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THE ARTIZAN.
No. XIIL— JANUARY 31st, 1844.
Art. I.— THE IRON MANUFACTURE AND MINING EMPLOY- MENTS OF SOUTH STAFFORDSHIRE.
First Report of the Midland Mining Commission, presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty. London, 1843.
HISTORY OF THE IRON TRADE.
The manufacture of iron is a branch of the national industry in which no single artizan throughout the whole empire can fail to be interested. The innumerable branches of the metallic trades which are carried on at the great emporiums of Birmingham, Sheffield, and Wolverhampton, are comparatively confined to the fabrication of articles in iron and steel ; and wherever we turn our eyes, in any part soever of the country, whether near to or remote from the spot which produces the iron, we find a large proportion of her artizans engaged in the direct conversion of iron into some one or other of the thou- sand useful forms which this the most important metal in the world is capable of assuming. So much for the artizans who may be said to be employed in the direct fabrication or conversion of iron ; and, next to these, the subject possesses an interest scarcely inferior for every individual who makes use of his hands in any kind of labour whatsoever. From the more widely dif- fused and every-day occupations of the carpenter, the mason, and the smith, up to the highest departments of art, as practised by the sculptor and the engraver, where shall we find the artist or the artizan who is independent of that metal, out of which all his most useful implements are fabricated ? But neither these, nor a hundred other considerations which might be adduced, can be necessary to convince any person who reflects at all, of the general importance to the whole country, of that extensive source of employment which is afforded by the iron manufacture, and its accompanying branches of trade.
The historical records of the iron manufacture in this country, apart from their general and immediate interest to those concerned in any way in the conversion or application of the metal, possess so close a connexion with the prosperity of this nation, and its rise into pre-eminence over the whole world, that they demand a brief notice.
Amongst all the industrial occupations pursued by the inhabitants of this great manufacturing country, there is none so completely identified with the expansion of her national resources, with the cultivation of all the useful arts and sciences, with the increase of her population, and the corresponding creation of means for their support, as this of the iron manufacture. Unlike the fabrication of articles in wood, which has to be grown during a great many years upon land which might be producing the grain and fruits of the earth, or, perhaps, imported from other countries, in exchange for actual money from our own — unlike the cotton, silk, or woollen manufactures, for which the raw material has in like manner to be imported from abroad, or ■grown, at a great expense, on the backs of animals reared almost entirely for the value of their fleeces — unlike all these branches of manufacture, in which the article to be wrought has a certain, and in many cases a high, intrinsic •value, here is a trade concentrated within a few limited spots of our own country, giving employment to hundreds of thousands, destroying no land except that necessary for the first establishment of the works, and producing, year after year, from beneath the same surface, out of the bowels of the earth, the materials for employing more than a million of persons, who are engaged in multiplying over and over again the value of this raw material, and forming it into a countless variety of shapes, both for domestic use and for export to almost every country, savage or civilized, in the whole world. It was Gibbon who finely said, that iron had done more than anything else to civilize the world. And a philosopher, not inferior to him, and possessing statesmanlike views of the highest order, has acknowledged with gratitude that it was the steam-engine alone which had fought for England all the battles of the last great European war, and enabled her to sustain, almost without feeling it, that incessant drain upon her treasury which would have crushed her into the •condition of the most abject state in Europe, had she not been gifted with this inestimable triumph of her mechanical skill. The steam-engine, while it owes not less than all other machines to that metal out of which it is prin- cipally fabricated, has at least nobly redeemed its obligation, by putting into action a power of no less consequence than the modern blast apparatus : it might perhaps be most correet to say, that the enormous growth of the iron trade during the last half century has been principally effected by this application of steam, which gave at once the means of smelting iron with coal in the modern blast-furnace.
VOL. II.
In looking back upon the iron manufacture within the period of our national history, it appears capable of division into several remarkable eras. The first may be included between the time of the Romans and that of Eli- zabeth, when we find the first legislative enactments against the felling of timber for this manufacture. It appears that up to the middle of the six- teenth century, while yet the weald of Kent and Sussex, the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, the district of Furness in Lancashire, and the banks of the Don about Sheffield, were covered by abundance of oak timber, which yielded charcoal for the smelting of all the iron in their respective districts, no alarm was felt about the destruction of timber occasioned by this constant waste of the woods. In the reign of Elizabeth, and that of her immediate successors, numerous acts were passed to restrict, and, in some districts, to prohibit altogether, the felling of timber for this purpose. From this period, therefore, which dates as the commencement of the second era, the iron ma- nufacture began actually to decline ; as we find, in the reign of James II., there were 300 furnaces, making in all 180,000 tons per annum; while, in 1740, the make had dwindled down to 17,350 tons. During this period we had become, to a great extent, dependent on foreign countries for a supply of iron ; the quantity imported at this time being greater than that which was made at home ; and the country was paying, in exchange for this imported iron, about a quarter of a million sterling in hard cash. Nothing was more deplorable than the state of the iron manufacture in Great Britain during the hundred years preceding 1740. Absolutely without the means of procuring charcoal for the purpose of smelting, the most enterprising manufacturers turned their attention to pit-coal ; and numerous are the trials and failures ■ which successively attended the earnest exertions to render this mineral avail- able for the smelting of iron. The great difficulty arising from the insuffi- cient draught, and consequent absence of heat in the furnace, every con- trivance which the ingenuity of the time could suggest was put into requi- sition for the purpose, such as bellows worked by human labour, oxen, horses, wind, and water power ; but, notwithstanding every exertion to the contrary, the production of our furnaces steadily decreased, till, in the middle of the eighteenth century, all the iron made in Great Britain amounted to only 17,350 tons.
The next great era may be taken to comprise the history of the manufac- ture down to the present time. We have no accurate returns for the period immediately succeding 1740; but we know that in 1788, about which time the blast-furnace worked by steam' had begun [to be generally used, the annual manufacture amounted to more than 68,000 tons. From this time the iron manufacture is characterised by a series of brilliant improvements, carried into effect by means of great skill and pecuniary enterprise.
A few years before 1788, Mr. Cort's process of puddling and rolling was introduced. In 1796, the make of iron in Great Britain was 125,079 tons : in ten years more the annual quantity was 250,406 ; in 1823 it had increased to 452,056 ; in 1830 to 678,416 ; and in 1841 the produce of the 401 blast- furnaces in Great Britain was not less than 1,387,551 tons.
SOUTH STAFFORDSHIRE COAL-FIELD.
The coal-fields of our midland counties being surrounded by rich agricul- tural districts, afford excellent examples of the intimate connexion which always subsists between the manufacturing and the agricultural interests ; clearly proving, in a variety of ways, that they are mutually dependent on each other for their prosperity ; and, in like manner, that the one cannot be injured, and cannot exist in a state of depression, without exercising a cor- responding influence on the other. For instance, take the simple case of an agricultural district in a depressed state, and to which some suppose it would be reduced by certain legislative enactments, which the friends of the manufacturing interests are loudly demanding at the present time. It is quite clear, that if the farmer and the labourer are suffering, there will be a vast difference in their consumption of even the necessaries of life. Agricul- tural produce will be at a low price, and it will not be worth while for the farmer to send it to a distance, as in times of prosperity, bringing back coal as back-carriage for the supply of his own and his labourers' houses. La- bourers will be driven to make use of wood, peat, or any other substitute for coal which they can procure ; and, in consequence, collieries will be imper- fectly worked, and vast numbers of colliers thrown out of employment. Nor does the evil stop here ; it extends to the diminished consumption of all manufactures, and, amongst others, that of iron. Agricultural distress is always accompanied by the blowing out and shutting up of furnaces ; events which, of late years, have been so frequently trumpeted into notice by the
2
The Iron Manufacture and Mining Employments of South Staffordshire.
newspapers, that they are looked for as a matter of course during every out- break or disturbance in the coal districts. There are few people, however, who are at all aware of the immense consequences to the general prosperity of the country, which are involved in a circumstance so apparently unimpor- tant as the discontinuance of a single blast-fumace used for the manufacture of iron. A furnace of medium capacity requires a supply of about 300 to 400 tons of iron mine per week, and about the same quantity of coal, besides limestone for a flux ; and employs about 300 men to raise the minerals, to attend the furnaces, and perform the subsequent operations of refining, pud- dling, and rolling the iron into bars. The average produce of the furnaces in blast at the present time in the two great coal-fields of Staffordshire and South Wales, is about 4000 tons of iron per annum, and every ton, averaging pig and forge iron together, costs at least 41. in actual labour. The produc- tion of the iron made in a single furnace is therefore equivalent to 16,000/. per annum wholly expended in wages ; which would agree nearly with the amount required to pay 300 men for a year, with their overlookers, foremen, agents, &c. Such is the direct consequence, at the iron-works, of a single furnace being thrown out of blast. But this is not by any means the whole injury which the stoppage inflicts. Of the 4000 tons made by a furnace in Staffordshire, a large quantity goes to the workshops and manufactories of chain-cables, scythes, spades, nails, bolts, screws, and a variety of other ar- ticles, which, when manufactured, are worth from 36s. to 84*. per cwt. In order to make sure of not overstating the case, let us take 45/. as the average value of a ton of converted wrought iron, and we shall have the produce of a single furnace increased in value by 160,000/., the whole of which is paid in labour. It may therefore be estimated, that each one of the 129 blast-fur- naces in Staffordshire keeps in circulation a sum of more than 176,000/. per annum ; and that labour, corresponding to this large sum of money, is thrown out of employment, whenever one of these furnaces is put out of blast.
In the beginning of 1842, there were 129 blast-furnaces in Staffordshire ; and, for some time after the strike for wages, and the turn-out of the miners during the summer of that year, the number actually in blast was only 80. The vast amount of destitution, caused by the stoppage of 49 furnaces in this densely-populated part of the country, may be guessed at from the preceding considerations.
In order to obtain the most correct information as to the causes of this strike, and as to the general condition of the mining population in the coun- ties of Worcester, Warwick, Stafford, and Salop, the Government shortly after it appointed Mr. Tancred a Commissioner, with powers to conduct a spe- cial inquiry into the subject. This gentleman, who had formerly acted as a Commissioner to inquire into the employment of women and children in mines, has ably acquitted himself of this task, having brought together a mass of highly useful information relative to the South Staffordshire, coal-field, to which his attention has been confined up to this time.
