, salty wrote:
Maybe the forms were not quite strong enough and simply bowed out from
the weight of all that concrete?

Hmm, interesting idea! If that were the case then it seems a little odd
that they'd only tapered in one axis, not both - but then I suppose
there's no way of knowing what the form looked like....

My gut feeling is still that it was intentional - although I keep
wondering if whoever made the molds had simply drunk a little too much
beer the night before and ended up engineering a taper at the bottom as
well as the top :-)

cheers

Jules

On Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:53:10 -0500, salty wrote:
Maybe the forms were not quite strong enough and simply bowed out from
the weight of all that concrete?

Hmm, interesting idea! If that were the case then it seems a little odd
that they'd only tapered in one axis, not both - but then I suppose
there's no way of knowing what the form looked like....

My gut feeling is still that it was intentional - although I keep
wondering if whoever made the molds had simply drunk a little too much
beer the night before and ended up engineering a taper at the bottom as
well as the top :-)

cheers

Jules

On Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:40:02 -0500, salty wrote:
Are you certain they are solid concrete and not maybe brick columns
that have been finished over?

Hmm, no I'm not actually! Maybe next time I'm using an SDS down there
I'll drill a little core sample just to make sure. Looking at
the tops in the little dip where the wooden beams sit, there's no evidence
of it being anything other than concrete (so if they clad them in
concrete they did it before all the lumber went in). I still can't
imagine a good reason for the bottom taper, either, even if they do have a
brick core.

(there's a chance I can ask sometime; the grandson of the people who built
the house has a cabin in the fields behind our place, and I think his
father - who would have been a young boy when the house was put up - is
still around. It's possible someone might have told him the reason and he
might have remembered it. The cabin's all shut up for the winter right now
though, so that'll have to wait until next spring before I can ask!)

cheers

Jules

On Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:40:02 -0500, salty wrote:
Are you certain they are solid concrete and not maybe brick columns
that have been finished over?

Hmm, no I'm not actually! Maybe next time I'm using an SDS down there
I'll drill a little core sample just to make sure. Looking at
the tops in the little dip where the wooden beams sit, there's no evidence
of it being anything other than concrete (so if they clad them in
concrete they did it before all the lumber went in). I still can't
imagine a good reason for the bottom taper, either, even if they do have a
brick core.

(there's a chance I can ask sometime; the grandson of the people who built
the house has a cabin in the fields behind our place, and I think his
father - who would have been a young boy when the house was put up - is
still around. It's possible someone might have told him the reason and he
might have remembered it. The cabin's all shut up for the winter right now
though, so that'll have to wait until next spring before I can ask!)

cheers

Jules

On Dec 9, 10:40*am, wrote:
Sure, quick one at:http://www.patooie.com/temp/pillar.jpg

Is that just a pile of bricks in the photo or the remains of an old
brick column? Maybe there were brick columns which started to fail at
some point and were replaced with something they felt would last?

When you first described them, I also considered that maybe the mold
just wasn't strong enough and bulged, but seeing the photo, that
doesn't look like the case. Now I'm leaning towards someone just
wanting them to look interesting.

On Dec 9, 10:40*am, wrote:
Sure, quick one at:http://www.patooie.com/temp/pillar.jpg

Is that just a pile of bricks in the photo or the remains of an old
brick column? Maybe there were brick columns which started to fail at
some point and were replaced with something they felt would last?

When you first described them, I also considered that maybe the mold
just wasn't strong enough and bulged, but seeing the photo, that
doesn't look like the case. Now I'm leaning towards someone just
wanting them to look interesting.

On Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:57:22 -0600, Jules
wrote:

On Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:53:10 -0500, salty wrote:
Maybe the forms were not quite strong enough and simply bowed out from
the weight of all that concrete?

Hmm, interesting idea! If that were the case then it seems a little odd
that they'd only tapered in one axis, not both - but then I suppose
there's no way of knowing what the form looked like....

If it was me-- that would've been the side I thought I could get away
with 1/2 plywood on-- and then the nails pulled through.


My gut feeling is still that it was intentional - although I keep
wondering if whoever made the molds had simply drunk a little too much
beer the night before and ended up engineering a taper at the bottom as
well as the top :-)

Or perhaps they just had a bit of brandy & got to thinkin' . . . "What
can I do to those columns tomorrow to befuddle everyone who looks at
them over the next couple centuries?"