The South Staffordshire coal-field is distinguished by the prevalence, over the greater part of its area, of the famous Ten-yard coal ; this being the ag- gregate thickness of the beds which are actually worked in its mines. The district of the Ten-yard coal is bounded by Wolverhampton, Bilston, Dar- laston, and Wednesbury, on the north ; West Bromwich, and Oldbury, on the east ; Amblecott, the Lye, and Wordesley, near Stanbridge, on the south ; and by Kingswinford, Lower Gornal, and Sedgeley, on the west ; the area comprised within these limits being about seven miles from north to south, with an average breadth of about six miles. The coal measures, however, are not continuous over the whole of this area, being interrupted by a re- markable upthrow of basaltic rocks extending from Rowley Regis nearly two miles north-west to Dudley, and, by a continuation of this range,' composed of silurian rocks, extending from Dudley, in the same direction, to beyond Sedgeley. These rocks, rising up in the form of a saddle-back amongst the coal-measures, have tilted up the latter in a corresponding manner; so that these are entirely wanting along the crest of the intruding ridge, and dip in opposite directions on the opposite sides of the rocks by which they have thus been displaced. Besides this area occupied by the thick coal, there are several beds of thin coal, which commence a few miles from the northern outcrop of the Ten-yard coal, and extend to Brereton Collieries, near Rugeley, about ten miles north of Bilston. The district occupied by these thin coal- measures varies from four and a half to six miles broad ; and, in addition to Earl Talbot's collieries at Brereton, where they are principally worked to supply his furnaces for the evaporation of salt brine, there are numerous pits where they are worked along the banks of the Wyrley and Essington Canal ; also in the neighbourhood of Walsall, Hayhead Quarries, and Lichfield.
The method adopted in working the Ten-yard coal may be thus explained. The pits or shafts for pumping, and for raising the coal to the surface, are sunk through the coal-measures, and through the main coal down to the bottom, and a heading or gateway driven horizontally through the coal to be worked. This heading or gateway, intended for the main road along which the coal is to be conveyed to the foot of the engine-shaft, is usually made about ten or twelve feet in height, and, when finished, presents a perpen- dicular face of coal on each side. The operations of getting the coal, there- fore, are now commenced by a number of miners, who cut away the lower bed of the coal, which is commonly about 2ft. 3in. in thickness ; and when they have thus undermined a considerable length, varying from ten to four- teen yards, by a convenient breadth, they proceed to cut upwards through the mass of coal to be brought down. In the process of undermining or under- cutting, pillars are left at distances varying from six to fifteen yards apart, and the cutting upward is made along the sides of these pillars, so as to isolate
[January,
the mass of coal which is to be brought down. The breadth of coal cut away at the sides of the pillars will depend upon the thickness of the bed of coal to be fallen ; this thickness varying from two to four feet, according to the natural divisions or partings between the beds ; but the cutting, on the average, is seldom more than a foot wide, being wider at the underside, and narrowing to nothing at the top, so as just to separate the coal to be brought down from the general mass. The operation of cutting the coal for this pur- pose is of course very dangerous, as the miner is working with his whole body under a mass of many hundred tons weight, which is liable at any moment to fall down, and crush him to atoms. In order to guard as much as possible against this danger, small spurrings are left, at about every six feet, connecting the mass to be fallen with the general body of the coal ; and these spurrings are not cut away till all the miners are clear of the excavation or hollow space beneath the coal. When all is ready for the fall, a collier approaches the work with a long prong, which he uses to loosen and break down the spurrings, so as now completely to isolate the mass of coal, which, at length, having no adhesion to the general body, cracks and falls down in all direc- tions. The stint, or day's work, of a collier in the Ten-yard coal, is commonly about 35 to 40 cube feet of underworking or holing, and about 27 cube feet of cutting upwards after the holing has been performed. Each of these stints will occupy a good workman seven or eight hours, and the present rate of pay is 2s. 6d. a stint.
After the lower bed of coal has been cut out, and the second bed brought down in the way which has been described, the work of falling the upper beds is carried on in the same way ; stages or scaffolds being used for the miners to stand on when cutting out the upper beds, in order to make the coal fall down. As the coal comes down in great masses, each weighing many tons, a number of miners, immediately after a fall, commence an attack upon these great lumps, and break them up with pickaxes, and by driving wedges into them, so as to make them of suitable size for loading on the skips. These skips are low trucks mounted on four small flanged wheels, which run upon iron railroads laid down in the pit and on the surface of the ground at the top of the shaft. Each skip has three loose iron rings, within which the coal is piled up to the height of about five feet, each ring being placed round the lumps of coal at such vertical distances as to keep the whole heap together, and prevent any of them from falling off when the skip is being drawn up the shaft. When arrived at the top, the banksman pushes a frame or covering over the opening of the shaft. This covering has two lines of rail laid down upon it, and the skip being lowered on to these rails, is drawn off on one of the lines of railway leading from the shaft.
The South Staffordshire coal-field, although very insignificant in area, com- pared with the vast extent of coal strata which prevail in South Wales, and in the northern counties, is one of the oldest seats of the iron manufacture, and is surrounded by a vast population engaged in nail-making, and other branches of the metallic trades. The whole country over which the mining operations extend has been compared to a vast rabbit-warren, so completely is it undermined at every part. Houses and roads are constantly being thrown down and destroyed by the underground operations, and even the safety of churches is sometimes endangered ; while it is often difficult to find a secure site for the erection of a new church or any other important building. The limestone hills in the neighbourhood of Dudley, which have been already mentioned, are occupied by the crowded villages of the nailers, and so is the whole zone of country surrounding the outcrop of the coal strata, and sepa- rating these from the agricultural district of the red sandstone. To a tra- veller who takes any interest in connecting the indications presented on the surface of a country with its physical structure, there is nothing more re- markable than the extreme contrast between the great focus of mining acti- vity in South Staffordshire, and the vast expanse of agricultural country throughout which its productions are constantly radiating in all imaginable directions. Placed in the centre of the mining district, he will find himself surrounded by heaps of smouldering coal, by blazing furnaces, steam-engines, chimneys, forges, and cinder-tips ; the whole country being, besides, inter- sected in all directions by canals crossing each other on different levels, and crowded by barges conveying the wealth which streams from its mines to other centres of industry, where other vast collections of human beings are congregated together for the purpose of manufacturing and converting into useful forms the raw materials which are yielded by these mines. On leaving the immediate district where the mines and coal-pits are worked, and where the iron is cast into pigs, and rolled into bars or plates, the traveller, before he can reach the strictly rural and cultivated part of the country, must pass across a zone of very marked character, which extends all round the coal-field at the junction of the coal-measures with the new red sandstone. This zone is occupied by long, interminable villages and rows of small houses, chiefly occupied by nailers and the makers of innumerable small articles of hardware, such as horse-shoes, hoops, locks, bolts, hinges, currycombs, gridirons, and other wares generally classed under the head of Birmingham manufactures. Amongst the larger articles which are manufactured at Rowley Regis, and at several places on the borders of the iron country, may be mentioned wheel- tires, chains, traces, scythes, spades, gun-barrels, gas-pipes, &c. All the persons engaged in these trades, but especially the nailers, are in a very inferior condition, in point of comfort, to the miners and colliers. This arises from the excessive fluctuations to which every branch of the hardware busi- ness is subject, and to the oppression of the travelling hardware-factors, who go about the country and give orders to the work-people according to the trade list of prices. These persons of course take advantage of bad times, to
1844.]
The Iron Manufacture and Mining Employments of South Staffordshire.
obtain their articles at a low price ; and, besides this, there are great numbers of the people who work on speculation, and undersell the others. It is esti- mated that, when trade is brisk, from 1400 to 1500 tons of iron per week are worked into nails alone in South Staffordshire ; and the whole number of per- sons, male and female, employed in this branch of trade, is not less than 100,000. Thus, a hundred years ago, the whole quantity of iron made in one year by all the furnaces in Great Britain, was only one-fourth of that which, in this one district of South Staffordshire, is annually manufactured into the single article of nails at the present time.
After passing through the dense and crowded villages of the nailers, the view begins to expand, and the country to assume an air of greater freshness. The smart modern houses of the manufacturers meet the eye in every direc- tion, while, beyond these, rises the ancient mansion of the lord of the soil ; the quiet and modest parish church is seen in the distance : and when the cottages and dwellings of the humbler class no longer wear the blackened , dreary aspect which marked those of the manufacturing district, the traveller fairly perceives that he breathes once more the free, pure air of heaven ; is greeted once again with the signs _.jd sounds of rural life ; and is at last fairly in the country of the sickle and the plough.
CONDITION OF THE MINERS AND OTHERS IN SOUTH STAFFORDSHIRE.
Amongst the most important of Mr. Tancred's recommendations, are those which relate to the moral improvement of the workmen employed at the furnaces and the rolling-mills. It seems to be the practice at a great many works in South Staffordshire, as in most other mining districts, to keep the blast furnaces constantly at work without intermission from one week's end to another. The furnaces are attended by two sets of men, who work twelve hours at a shift, the night-workers of one week becoming the day-workers of the following week. In order to effect this change of the shifts, the men who work through the Saturday night continue at the furnace throughout the whole of Sunday, making what is called a " double turn" of twenty-four hours' duration, and then they take the day-shift during the ensuing week. According to this arrangement Sunday is made a day of excessive fatigue, and the wise and admirable institution of the Sabbath — not less necessary for the relaxation of the body than for the elevation of the mind — is entirely neglected : much to the injury of the workmen, and little, if at all, to the benefit of their employers. Out of the whole number of 129 furnaces now at work in South Staffordshire, 52 actually stop the blast for twelve hours on Sunday ; and this being a voluntary act on the part of the proprietors, it proves clearly enough that there could be no great hardship in compelling the remaining 77 to follow the same practice.
The puddling-furnaces and rolling-mills are also worked by two sets of men, who take turns of twelve hours each ; and when we consider the intense heat and incessant exertion to which they are exposed in performing this peculiar kind of labour, it is impossible to doubt the value of the change proposed by Mr. Tancred, that this work should be performed by three sets of men, taking shifts of eight hours instead of twelve.
It appears from the decennial enumerations of the last forty years, that the population of the mining district in South Staffordshire has increased 191 per cent, since 1801, the increase for the whole of England being only 79 per cent. It is a fact, that while this large and disproportionate increase in the mining population has been taking place, and while the labours of this popu- lation have been producing the most signal advantages to the whole com- munity, increasing the value of landed property to an incredible extent, and keeping open a field available for the constant immigration of supe-rfluous hands from agricultural districts — while such has been the condition of South Staffordshire for more than half a century, the moral and spiritual education of its vast population has been entirely neglected, and its 200,000 inhabitants are found at this time in a state of almost utter educational destitution. Whilst church-accommodation is perfectly inadequate, even with the aid of numerous dissenting establishments, while schools and mechanics' institu- tions are almost unknown throughout the district — the whole county has been rapidly increasing in wealth until its poor-rates are now lower than those of any county in England except Northumberland, its gentry have been enjoying estates which in some instances have been quintupled in value, and an amount of wealth so enormous has been realized both by them as owners of the soil and by speculators and manufacturers who have leased the mines, that the voice of the civilized world should indignantly be raised to demand why such deplorable and degrading ignorance and destitution are allowed to prevail in a district which has conferred wealth and honour upon so many individuals, who might have been beggars but for the combined toil and industry of the humble workmen who crowd the surface of their productive estates. Mr. Tancred has ascertained from the accurate information he has obtained on the spot, that in ten of the mining parishes of Staffordshire 50 additional churches are required to accommodate the population, at the rate of 1200 to a church ; and 66 public schools are required, at the rate of 200 children of school age to each.*
Notwithstanding this state of things, it is melancholy to find that, except in a few honourable instances, the most unfeeling apathy to the claims of the poor has been manifested by the great neighbouring proprietors when called on for subscriptions towards the furtherance of any charitable or educational measures. One individual of great wealth is a proprietor of land in the neigh-
* " In the public schools of Prussia, the average is 95 scholars to each school." Report, p. cxxxii.
bourhood of Birmingham, which had been bought into his family in the last century for 30,000?. He has lately sold about 100,000/. worth, and the remainder is still enormously increasing in value, in consequence of the vast population collected upon it. When this individual was applied to for a subscription towards the building of new churches, it was with great difficulty that 20/. was obtained from him ; and although firmly attached to church principles, he refused to give a quarter of an acre of land for a site, around which was congregated a population of thousands.
Besides all this cruel neglect under which the poor miners, nailers, and colliers of Staffordshire are so grievously suffering, they are afflicted with the truck system in its worst form ; and notwithstanding the protection which the law has attempted to throw around the honest labourer, in order that he shall not be plundered of his hard earnings under pretence of being paid in goods, here we have the system in full vigour, there being very few works where the men are paid in money for the work which they perform. As the law is decidedly in favour of the workman, and as the practice of paying in goods is known to 'be illegal, it may be asked, why the interference of magis- trates is not oftener claimed to compel a payment in money at the end of the month, particularly as the whole wages can be legally recovered, notwithstand- ing any set off which the master may bring for goods supplied ? The answer is to be found in the unwillingness of the men to throw themselves out of work and become marked characters whom nobody will employ ; and partly, also, in the conduct of the magistrates, who are often themselves masters or interested landowners, and who will never interfere in any case further back than the month in which the complaint is made ; judging, probably, that as the workman has acquiesced in former deductions and accepted the balance as payment, it would be unfair to sanction his new claim to a cash payment.
The evidence procured by Mr. Tancred on the subject of the truck system was of course very contradictory. Some masters contended that the interests of the men were promoted by it, as they were protected from the impositions of hucksters and small dealers in the neighbourhood ; while others complained loudly of the injury inflicted on the iron trade by the imperfect state of the law, which at present is not sufficiently powerful to prevent the practice from being followed to a great extent by the more unscrupulous of the masters.
To show the inducements which the system holds out to needy persons, it was stated by Mr. Best, the manager of the British Iron Company's extensive works, that if he chose to pay in truck, he could make 5000/. a-year by it. The masters buy the goods with which they pay the men on a six months' credit, without which their capital would be insufficient to carry on their works. "There is one work in Staffordshire," says Mr. Best, "which receives 2500/. a-year for recommending a particular shop in Wolverhamp- ton," this being, of course, a form of the truck system, as men who do not deal at that shop are not employed. There can be no doubt in the mind of any reasonable person as to the injurious consequences of this miserable sys- tem. It converts the workman into a species of slave, taking from him the liberty of expending his own money where he pleases, placing him in a degrading bondage, from which his only alternative of escape is starvation, and destroying the power of comparing one master's employment with an- other, because, though the wages may be the same, the goods which corre- spond to his wages at two separate works may be widely different. The most disorderly management prevails at the " tommy shops" from which the goods are dispensed. They are open only on a particular day of the week, and are beset by crowds of poor women and children, who have to travel, often far from their home, in all sorts of weather, and wait for hours till the door of the miserable shop is open and their turn comes to be served. Add to this, that .the " butties," or petty contractors, who form the class of middle-men between the workmen and the masters, all keep beer-shops, where the men are ex- pected to drink ; in default of which they are charged reckoning-drink, as it is called. Each man is expected to take four-fifths of his wages in tommy, so that only 4*. in the pound is left to be paid in cash — a sum generally insufficient to pay for rent and clothing ; so that he is obliged to sell some of the truck goods, of course at an immense sacrifice, in order to meet these demands. Numerous small hucksters' shops are established in the outskirts of Wolver- hampton and other towns, for the purpose of receiving in this way, from the miners and other workmen, the goods they are thus compelled to dispose of, and, like the pawnbrokers and other leeches who prey upon the necessities of mankind, they thrive vastly upon the misery which they seem to relieve.
There are few who are at all aware either of the extent to which this abominable truck system is practised in all the mining and manufacturing districts of this country, or of the innumerable expedients resorted to for the purpose of defeating the law which declares it illegal. It is no uncommon thing in the iron-works of South Wales, to find the men receiving cash at one end of a counter and paying it away for goods at the other ; and so perfectly is it understood that the money is to be expended under the same roof, that a few shillings of capital suffice to carry on the concerns of a " tommy-shop" of this description, for the supply of many hundred workmen. Where is the boasted power, the dignity, the authority of the law, which can be evaded by such contemptible shuffling as this ?
A signal retribution, truly, is that which the truck system has inflicted on that very iron trade in which it has been pushed to so extreme a pitch — a retribution not altogether undeserved by some amongst the masters- — a retri- bution which, if it affected only a particular district, and only those persons who had drawn it upon themselves, one would almost be justified in pronounc- ing proper and beneficial ! Let it be understood, then, that the truck system is one main cause of the late low price of iron, as it affords to a host of needy
Direct-Action Marine Engines.
[January,
adventurers and speculators, without any real capital, the means of entering the trade and underselling the respectable master. When times become excessively bad, and the speculator, being in debt, can no longer obtain credit for the goods with which he pays his men, then it is that he fails, or flies the country ; and the plain English of his former apparent prosperity comes then to be revealed, to the effect that the cheap iron which he has been selling has, in fact, been all the time supplied at the expense of the provision merchants, who are now victimised by his defalcation. All this inflicts a serious injury upon the iron trade, and the respectable master has enough to do to contend against, and keep himself clear of, the dishonourable practices resorted to by his more unprincipled competitors.
Various recommendations have been made as to the reformation of abuses arising out of the truck system. One iron-master says, " legalise the payment of wages in goods, and then all will equally adopt it, all will be on an equal footing, and the workman can compare effectually one master's employment with another, instead of being unable to decide, as at present, between the value of payments in money and payment partly in money and partly in goods, the nominal wages being sometimes the same and sometimes different in the two cases." " Abolish the whole system at once," says another, " by highly stringent regulations, inflicting, for instance, not only a penalty on the mas- ters or the middle-men who keep these shops, but also on the workmen who resort to them."
If the midland coal and iron fields only were concerned, with the manufac- turing districts which surround them, we should say at once that the system ought to be abolished, for there is here abundant competition amongst the retail dealers, and the workpeople would find no difficulty in being supplied with all sorts of provisions independently of the monopolising shops now kept under the authority of the masters. In Wales, again, the case is different. The works there being situate far up in the mountains, at a great distance from any productive agricultural district and from the commercial establish- ments which dispense groceries and other colonial produce, it is at present a great convenience to those engaged in the works to be supplied by the regular shops of the great iron companies. At the same time, it is very clear that injurious consequences must always attend the legalizing in one district of any such practice as that of paying in truck, while it continues to be contrary to law in another. This must be obvious, for the profits of the truck system are so great as to induce persons to embark in the iron trade with no other object than that of realizing a fortune out of the shop. Owing to this, the manufacturers of one district would have so great an advantage over those of the other which is denied the advantages of the truck system, that they will undersell them full 25 per cent. ; this being rather a low statement of the profit derived from paying in goods which the master himself buys on a six months' credit, and then pays for by a bill drawn at a long date.
Taking all these circumstances into consideration, there appears to be only one alternative (for the idea of legalizing the system is intolerable), namely, that of such peremptory interference as would at once put an end to all evasive conduct of the less respectable masters. Let the workman be entitled to recover, without the least trouble, for all the work he has performed, no matter at how remote a period, and no matter whether he has been paid in goods or not ; and the supply of goods or " tommy" instead of money would soon be put an end to. If the law can be followed out in no other way, we should even, rather than witness continued imposition upon the labouring classes, recommend the importation of a tribe or two of pettifogging attorneys, who would find ample employment in asserting the powers of the Truck Act against the masters. In the mean time we throw out the hint to some of these gentry, that they might do worse than devote their brilliant talents tp tripping up the delinquents against the present Truck Act ; and we give this hint, not out of any sympathy with this branch of the legal profession, but on the principle, that out of two evils the least should be chosen.
It is probable that some revision of the law against truck will be under- taken during the ensuing session, when it is hoped that it will be placed on such a footing as to protect the workman from the injustice he has hitherto laboured under, and the iron-trade from the injurious effects of its present inefficient provisions.