Jim

On Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:57:22 -0600, Jules
wrote:

On Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:53:10 -0500, salty wrote:
Maybe the forms were not quite strong enough and simply bowed out from
the weight of all that concrete?

Hmm, interesting idea! If that were the case then it seems a little odd
that they'd only tapered in one axis, not both - but then I suppose
there's no way of knowing what the form looked like....

If it was me-- that would've been the side I thought I could get away
with 1/2 plywood on-- and then the nails pulled through.


My gut feeling is still that it was intentional - although I keep
wondering if whoever made the molds had simply drunk a little too much
beer the night before and ended up engineering a taper at the bottom as
well as the top :-)

Or perhaps they just had a bit of brandy & got to thinkin' . . . "What
can I do to those columns tomorrow to befuddle everyone who looks at
them over the next couple centuries?"

Jim

On Dec 8, 4:13*pm, Jules
wrote:
Our late '40s place has concrete pillars in the basement - about 7' high,
12"x12", but tapered in toward the top by maybe 2". Fair enough... but I
just noticed that they're also tapered by 2" at the bottom, albeit just in
one axis (I've never noticed before as they've had junk piled
around them - I've just been having a tidy-up though)

Any particular reason for the tapering at the base? I don't think I've
ever seen that before, and can't think of a good reason for it.

cheers

Jules

Just as an FYI, the columns on many ancient structures, such as the
entrances to amphitheaters, were wider at the top than at the bottom.

This was done on purpose so that the columns look like they are the
exact same diameter from bottom to top. If they *were* the same
diameter, they would look narrower at the top when viewed from the
bottom, which happens to be where most folks view them from.

Many other surfaces that appear straight and even from the ground were
actually curved and/or wider/narrower to give the illusion of them
being "even" in the mind of the observer.

Them there ancients were pretty darn smart.

On Dec 8, 4:13*pm, Jules
wrote:
Our late '40s place has concrete pillars in the basement - about 7' high,
12"x12", but tapered in toward the top by maybe 2". Fair enough... but I
just noticed that they're also tapered by 2" at the bottom, albeit just in
one axis (I've never noticed before as they've had junk piled
around them - I've just been having a tidy-up though)

Any particular reason for the tapering at the base? I don't think I've
ever seen that before, and can't think of a good reason for it.

cheers

Jules

Just as an FYI, the columns on many ancient structures, such as the
entrances to amphitheaters, were wider at the top than at the bottom.

This was done on purpose so that the columns look like they are the
exact same diameter from bottom to top. If they *were* the same
diameter, they would look narrower at the top when viewed from the
bottom, which happens to be where most folks view them from.

Many other surfaces that appear straight and even from the ground were
actually curved and/or wider/narrower to give the illusion of them
being "even" in the mind of the observer.

Them there ancients were pretty darn smart.

On Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:43:39 -0800, Larry Fishel wrote:

On Dec 9, 10:40Â*am, wrote:
Sure, quick one at:http://www.patooie.com/temp/pillar.jpg

Is that just a pile of bricks in the photo or the remains of an old
brick column? Maybe there were brick columns which started to fail at
some point and were replaced with something they felt would last?

No, just a pile of bricks - they were originally part of a huge enclosure
built around that (home-made) wood furnace that you can see lurking just
behind the pillar in the photo. I salvaged them, figuring I'd probably
make some pillars at the end of the driveway with them one day, but
they've not quite made it out of the basement yet ;-)

When you first described them, I also considered that maybe the mold
just wasn't strong enough and bulged, but seeing the photo, that doesn't
look like the case. Now I'm leaning towards someone just wanting them to
look interesting.

Yeah, it certainly looks intentional to me; the curve seems to follow the
same line on both sides and is also mirrored at the top.

There's what's either an ancient capped septic system or capped well in
that part of the basement, though, and as far as I can tell the wood chute
was always in that part, and the access to the basement is way over on the
other side... in other words it's a funny part of the house to be just
making things look nice - but anything's possible!

cheers

Jules

On Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:43:39 -0800, Larry Fishel wrote:

On Dec 9, 10:40Â*am, wrote:
Sure, quick one at:http://www.patooie.com/temp/pillar.jpg

Is that just a pile of bricks in the photo or the remains of an old
brick column? Maybe there were brick columns which started to fail at
some point and were replaced with something they felt would last?