Art. II.— DIRECT-ACTION MARINE ENGINES.
We are about to enter upon a most invidious task, and one from which we would willingly have escaped, had escape been consistent with what is due to our readers. Our purpose is nothing less than the institution of such a com- parison between the direct-action engines of our most celebrated makers as may determine their relative merits, and show which among them is the most worthy of adoption. This, we shall be told, is an undertaking of infinite presumption for persons of our insignificance ; and we really fear that there is good ground for the imputation : for the very act of criticism implies a claim of superior penetration, which, in the present instance, we fear we should be puzzled to substantiate. We feel, moreover, that the difficulties of our position are in nowise abated by the dissatisfaction such a comparison as we contemplate is almost sure to create among the parties most concerned. It is rarely a man thinks his own productions praised sufficiently ; and the propensity of each engineer will certainly be, to charge us with malice when speaking of his devices, and with partiality when speaking of those of his neighbours. There are many, no doubt, who will resist this propensity, as
desiring nothing more than an impartial judgment, or, at least, as thinking they desire nothing more : but even the most magnanimous of these will dis- cover that our strictures have a different signification, when bearing upon their own productions, to what they have in other cases. We therefore anti- cipate that, although we may obtain a tolerable conformity to our major pro- positions, abundant apologies for dissent will be discovered in matters of detail ; and we shall be charged with injustice for having overlooked some petty beauty, or exaggerated some petty defect, though the result would not be sensibly altered by a different adjustment.
With these impediments before us, we feel that we deserve some little credit for the courage of our design, whatever opinion may be formed of its discreetness. We believe that if we had declined the task, it must have re- mained unattempted, for there are few persons injudicious enough to involve themselves in its perplexities ; and we think we may reasonably claim some extenuation of our evil deeds on the strength of incentives so philanthropic. We must, however, here interrupt this egotistical strain, and proceed without further preamble to the business before us.
The engines of which we propose to speak are those represented in the large atlas plate which accompanied our tenth number. These engines are divisible into five varieties : the Gorgon, Siamese, Annular, Steeple, and Bury's, which last is of a non-descript species. We distinguish as Gorgon engines all those which have the connecting-rod between the piston-rod and the crank, whatever may be their subordinate features, and as Steeple engines all which have the connecting-rod situated above the crank. The Siamese and Annular engines are those patented by Maudslay.
The objections to the Gorgon plan of engine are numerous and weighty. In the first place, only a very short stroke is attainable by this plan of engine ; and although we are not of the number of those who yield to the absurdity, that expansion can only be productive of its proper efficacy in a long cylinder, yet we believe that an engine of a moderate stroke will work more steadily and smoothly than when the stroke is short and the reciproca- tion rapid. There is, moreover, a greater waste of steam at the ends of the cylinder when the stroke is short ; and although the amount of this loss cannot be great, yet it is too great to be disregarded. We do not attach the importance attributed by some to the deranging influence of a short connect- ing-rod upon the slide valve, but we attach a good deal of importance to the increased friction consequent upon the thrust, when the angle the connecting- rod makes is great, — not on account of the power absorbed, but on account of the difficulty of keeping the bearings from heating. To this objection it is no answer to say, that the friction of a direct-action engine is as little or less than that of a beam engine ; the vice being, that the friction is not fairly distributed, but so concentrated at particular points as to be productive of injury in engines of the common proportions.
There is, however, a far more serious defect of the Gorgon variety of engine than any we have yet mentioned. It involves the use of a large paddle-wheel by the elevation of the shaft, rendered necessary to afford room for the stroke ; and the largeness of the wheel gives too great a velocity to the float boards, by which means a considerable proportion of the engine power is dissipated. There is nothing better known, than that in all cases where there is a great disparity between the speed of the wheel and the speed of the ship, a large amount of the power is wasted in throwing the water back from the wheel, instead of being employed in forcing the vessel for- wards ; and in the Gorgon plan of engine, as applied to ordinary sea- going steamers, a serious loss from this source must be perpetually going on, or else the engine must be working under its proper speed and power.
These objections apply to all short connecting-rod engines, of which the stroke is small and the shaft high ; and in our eyes they carry sufficient weight to justify the condemnation of this species of engine in toto. As, however, there will be many persons, probably, who will not concur in this opinion, we may here set down some remarks respecting the several varieties of Gorgon engine represented in the plate, with the view of further illus- trating our convictions.
First in order, then, comes the plan of Messrs. Boulton and Watt, the engine represented being, we believe, that of the " Virago." In this plan of engine the condensers are situated between the cylinders, and at the extremity of each condenser an air-pump is situated. These air-pumps are wrought by a beam, the centre of which rests on the condenser top, and which derives its motion from a crank on the intermediate shaft — a rod extending from this crank to one of the ends of the beam — which is made something in the bell- crank fashion — to communicate the movement. The top of the piston-rod is maintained in the vertical position by guides.
There is much ingenuity in this plan of working the air-pumps, but it is attended with the very obvious defect, that if the beam breaks, both engines are disabled ; and a beam we believe to be as likely a part to break as any in an engine. The plan further has this disadvantage, that by the projection of the air-pumps beyond the line of the cylinders, a larger space is taken up in the vessel than is necessary. Messrs. Boulton and Watt, we understand, have a newer and better plan than this, of which we trust we may be able very shortly to give a drawing.
The next Gorgon engine in our list is that of Messrs. Miller and Raven- hill, the engine represented being, we believe, the one now being put into the " Infernal." This plan of engine takes up less room in the vessel than that last described ; and, indeed, no engine can occupy less room than this, for its length is very little more than the diameter of the cylinder. The condensers extend from cylinder to cylinder, having the air-pumps within
1844]
Direct-Action Marine Engines.
them, so that the whole of the cast-iron part of the engine is bound together in a solid mass. The air-pump buckets are wrought by means of cranks on the intermediate shaft.
This certainly appears to be one of the most sensible engines of the Gorgon brotherhood — or sisterhood, it may be, for we are not Artizans in mythology. It is as compact as can be, and enjoys the advantage of two air-pumps, the fracture of either of which does not impair the efficacy of the other. We must, however, we suppose, have some fault to find, and we are disposed to call the efficacy or at least the safety of the intermediate shaft in question, for such a multitude of cranks present great difficulties in the manufacture. In some of their very recent engines, Messrs. Miller and Co. have discarded the double crank in the shaft, and have wrought both air- pumps by one crank, the air-pumps being placed on the same vertical plane, and lying at an angle to permit this adaptation.
We next come to the plan of Messrs. Fairbairn and Co., as applied on board the " Vulture," of the engines of which vessel the view given in the plate is a representation. These engines are certainly a most creditable pro- duction in many ways. The general arrangement is judicious, and the framing, which, in all its main parts, is of malleable iron, is unusually sub- stantial and well adjusted. We think more favourably of the plan of a parallel motion for guiding the top of the piston-rod than the plan of slides, for we believe the parallel motion may be more easily kept from heating. One great perfection of Messrs. Fairbairn's plan is, that the bearings of the parallel motion are made unusually large ; and we feel assured that this engine will give less trouble to the engineer, and consume less oil and brasses, than is usually chargeable upon the Gorgon appetite.
The most of what we have said respecting Messrs. Fairbairn's engine will also apply to that of Messrs. Rennie, of which we entertain a very favourable opinion. The engines depicted as Messrs. Rennie's are those made or making for the " Samson."
To Messrs. Seaward, we believe, belongs the merit of introducing the Gorgon genus of eDgine ; and we trust this distinction may stand them in some stead, as their plan, we fear, very much requires some diversion in its favour. The length of this engine, it will be remarked, is very little less than that of the common side lever kind ; so that we are thrown upon all the evils of a short connecting-rod and leviathan paddle-wheel, for the sake of a gain that is scarce worth having. In some of Messrs. Seaward's engines the evils of too high a shaft have, we understand, been very severely felt; and we learn that in the " Prometheus," which is fitted with these engines, the shaft has lately been considerably lowered, though at the expense of making the connecting-rod still shorter. The defect, however, of too high a shaft is, it must be remembered, not a peculiarity of Messrs. Seaward's variety of engine, but is a vice which attaches to the whole Gorgon tribe ; and Messrs. Seaward's claim is therefore restricted to the merit of having carried the defect further than any one else.
We fear that much of what we have said respecting Messrs. Seaward's engine is applicable, also, to that of Mr. Robert Napier, which is at best only a side lever engine in disguise. In other words, this engine is charge- able with the defects of the Gorgon plans, without accomplishing much saving of space ; and appears as if the disposition of the contriver had been to carry out the letter of direct-action, without regard to the spirit. The truth, we suppose, is, that Mr. Robert Napier was very spectical whether direct-action engines would do, and therefore took the laudable precaution of so constructing his direct-action engines, that they might be turned into side lever engines with as little tremble as possible. Now this, we submit, is depriving a new principle of a fair trial, an expedient by which many a good scheme is made to fail ; and such a spirit speaks more strongly of untractable prejudices than of enlightened and discriminating opinion. There is nothing, we believe, clearer to every mind untinctured with engineering bigotry, than that the orthodox side lever engine must be given up, for this, the best of all reasons, that it will not pay. If engineers be only left to their own vain imaginations, they will generally fill a ship with engines and boilers ; nor will it signify much what becomes of the rest of the ship, provided the ma- chinery be lodged handsomely. To this rule there are no doubt some very eminent exceptions, among which each engineer may have the satisfaction of ranking himself, if that be any consolation ; yet it would be easy to point out some very recent examples in which large vessels have been so filled with machinery, that there has been very little room left for anything else. Such vessels, if for commercial purposes, must necessarily be very unprofitable ; and we look upon it as a thing imperative, that machinery shall be introduced by which a smaller space will be occupied. There is therefore very little chance, at least in our commercial marine, that we shall return to side lever engines again ; for it is out of the ineligibility of the side lever plan that the recent innovations have sprung ; and although those innovations must at the outset be crude and unsatisfactory, they will, we are persuaded, gradually ripen into a better practice than that whose imperfections have called them forth.