No, just a pile of bricks - they were originally part of a huge enclosure
built around that (home-made) wood furnace that you can see lurking just
behind the pillar in the photo. I salvaged them, figuring I'd probably
make some pillars at the end of the driveway with them one day, but
they've not quite made it out of the basement yet ;-)

When you first described them, I also considered that maybe the mold
just wasn't strong enough and bulged, but seeing the photo, that doesn't
look like the case. Now I'm leaning towards someone just wanting them to
look interesting.

Yeah, it certainly looks intentional to me; the curve seems to follow the
same line on both sides and is also mirrored at the top.

There's what's either an ancient capped septic system or capped well in
that part of the basement, though, and as far as I can tell the wood chute
was always in that part, and the access to the basement is way over on the
other side... in other words it's a funny part of the house to be just
making things look nice - but anything's possible!

cheers

Jules

On Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:13:53 -0800, DerbyDad03 wrote:
Just as an FYI, the columns on many ancient structures, such as the
entrances to amphitheaters, were wider at the top than at the bottom.

Yeah, so I'd heard (and Stonehenge uses the same psychology, but makes
them even narrower at the top to give the illusion of greater height)

Them there ancients were pretty darn smart.

Definitely. Some of the arguments related to astronomical alignments in
their structures are quite compelling, too - shame it all gets lumped in
with the same groups that say it was all down to aliens :-)

cheers

Jules

On Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:13:53 -0800, DerbyDad03 wrote:
Just as an FYI, the columns on many ancient structures, such as the
entrances to amphitheaters, were wider at the top than at the bottom.

Yeah, so I'd heard (and Stonehenge uses the same psychology, but makes
them even narrower at the top to give the illusion of greater height)

Them there ancients were pretty darn smart.

Definitely. Some of the arguments related to astronomical alignments in
their structures are quite compelling, too - shame it all gets lumped in
with the same groups that say it was all down to aliens :-)

cheers

Jules

On Wed, 9 Dec 2009 13:13:53 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
wrote:

On Dec 8, 4:13*pm, Jules
wrote:
Our late '40s place has concrete pillars in the basement - about 7' high,
12"x12", but tapered in toward the top by maybe 2". Fair enough... but I
just noticed that they're also tapered by 2" at the bottom, albeit just in
one axis (I've never noticed before as they've had junk piled
around them - I've just been having a tidy-up though)

Any particular reason for the tapering at the base? I don't think I've
ever seen that before, and can't think of a good reason for it.

cheers

Jules

Just as an FYI, the columns on many ancient structures, such as the
entrances to amphitheaters, were wider at the top than at the bottom.

This was done on purpose so that the columns look like they are the
exact same diameter from bottom to top. If they *were* the same
diameter, they would look narrower at the top when viewed from the
bottom, which happens to be where most folks view them from.

Many other surfaces that appear straight and even from the ground were
actually curved and/or wider/narrower to give the illusion of them
being "even" in the mind of the observer.

Them there ancients were pretty darn smart.

The famous Rolls Royce grill is another example.

On Wed, 9 Dec 2009 13:13:53 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
wrote:

On Dec 8, 4:13*pm, Jules
wrote:
Our late '40s place has concrete pillars in the basement - about 7' high,
12"x12", but tapered in toward the top by maybe 2". Fair enough... but I
just noticed that they're also tapered by 2" at the bottom, albeit just in
one axis (I've never noticed before as they've had junk piled
around them - I've just been having a tidy-up though)

Any particular reason for the tapering at the base? I don't think I've
ever seen that before, and can't think of a good reason for it.

cheers

Jules

Just as an FYI, the columns on many ancient structures, such as the
entrances to amphitheaters, were wider at the top than at the bottom.

This was done on purpose so that the columns look like they are the
exact same diameter from bottom to top. If they *were* the same
diameter, they would look narrower at the top when viewed from the
bottom, which happens to be where most folks view them from.

Many other surfaces that appear straight and even from the ground were
actually curved and/or wider/narrower to give the illusion of them
being "even" in the mind of the observer.

Them there ancients were pretty darn smart.

The famous Rolls Royce grill is another example.

Jim Elbrecht wrote:
On Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:57:22 -0600, Jules
wrote:

On Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:53:10 -0500, salty wrote:
Maybe the forms were not quite strong enough and simply bowed out from
the weight of all that concrete?
Hmm, interesting idea! If that were the case then it seems a little odd
that they'd only tapered in one axis, not both - but then I suppose
there's no way of knowing what the form looked like....