For these reasons we are of opinion that those who speculate on the re- sumption of the side lever engine will find themselves in the wrong ; and the ambition of wise engineers should, we conceive, now be directed to the deve- lopment of some plan of direct-action engines which is exempt from the predominant disadvantages. We do not look upon such a task as hopeless. On the contrary, we are fully persuaded that such an engine will be found ; and the avidity with which certain plans have been seized upon, which pre- tended to this consummation, may be accepted as some augury of the high
renown which waits upon its actual attainment. — We have, however, we find, suffered ourselves to be seduced from the dull work of analysis, to which, for a little longer, we must now return.
The last Gorgon we have to notice is that of Messrs. Scott and Sinclair, of which we must confess the picture we have given is rather a caricature than a portrait ; but this implicit disparagement can hardly have been wilful, as all the rest of the engines are similarly distinguished. There is much symmetry and nicety of adaptation in this engine ; yet, upon the whole, we should be disposed to say that it is less remarkable for judgment than inge- nuity. The condensers are situated between the cylinders, as in Messrs. Miller and Co.'s arrangement, and there is a separate air-pump for each engine, so that the engines are compact, and precaution has apparently been taken against accidents. Nevertheless, the engines, if we rightly comprehend their structure, have the fatal and, indeed, ridiculous defect, that if an acci- dent happens to any part of either engine, both engines are disabled. To comprehend the ingenuities by which this is effected, it is necessary to remark that the air-pump of each engine appears to be wrought off the cross-head of the opposite one — to the end, we suppose, of giving the air-pump bucket the same movement as the valve, and thereby realizing a better vacuum. This design is no doubt to be commended, but the plan adopted for carrying it out gives rise to the dilemma we have indicated; for if the crank-pin, con- necting-rod strap, or other material part of one engine breaks, that engine is of course disabled by the fracture, and the other engine is disabled by the loss of the movement of its air-pump. In justice to Messrs. Scott and Sin- clair we ought to add, that this plan of engine is merely a design, and has never been executed ; and in such a case the same perfection is not to be expected as where plans have been matured by practice.
The Steeple plan of engine, which is the invention of Mr. David Napier, has the merit of being very compact and effectual, and in the case of river vessels, offers advantages which have led to its extended adoption. The pro- trusion of a large portion of the machinery above the deck is, however, much objected to in the case of sea-going vessels ; but as this is rather a nautical than an engineering point, we do not profess to resolve it. We must, how- ever, here record our disapproval of long air-pumps, such as that employed by Messrs. Tod and Macgregor. Where the air-pump bucket moves with a great velocity, the valves strike so forcibly as to wear themselves out very soon. The injury might, however, be mitigated by the use of the Cornish equilibrium valve, both for the delivery valve and the air-pump bucket.
Of Messrs. Maudslay's " direct-actions" we took the liberty, on a former occasion, of expressing our opinion ; and although, perhaps, we may have spoken of their vices with needless asperity, we believe our judgment to have been substantially just. We do not for a moment doubt that Messrs. Maudslay think very differently from us upon this point, and they have, of course, attributed our censures to every cause but that which really called them forth ; but the public, at least, have no interest in disguising from themselves the truth ; and whatever may have been their original impression, we believe that all unbiassed and intelligent observers are fast coming round to our way of thinking. The fact is, Messrs. Maudslay, in the production of these engines, speculated rather immoderately upon their former good name ; and the plan was accepted by the public, not because it was good, but because it was Messrs. Maudslay's. This experiment it will, we believe, be very difficult to repeat, and we do not see how Messrs. Maudslay can add much to their fame by such bold and hazardous adventures.
Of the two devices of Messrs. Maudslay, the Annular scheme is probably the worst, but both are sufficiently bad to satisfy the ambition of ingenuity the most perverse. We have, we believe, already enumerated the losses attendant on these varieties of engines, in increased friction of the pistons, increased leakage, and increased radiation, as well as the imperfect fulfilment of the grand purpose of direct action — saving of room. To this category we have only now to add the difficulty which must exist in the Siamese engine, of making the twin pistons move simultaneously. Any difference in the friction of the piston packings or the stuffing-boxes, arising from the one having been screwed up more than the other, will have a tendency to retard that piston in which the extra friction exists, and impart a corresponding twist to the cross-head which binds the two piston-rods together. It is very well known, moreover, to engineers, that of two engines in every respect identi- cal, the one will generally work better than the other, though no cause can he assigned for the difference ; and should any such inequality of efficacy arise in the two cylinders of a Siamese engine, the strain thereby occasioned must sooner or later work the destruction of the machine. Nor is a differ- ence of pressure in the cylinders a thing unlikely to occur, for it will cer- tainly arise should either of the pistons leak steam at any time, or either of the stuffing-boxes leak air ; and he must be a novice indeed in steam ma- chinery, who can suppose that such leakages may be absolutely prevented.
The last engine in our catalogue is that of Messrs. Bury, Curtis, and Ken- nedy ; and we believe our more sagacious readers will concur with us in the opinion, that it is by much the best of the lot. It is not to Messrs. Bury, however, that the main features of this contrivance are due; but to Mr. David Napier, of whose ingenuity and enterprise this is only one among many mementos. Mr. Napier is the author of more new plans in steam machinery, we believe, than all our other engineers put together ; and it ap- pears to be the happy prerogative of all his plans to be good plans, and such as must command the respect of discriminating observers. His productions, indeed, are often faulty in details ; but the faults are those merely of negli- gence and inattention, which are the natural inheritance of genius. There is
Styles of Architecture,
[January,
no penury of sagacity, ingenuity, or adventure discoverable in his works ; but there is a manifest contempt of those petty perfections on which less- gifted inventors rest their claims to admiration. The merit, therefore, which is due to Messrs. Bury for this engine is chiefly that of selection ; to which we must add, that of the general refinement of Mr. Napier's original con- ception, and the introduction of a number of improvements which are calcu- lated to add materially to the symmetry and efficacy of the machine. The most remarkable of these is the double acting air-pump, which has been substituted for two air-pumps of the common kind. This air-pump will, we trust, be found to be effectual. A common objection to this description of pump is, that the air accumulates underneath the piston ; but it will be re- marked, that a provision is made to counteract this tendency, the bulk of the air-pump piston being made to travel past, the port, so as to expel air as well as water. We may here remark, that it appears expedient in this engine to avoid injecting from the bilge into the lower condenser, as coal-dust and other foreign matters might be drawn into the air-pump chamber, which would resist the descent of the piston, and probably occasion fracture.
We have given, in another part of the present Number, a more detailed description of this engine of Messrs. Bury than would consist with the de- sign of this comparative estimate, and can here only afford to express the opinion, that Messrs. Bury's plan fulfils the intentions of the direct-action scheme with fewer objections, and more benefits, than any other of the plans we have considered. That there may not be a better, we by no means main- tain ; but that for the general purposes of sea-going steamers it is the best represented in our " comparative view of direct-action engines," we are pre- pared to maintain against all objectors. There is not one of the other plans, indeed, that we could honestly recommend ; and if it be the fact, as we have heard, that the Admiralty has resolved to have nothing more to say to the Gorgon, Siamese, or Annular schemes, we must say we applaud the determi- nation. It is to be remembered, however, that the return to the side lever plan is not the only other alternative ; nor is any engineer bound to adhere to his present plan after its ineligibility has been fully established. The grand problem now is to invent a good direct-action engine — one that will be light, compact, and free from the vices we have indicated ; and we trust oirr engi- neers, instead of feeling sore at our strictures, or attempting to cling to schemes which are untenable, will relinquish them with the same indifference with which they took them up, and set themselves seriously to work in de- signing something better.
There are some plans of direct-action engines with which we have not yet been furnished, and of which we are unable at present to give an account. We are not sure that some of these may not endanger Messrs. Bury's supre- macy ; and, indeed, the tenor of the rumours which have reached us inclines us to suspect that such will be the case. But so far as our present view extends, Messrs. Bury indisputably stand at the top of the tree ; and it re- mains partly with other engineers, and partly with Messrs. Bury themselves, whether they shall continue to maintain that proud position.
Akt. III.— styles of architecture.
Although the introduction of styles in architecture was probably as un- avoidable as that of parties in politics, it has produced as injurious an effect upon the art of construction as the existence of factions upon the science of good government. He was a wise though a wily man, who, to strengthen his interests, and promote his ambitious objects, first combined his principles or dogmas under a party name ; for, while it offered a general designation by which his followers could be known, it enlisted as his supporters many who would have taken no part in his quarrels, — having more regard for their per- sonal interests than for the motives which were urging him forward in the impetuous career of ambition. So, when civilized nations have adopted styles of architecture, and given to them a name, they have characterised all others as barbarous, and made the adoption of their modes the test of civili- zation. It was thus that the Romans, upon the establishment of their impe- rious empire, gigantic alike in intellect, physical force and energy, modified the chaste architecture of the Greeks to suit their inflated vanity, and called the adulteration by their own name. From land to land they wandered, extending their dominion, and knitting the bonds of slavery by which all nations were held enthralled, and leaving the vices, if not the benefits, of their own measure of civilization. But seldom did they derive, from those whose differences of custom and architecture were sufficient to procure for them the epithet of barbarian, the advantages which even a cultivated people may sometimes obtain from the strong though uncultivated intelligence of nations in an inferior state of refinement. This inaptitude to learn has been the universal concomitant of conquest, and the victors have generally carried with them the prejudices of national style, as well as of religious and civil custom. There has, therefore, always been, in every age, one predominant style, or, at least, one which has been considered superior to all others, and which has been introduced wherever its inventors or patrons have succeeded in establishing their power. It is only in the present age that just views have been entertained of the empiricism of architectural prescription, or that a greater freedom of design than has heretofore obtained, has been considered permissible. But even this new-born freedom has been invaded by the zealots of mediaeval architecture, who would banish from our land all that cannot find a model in the relics or ruins of the middle ages.