If it was me-- that would've been the side I thought I could get away
with 1/2 plywood on-- and then the nails pulled through.

My gut feeling is still that it was intentional - although I keep
wondering if whoever made the molds had simply drunk a little too much
beer the night before and ended up engineering a taper at the bottom as
well as the top :-)

Or perhaps they just had a bit of brandy & got to thinkin' . . . "What
can I do to those columns tomorrow to befuddle everyone who looks at
them over the next couple centuries?"

Jim

Snort! I like it.

I think you are right, they look precast, and maybe were for another
application. I dunno- maybe bridge rail columns designed to drop into
precast pockets on something. Any RR yards around there? Maybe they were
liberated from some roadbed repair stock- those almost look like what I
see along side the rails at a siding switch.

--
aem sends...

Jim Elbrecht wrote:
On Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:57:22 -0600, Jules
wrote:

On Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:53:10 -0500, salty wrote:
Maybe the forms were not quite strong enough and simply bowed out from
the weight of all that concrete?
Hmm, interesting idea! If that were the case then it seems a little odd
that they'd only tapered in one axis, not both - but then I suppose
there's no way of knowing what the form looked like....

If it was me-- that would've been the side I thought I could get away
with 1/2 plywood on-- and then the nails pulled through.

My gut feeling is still that it was intentional - although I keep
wondering if whoever made the molds had simply drunk a little too much
beer the night before and ended up engineering a taper at the bottom as
well as the top :-)

Or perhaps they just had a bit of brandy & got to thinkin' . . . "What
can I do to those columns tomorrow to befuddle everyone who looks at
them over the next couple centuries?"

Jim

Snort! I like it.

I think you are right, they look precast, and maybe were for another
application. I dunno- maybe bridge rail columns designed to drop into
precast pockets on something. Any RR yards around there? Maybe they were
liberated from some roadbed repair stock- those almost look like what I
see along side the rails at a siding switch.

--
aem sends...

These are not gently tapered concrete columns. This is form work
that was underdesigned. The liquid head putting pressure at the
bottom of the form is huge. I am almost surprised that the forms
didn't blow open during the pour, but then we can't see the
original form work.

Nothing fancy, not deliberate - just lucky.

--
______________________________
Keep the whole world singing . . . .
DanG (remove the sevens)




"Jules" wrote in
message
news
On Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:54:29 -0800, Oren wrote:
Pics would help, being, it is "late '40s place has concrete
pillars in
the basement "

I'm interested.

Sure, quick one at: http://www.patooie.com/temp/pillar.jpg

cheers

Jules

On Thu, 10 Dec 2009 05:08:28 -0600, DanG wrote:

These are not gently tapered concrete columns. This is form work
that was underdesigned. The liquid head putting pressure at the
bottom of the form is huge. I am almost surprised that the forms
didn't blow open during the pour, but then we can't see the
original form work.

Nothing fancy, not deliberate - just lucky.

I don't know - I just did a check with straight-edge and ruler, and the
lower tapers start 16" above the floor. The upper tapers start 16" below
the top. They taper by the same amount and at the same point on both
pillars that I looked at. The amount of tapering is even on both sides
(and only in one axis, of course).

Like you say, we've no idea what the original form was like; I can see
how that could explain the tapering in only one axis if the sides were
strong but the front/back not so.

I don't know enough about concrete to say if a weak form like that would
yield exactly the same taper front and back at the bottom, and on more
than one pillar if the form design were re-used.

The fact that it's the same curve top/bottom, starting from the same point
relative to the mid-point, and that it's dead-straight across the center
portion gets me, though - that makes it 'feel' more intentional, as though
whoever made them wanted them that way.

cheers

Jules

On Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:33:17 -0500, aemeijers wrote:
I think you are right, they look precast, and maybe were for another
application. I dunno- maybe bridge rail columns designed to drop into
precast pockets on something. Any RR yards around there? Maybe they were
liberated from some roadbed repair stock- those almost look like what I
see along side the rails at a siding switch.

The pockets idea makes sense if they were intended for some application
where they could be replaced, but does (or did) anyone really do
construction like that? I suspect there'd be significant wear around the
top of the pocket from vibration etc. if it were a bridge environment
(rail or otherwise).

cheers

Jules