The finest specimens of architectural taste being in all nations introduced into the houses of public worship, particular styles, unfortunately, become identified with particular religious opinions. Those styles consequently become, in time, the representatives of truth, or dogmas assumed as true ; and the reception of the one is held to involve the necessity of adopting the other. We have an instance of this in the efforts which have been recently made to identify the revival of Gothic architecture with the acknowledgment of the doctrines of the middle ages. Since the study of this style has been brought into fashion, and especially during the last few years, many absurd and ridiculous theories have been gravely proposed by its injudicious admirers, in an attempt to trace it to its origin. Of these there is none more visionary and fantastic than that which considers the Gothic to be the natural, if not the necessary, development of the great principles of Christian faith. From the writings of those who maintain this doctrine, one might infer that some devout person of the middle ages, having, among other holy meditations, traced the connexion between the unaspiring and earthly horizontality of Grecian architecture and polytheism, applied himself to the invention of some architectural forms representative of the faith and hopes of the Christian doctrine, and produced a Gothic church as the incarnation of those mysteries. From the study of Christian doctrine, and the rites of the church, if these authorities can be credited, the style received all its subsequent additions and forms of decoration ; and having been brought to perfection by the united labours of the pious and learned, is now incapable of change without dete- rioration. In the adoption of this theory we may perceive the true effect of established styles upon the progress of architecture — forms are made the representatives of belief, and to invade the one is considered little less criminal than to renounce the other. The theory we have mentioned is, it is true, as absurd, as its reception would be injurious to the progress of the art ; but it has had the tendency of diverting the attention of some of our best architects from those studies which would be most congenial to their own minds, and at the same time most profitable to the public taste. The works which they will leave to posterity will have no claim to attention, except as copies, and the age itself will be more distinguished by its servility, from the fear of doing wrong, than for its faults in attempting to do something which had not been before attempted.
The style which is cursed by the praises of these mediaeval zealots, and the beauties of which can only be imperceptible to those whose taste is narrow and exclusive, was probably rather the result of accident than of design, and may, with more propriety, be called a discovery than an invention. It originated, there is little doubt, in the debasement of classical architecture, and was not the offspring of religious meditation and church doctrine, so much as that of passion for change, which leaves mankind unsatisfied even with perfection. The development of the style was progressive, and con- sisted in the adaptation of forms and ornaments, suggested, it is true, by the habits of the clergy and the doctrines they taught, to a newly-discovered arch. It is not the peculiarity of the ornaments, but the general and more detailed forms and mouldings, which constitute the style. The ornaments are purely adventitious, and many of those found in the finest specimens of the pointed architecture in this country might be changed with advantage. The age of its introduction was peculiarly adapted to encourage the growth of innovations upon the classic model, which, having lost its purity and the grandeur of simplicity under the touch of the Roman artist, and what remained of these qualities in the rude imitations of distant colonies, ultimately lost all its cha- racteristics in the ungainly efforts of the Lombards and Normans. An in- ventive people, who probably knew nothing more of what is called Roman architecture than the mode of turning a semi-circular arch, and forming a column with its three necessary and constituent parts, a base, shaft, and capi- tal, having, probably by accident, become acquainted with the pointed arch, developed, with wondrous taste, that extraordinary combination of forms now known as the Gothic style. But whatever may have been, in the opinion of the reader, the origin of this beautiful adaptation of natural forms and orna- ments to construction, it affords us, in the motives under which it is studied by so many in the present clay, an instance of the injurious effects of an iden- tification of styles with certain religious opinions.
It would be easy to find many other examples proving the readiness with which the human mind transfers its dislike of a system of doctrines or of ceremonies to the innocent and frequently beautiful forms which have been their accessories. The Puritans, under the impulse of this natural and almost universal feeling, destroyed the images, painted windows, and other orna- ments of our churches, frequently leaving little more than the skeleton of that which was once so beautiful and expressive. For years, and it may almost be said for centuries, those who followed these opinions imbibed and expressed the same aversion to the things which reminded them of the doc- trines their forefathers had been instrumental in suppressing, and, to avoid even the semblance of circumstance or ceremony, erected, as places of wor- ship, buildings far inferior in form and decoration to the houses in which the richer members of the community resided. Time had nearly worn away the impress of this false and foolish, yet justifiable, prejudice, and the Dissenters began to feel that something more might be done in the decoration of their chapels, when the promulgation of the notion came, that for the revival of obsolete ecclesiastical rites and ceremonies a strict adherence to the form and decoration adopted in the churches of the middle ages was necessary, and the Dissenters are now doubting whether they have not conceded principles in- stead of forms, and forsaken the simplicity of their forefathers.
The practice of giving a great prominence to " the styles of architecture"
1844.]
The Mines of Cornwall.
is attended by another serious evil — that of cramping the invention and re- straining the imagination. The leading principles or motives of a style, if we may so speak, are forgotten, and the architect follows, with all the servility of a copyist, some particular example which, in his opinion, is best suited to the object he has in view. The art is thus resolved into a judicious selection of what has been before done, and of enlarging or diminishing the parts as may be necessary. That this is the state of architectural practice, is proved by the majority of the buildings erected during the present century, as well as by the usual character of architectural criticism. This building is objected to because the architect, having adopted the capital of the Ilissus, has failed in maintaining the proportions on the section of the base ; that, because a but- tress is not panelled, or because no authority can be found for the foliage of the pinnacles. These are the causes which render architecture in the present day so inferior, as an imaginative art, to what it was in the time of the Greeks, or even in that of the middle ages. If all has been done that can be done, the only object of the architect must be, to copy faithfully the most beautiful remains of former times, and to prevent, as far as he can, the possi- bility of deterioration, carving upon the hardest stones the forms which time is rapidly defacing, that they may not be lost to future ages. But as well might it be argued, that because Homer wrote the Iliad and Milton the Paradise Lost, works perfect in their kind, all future epic poets must follow the styles they adopted, and copy the ornaments of their verse. And if architecture, like all the other noble productions of the human mind, is as unlimited as the varieties and capacities of the mind itself, — if it may, like a picture, represent the several phases of nature and the varieties of human emotion, then the dogmas which reduce it to a mere mechanic art are futile and fallacious, and their effect must be to paralyse rather than excite the efforts of those who lie under their thraldom.
The slavish adherence to styles leads to their adoption in situations most inappropriate. There are some men, admitted by all to possess a more than ordinary amount of information, skill, and invention, and, in their own esti- mation at least, far in advance of their day and generation, who seriously maintain that the Gothic is the only style that ought to be used in this coun- try ; and seem to imagine that it is but necessary to restore the houses, monasteries, and churches of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, to bring back the poetical happiness of that period when she was called " Merry England." There are other notable men-of-the-age, who are quite as much enamoured of the architecture of the Greeks, and who, by their works, if not by their writings, have inculcated the reciprocal error, and practically as- serted the doctrine that the same kind of beauty is applicable to all situations. There is obviously, however, one kind of beauty which captivates us in the drawing-room, and another which challenges our admiration in a church ; the one speaking in accents of gaiety or affection, and the other subduing the spirit by its severe and awful majesty. Nor can any style be set down as the necessary representative of particular aspects of nature, or particular varieties of mental emotion ; for an object will not speak in the same language to all spectators ; but the interpretation will vary with the nature of the feelings with which the beholder has learned to associate it. There are certain archi- tectural forms, however, which are the natural and ordinary insignia of par- ticular trains of thought ; and it is important that the symbols employed should be the common representatives of the desired emotion.
Should these remarks appear to have any weight, it follows, we conceive, that the predominant notions relative to architectural styles are erroneous ; and, having indicated these errors, we may now briefly explain in what man- ner styles may be employed with advantage to the art, without involving any of those consequences to which we have referred.
It is very frequently stated that every nation or tribe has its own peculiar style of architecture ; and this is to a certain extent true ; but it might with more propriety be said, that every nation has its peculiar mode of building. There] is no tribe, however barbarous, that has not some determined mode of applying its building materials ; which mode, in fact, regulates the form : for it is not the form , as some writers suppose, that determines the appli- cation of the materials. It would be ridiculous and pedantic to assume that any one theory can explain all the varieties of form and construction observ- able in the huts of the barbarians, or the constructions, more properly, of uncivilized men ; for chance has often concurred with reason in determining the final result. As a general rule, however, it may be stated, that the nature and condition of the materials available for the purposes of construc- tion, have determined the character of habitations, and occasionally influence the character of the natives. This, we feel, is a subject worthy of a more extended examination than we can now pretend to give ; but we here remark, that what is true of communities in an unimproved condition, or in an inci- pient state of civilization, equally applies to the constructions of men in a more advanced stage, though then modified by the state of society, and the influence of religious dogmas. The first and leading object in the design of every structure has been, until modern times, accommodation. The purpose to which the building was to be applied was ever first in the consideration of the artist, as is proved not less by the village churches of England and the houses of Pompeii, than by the temples of Egypt and Greece. In the absurd attempts to follow the styles of other nations and ages, this is frequently forgotten by the modern architect ; and it is really curious to observe how strangely, and yet pleasingly, many who would not sacrifice this principle, and cling as tenaciously as they can to classic architecture, have been driven into the invention or adoption of designs, which, though maintaining much of the simplicity and elegance of Grecian proportions, would have been con-
demned by the ancients as invasions of their styles, in which the column was an indispensable member. This primary regard to the domestic habits, or public ceremonies or rites, was, however, contingent upon the physical condition of the country, and the character of the materials most available for building purposes. We, who have now the command of the produce of every clime, and have brought within our reach all that has been rendered available by the progress and development of science, the energies of commerce, and the supercession of those mechanical impediments which once stood in the way of gigantic projects, can have no conception of the amount of invention, skill, and forethought, required by the architects of earlier ages to adapt their designs to the materials within reach of moderate and inexpensive labour. The chains which fettered the progress of the art in former ages have been broken, and we who now practise it must have sadly degenerated, if, with all the advantages of giving a permanent and enduring existence to our designs, we must still follow the examples of those who lived two or three thousand years ago, and in the infancy of the science of construction.
From these remarks, our readers will have no difficulty in discovering it to be our doctrine that the first principle of architecture is utility ; and those who overleap this great principle, in their passion for particular modes of decoration, insult the spirit in which their idolized style had its origin. The Egyptian, the Grecian, the Gothic — all had their rise in the wants of the people ; and it is in the employment of an architecture suited to our wants, wherein the true imitation of those forms of beauty consist. Our associations cannot be the same as those of the dark or classic ages ; and any instruments of emotion appealing to such associations, speak in a language no more in- telligible than would be that of one of an Egyptian mummy, if it awoke from the tomb. It is only by virtue of the feelings suggested to the ima- gination, that any kind of architecture is enabled to please; and the obvious condition of success, therefore, is to employ such instruments as will suggest the greatest number of agreeable trains of thought to the greatest number of spectators.
Art. IV.— THE MINES OF CORNWALL.
A mass of curious, and, we have reason to believe, accurate information re- specting the metalliferous deposits of Cornwall, has been collected by Mr. W. J. Henwood, of Penzance, after fourteen years' researches, and is now given to the world in a portly volume, under the title of ;' Transactions of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall." There is an appendix, contain- ing four papers, also by Mr. Henwood, on the temperature of the mines, the quantities of water that enter them, the electric currents in the rocks and veins, and statistical notices of the mines. The papers in the appendix are, perhaps, more generally interesting than the work itself, which is principally directed to those who take interest in mining operations ; but it contains also much matter well deserving of notice : and it derives additional value from the circumstance that it is the result of observation by a practical man, who has examined more than two hundred mines, and has travelled underground nearly two thousand miles. Mr. Henwood commences his survey at the Land's End, and proceeds thence in a north-easterly direction, describing minutely the circumstances and peculiarities of each mine in the different districts as he progresses ; giving numerous tables wherein the direction of the veins or lodes, their depth, dip, and size, with the appearance and com- position of the lodes at various depths, and the appearance of the accom- panying rock, are all set forth in tabular form.
The mining operations of the St. Just district, situated to the north of the Land's End, present some remarkable features. The veins dip under the sea, and the workmen follow, in search of the mineral treasures, far under the Atlantic; and, in their submarine passages, they hear the roaring of the stormy ocean above them. Sometimes the miners are so hazardous as to follow the veins when they take an upward course ; and they have made openings through which the water rushed in upon them ; but the hardness of the rock was their protection, and, by cementing and plugging, they con- trived to keep out the further intrusion of Neptune into their works. The quantity of water that enters these submarine mines is extremely small, though its briny taste tells whence it proceeds.
The rocks wherein the mineral veins of Cornwall are found are granite and slate ; and the richer veins are found near the junction of the two. The Cornish granite is generally in a decomposing state ; and in many parts the feldspar is so disintegrated as to be pulverulent, and to form the kaoline or china clay which supplies our Staffordshire potteries. The slate and the granite are curiously intermixed. Frequently the granite mingles with the slate, by becoming more and more schistose, until it is difficult to distinguish the point of division between them ; and in other cases veins of granite shoot into the slate : these veins are usually very small, not exceeding a few inches in diameter, and they seldom penetrate above a few fathoms into the slate. Throughout the slate formation, which rests upon the granite, veins and beds of quartz are often found, and sometimes it is diffused through the whole mass : many of these veins of quartz contain ores of tin and copper. The granite is always found to extend as the depth increases ; and, were the workings continued sufficiently low, there cannot be much question that the granite would be found to unite and form the only rock, whereon the slate rests in the hollows of the elevated granite.
The metalliferous veins or lodes are described by Mr. Henwood to be
8
Noad's Lectures on Electricity.
[January,
" quartzose portions of the rock, highly inclined, and of no great thickness, which are more or less mixed with metals and their ores. They have com- monly one prevailing direction, subject to slight irregularities and curvatures, as well in length as in depth, and traverse granite, slate, and the elvans indis- criminately, and almost always without other interruption than what may take place from their interferences with each other, and with the cross- courses, flucans, and slides." These lodes seldom continue for more than a mile, and generally terminate by throwing off-shoots and branches into the rock ; so that the whole forms a kind of net-work of veins. Some of these ofF-shoots, however, will occasionally swell out, and become richer in ore than the original lode. It is a curious fact, which experience has established, that the lodes in almost every district are rich on similar lines taken at right- angles to their bearings : hence has arisen a proverbial phrase, " ore against ore." The metalliferous veins are generally smaller in granite than in slate, and they diminish also as they descend ; but it is worthy of remark, that in every lode, whether it yields tin, copper, or lead, the most perpendicular parts are the most productive.
Mining operations in Cornwall, as elsewhere, are frequently obstructed by the upheaving of the rocks and the rupture of the metallic veins. Those ob- structions which in the coal districts are termed faults, or dikes, are, by the Cornish miners, called " leaps " and " slides." These leaps are not occa- sioned, in the primary rocks of Cornwall, by a protruded mass of igneous rock dissimilar to the rest of the strata, but they are produced by cross- courses and veins, most frequently similar in constitution to the rocks they disarrange. Respecting the cause and modus operandi of these disrupting veins, much speculation has been expended ; and Mr. Henwood, on this point, ventures on the sea of speculation, though in other parts of his volume he has confined himself to facts. He shows, from the nature of the disrup- tions, that existing theories are inadequate to explain them ; and he discoun- tenances the opinion that the slides were posterior to the formation of the veins they intersect. He appears to conceive, that the disruptions were pro- duced when the whole of the rocks were in a semifluid state.
We have extended our notice of Mr. Henwood's paper on the metalliferous deposits of Cornwall so far, as to leave scarcely any space for the other sub- jects contained in the appendix. Respecting the temperature of mines, Mr. Henwood makes the following general remarks : — " From the surface to 150 fathoms deep, the rise of temperature for equal increment of depth seems to be in a diminishing ratio ; a fact previously known. But deeper observa- tions disclose the curious, and, as it would seem, almost anomalous circum- stance, that, at more than 150 fathoms deep, the progression again becomes more rapid ; and that the ratio, at about 150 fathoms in depth, is at a minimum, and increases both at greater and smaller depths." It is a curious fact, also, that tin lodes possess the lowest temperature, and copper lodes the highest.
We cannot close this store of information connected with the mining ope- rations of Cornwall, without noticing the encroachments of the Sand in the district of St. Agnes, near the Bristol Channel. It is stated by Mr. Hen- wood, in alluding to the general features of the country, that these encroach- ments of the sand during heavy storms have been so destructive that large tracts of land have been irrecoverably lost, and two churches have been suc- cessively abandoned, by the advance of the sand. A field under tillage was covered in a single night to a depth of one foot. These accumulations of sand form a peculiar feature near the coast, where masses of it have been agglu- tinated into a moderately hard sandstone.
Art. V.— NOAD'S LECTURES ON ELECTRICITY. The rapid strides recently made by the science of electricity, with its correla- tive sciences of electro-magnetism and galvanism, have rendered it difficult for those not actually engaged in its study to keep pace with the progress of discovery ; and a work which should comprise all that is known on the sub- ject up to the present time has been long wanted. The Lectures on Electricity, by Mr. Noad, which have been just published by Messrs. Knight, appear, in a great measure, to supply this deficiency. Mr. Noad undertakes to trace the progress of the science from its earliest development to the latest disco- veries ; and as he is fully possessed of his subject, and has no peculiar theo- ries of his own to propound, he has done this in a clear and comprehensive manner, without perplexing the student by theoretical disputations. The work is, indeed, remarkably free from theory, almost to a fault ; for it would be desirable to have an impartial examination, by a competent judge, of the various theories which divide the philosophical world respecting the nature of electrical agency. The author commences with a brief sketch of the history of what is termed, for distinction, " statical electricity," or that which is usually excited by mechanical means. He notices Dufaye's theory of resinous and vitreous electricity, which was for a long time supplanted by Franklin's more simple explanation, of all bodies having a certain capacity for electricity, and that it is only when they are in a plus or minus state in relation to surround- ing bodies that electrical phenomena are exhibited ; but Mr. Noad enters not into the discussion : he subsequently, however, pronounces in favour of the existence of two electricities, though the terms of Dufaye are repudiated and those of Dr. Franklin retained. Dr. Faraday is, deservedly, a great authority with Mr. Noad, who appears to adopt his views implicitly, even to the extent of agreeing with him that the friction of water is the most powerful known means of exciting electricity.
The disturbance of the electrical equilibrium by induction, is one of the most curious of the phenomena of electricity. The approach of a positively excited electric to an insulated body induces in the part nearest to it, without contact, an opposite electrical state ; and the insulated body may, by temporary con- nexion with the earth, when within the influence of the excited electric, be left in a negatively electrical state after the electric is withdrawn, though the latter has not parted with any of its electricity. This phenomenon has been attributed by Faraday to a physical action occurring between contiguous particles, each par- ticle of air intervening between the electric and the insulated conductor, for example, assuming a state of polarity, one pole being negative and the other positive, and this polarization, it is assumed, is communicated to all the particles of metal in the body in which electricity is induced. This theory Mr. Noad adopts, and it is thus applied to the explanation of the action of the electrical machine : " On turning the handle of the cylinder or plate the electricity natu- rally present in the rubber becomes decomposed, — its positive adhering to the surface of the glass, and its negative to the rubber : the positive electric por- tions of the glass coming during its revolution opposite to the points on the conductor, act powerfully by induction on the natural electricities of the con- ductor, attracting the negative, which, being accumulated in a state of tension at the points, darts off towards the cylinder to meet the positive fluid, and thus reconstitute the neutral compound. The consequence of this is, that the conductor is left powerfully positive — not, it must particularly be understood, by acquiring electricity from the revolving glass, but by having given up its own negative fluid to the latter. The rubber is left in a proportionately ne- gative state, and, consequently, after revolving the glass for a few minutes, can develop no more free, positive electricity, provided it is insulated." The more simple explanation on the hypothesis of Franklin is, that the rotation of the glass cylinder deprives the rubber of its natural share of electricity, which is conveyed to the conductor ; and when the rubber is insulated, the action ceases, from the want of supply of further quantities of electricity to the rub- ber from the earth.
The question which has agitated the electrical world of late more than any other is that of lateral discharge, in reference more particularly to the safety of lightning-conductors, and in consequence of its practical importance, Mr. Noad enters further on this debateable ground than is his wont. He states the question in dispute very impartially, mentioning broadly the objections that have been raised by Mr. Marty n Roberts, Mr. Sturgeon, and by Mr. Walker, to the efficacy of Mr. Snow Harris's lightning-conductors on ships, and stating the answers of the latter. Mr. Harris's lightning-conductors, which have now been generally adopted in the navy, consist of strips of sheet copper let into the masts, and connected with the sheathing of the ship. It is objected to the use of these conductors, that in every electrical discharge there is a lateral emission of electricity ; consequently that great danger might be incurred from the effects of that portion of the electric fluid that is not con- veyed directly through the copper. These objectors, however, do not deny the efficacy of lightning-conductors in the abstract: it is to Mr. Harris' strips of sheet-copper let into the masts that they demur, each one having a nostrum of his own for conducting the lightning with perfect safety. Mr. Walker is of opinion that the electricity of a Leyden jar is not in so high a state of tension as lightning, therefore the experiments with discharges from jars cannot be taken to represent the effects of lightning. To properly esti- mate the conduction of lightning, he contends that the spark from the con- ductor of an electrical-machine affords the best criterion ; and his experiments with the monster machine at the Polytechnic Institution lead him to infer that a division of the charge will take place among neighbouring conducting bodies. Mr. Harris, however, seems to have the best of the argument ; for the fact appears to be, that though a lateral discharge will take place when the con- ductor is imperfect or inefficient, the electric fli#d will not pass out of its course from a perfect and sufficient conductor into one that is less direct and more imperfect.
The important and mysterious effects of the continuous action of electricity, more particularly in reference to Mr. Crosse's experiments of the develop- ment of living insects, are considered at some length by Mr. Noad, who ap- pears to think the acarus to originate from electrical agency. In some expe- riments, however, which he has himself continued uninterruptedly for sixteen months no acari had appeared within the vessels carefully excluded from the atmosphere, though several had been observed on the outside. It appears, also, that Mr. Weekes, who had successfully repeated Mr. Crosse's experi- ments, admits that the acari generally appeared on the outside before any were observed in the closed vessels. In some experiments recently conducted by Mr. Weekes in vessels exposed to the atmosphere, after swarms of the usual electrical acari had appeared and continued for three or four months, a host of other insects followed, and all the acari disappeared ; the latter having, as Mr. Weekes supposes, been eaten up by the succeeding generation. There is, truly, much mystery yet about this matter which requires solution.
There are many other points dwelt upon by Mr. Noad to which we would willingly advert did space allow.. We cannot conclude our notice of his book without again recommending it as one that supplies, and very efficiently, a vacuity that has for some time existed in scientific literature.
1844. J
The Monthly Record of Architecture and the Arts.
Art. VI.— THE MONTHLY RECORD OP ARCHITECTURE AND
THE ARTS. !. Honest criticism, it is almost a truism to say, has a tendency to awe the pretender, to encourage the man of genius, and to benefit society. This is particularly the case in the arts, where we find ignorance generally allied with presumption, and censoriousness heralding incapability. Those men who by some lucky accident are buoyed for a time upon the waters of popularity, are more frequently found attempting to submerge others than holding out a hand to assist them to rise ; while those rash and confiding spirits who launch upon the ocean of life without forethought, trusting to fair winds and deceit- ful skies, are only brought to see the dangers of their course by the shipwreck of their hopes upon the rocks and the quicksands of a treacherous shore. To record the accidents which thus occur — to raise beacons over spots of danger — to encourage the buffeted voyager — to point out to him the errors of his navigation, and the enemies with which he has to contend, is our duty. This we trust faithfully to perform — exaggerating no danger, abiding by the esta- blished rules of the navigation : we will charge no man in malice, and will excuse no man in partiality.
2. The British Museum and Sir Robert Smirke still occupy public atten- tion. That the public of Britain should in the present day be kept in igno- rance of a design chosen for a national building, and for an institution in which every member of the state, even the poorest, is as much interested as the trustees of that public property, is a more contemptuous assumption of superiority than governments have of late years been accustomed to exercise in matters of state policy. Sir Robert Smirke has sailed with a fair wind and few impediments down the stream, and, if he has not reached a peaceful haven, he has, at least, been embayed in a fertile and fragrant nook. Whether he started fairly, and sailed in his own boat, we will not at present inquire ; but if he values a repose which in old age we would not disturb ; if he wishes to be spared from the bitter criticism his works are calculated to call forth, — whether regard be had to his expensive constructions, and lifeless, frigid de- signs, or to his jobs, failures, and laborious puerilities, — we should desire him no longer to dare the public censure, with which culprits of his calibre cannot afford to tamper.
3. The architectural societies are still actively engaged in their crusade against pews, and in many places they have succeeded in ejecting the usurpers, and establishing benches. That pews, such as were erected in the time of Sir Christopher in the London churches, are heavy, soporific objects, destroying the architectural character and interfering with the general internal effect, no one can doubt ; and if beauty be the primary consideration in a place of public worship, the architectural societies are fully justified in their determination to eject them. But this same architectural character, according to the present style of church building, is still more interfered with by the introduction of galleries ; and the societies are using every exertion to dispose of them in the same summary manner. If our churches are to become places of prayer only, we can perceive no objection to these reformations ; but if the people are in them also to receive instruction, and if the accommodation offered by our churches is insufficient for the population, we might urge many objections to so intolerant a procedure. The architectural style, according to these autho- rities, must not, on any account, be interfered with, and, therefore, there must be either a large increase of churches, or else a large number of worshippers and learners must be excluded. If the architectural societies are prepared to give this increased accommodation, the objections to their dogmas would lose much of their force, — provided, however, that it were a matter of indifference what preacher we heard. But, with all our love of art, we are still of opinion that to secure architectural effect in a Gothic church is a less important object than to give religious instruction to the people ; and we are opposed to every alteration that must diminish the number of those who may avail themselves of this privilege. We have often regretted the arrangement and the forms of modern pews — we have regretted the state of society which introduced them — and still more the necessity of galleries for the accommodation of large con- gregations. In the erection of new churches they may, and ought to be, avoided ; but to dispense with these utilitarian resources where the accommo- dation is really necessary, is, in our opinion, to mistake the means for the end — making architecture, the servant of religion, its superior. It is possible, men say, to pay too much for a whistle : the architectural societies do not pay for that on which they make their flourishes, and those who do buy it ought not to pay a larger price than the thing is worth.
4. The existence of Saxon architecture in any of the ancient churches of this country has again become a question of dispute. Everything that can illustrate the domestic habits and opinions of our Saxon forefathers, their mental condition, and the state of the mechanical and fine arts among them, is peculiarly interesting in the present day. The researches of Lye, Thorp, Kemble, and others, have excited a deep interest respecting this remarkable race, and new investigations are frequently brought before us with the labours of new students in this school of our history and literature. A versified and alliterative translation of a Saxon poem in the Exeter Book, called "The Phoenix, the King of Birds," was, during the last month, presented to the Society of Antiquaries, by Mr. Stevens. But while the linguist is constantly bringing new evidence of the genius of the Saxon people, the architects of the university schools are labouring hard to prove that they were much less acquainted with the art of construction than has been commonly believed. It is well known that many of the Saxon churches were built of wood ; but it is now maintained that they were all constructed of this material, and that the
VOL. II.
characters supposed to distinguish these buildings cannot be depended on. Long and short work, according to the secretary of the Oxford Society, is no evidence of Saxon, because it is occasionally used in the jambs of windows in churches well known to vary in age from the Norman to the perpendicular : of the former we have an evidence at Syston, in Lincolnshire ; of the latter, at Copstock, in Suffolk, and Eyzey, in Wilts. The absence of buttresses is con- sidered as no evidence, and the triangular-headed opening does not distinguish the Saxon from the Norman. At some future period we may find it necessary to state and examine the arguments on both sides of this question.
5. The Americans are about to erect in New York a pentagonal Gothic tower and spire, to be called the Washington Memorial. There is some rea- son to fear that this is a work to which the American architects are scarcely equal. The style, though well understood in this country from a constant familiarity with the best examples, has hardly, we fear, been mastered upon the other side of the Atlantic ; and works in this style require for their design and execution a more than ordinary attention to the spirit and character, even in the most minute details. The want of the specimens and the experience possessed by European architects in this particular walk, must make the de- sign, and still more the execution, of a Gothic tower and spire a work of great hazard in the hands of an American artist.
6. The Nelson monument, or Trafalgar Square memorial, is exciting much amusement among the wags of the metropolis. The cocked-hat is an exceed- ingly exciting object, whether of taste, patriotism, or ridicule, we are not bound to specify. One thing, however, must be admitted, — its outline is well defined against the bright sky of a clear summer's day, and, when the fog is high, it may be distinctly traced in November, which is more than can be said of every part of the figure. In truth, the Nelson column has been raised for the glorification of a cocked-hat ; but as a cocked-hat is the sine qua norl of an admiral, and as Nelson is the ne plus ultra of admiralism, the column, being raised in honour of a cocked-hat, must necessarily have been erected in honour of Nelson. — a.B.D.
But what shall we say of that which is behind and that which is to be be- fore ? We do not know any warrior, whether he fought on land or sea, more worthy of a monument, that is to say, of a column, than Nelson ; nor do we know any man who would have objected more positively than himself to the situation in which he has been placed. Not long after he had received his knighthood, he was sitting for a bust to a friend of ours, a man of genius, whom the nobility have patronized but never raised to the station he deserved, and still deserves, in his profession ; and at the time of his first sitting several tradesmen called upon him. One of these was peculiarly anxious to please a customer of such notoriety and fame, and all that he said was prefaced and concluded with " Sir Horatio." Nelson, having selected from a number of articles those he wished to purchase, asked the price, and when he had been told, turned with a searching glance to the trader, and said, •' And now, sir, what is their price without the Sir Horatio ?" This is the man who is raised in effigy upon a lofty column, with his head covered by a cocked-hat, and with his sovereign, George IV., mounted, uncovered, behind him. To place the proudest monarch in Europe in such a situation is a national insult to his memory, and an act of which we could hardly suppose those would have been guilty who had the arrangement of this memorial.
7. While we trace with pleasure the career of some of our contemporaries and record their success, we have also to follow others to the termination of their course — some at the first stage of life, and some after running almost the full allotted journey. Our first obituary is that of David Hamilton, a veteran architect, a man of great energy and talent, who has closed an active career in the 75th year of his age, honoured for his professional skill, beloved for his private virtues. Mr. Hamilton was a self-taught architect, having been an artizan in the earlier period of his life. He commenced the practice of the profession he adopted in the city of Glasgow, about fifty years since, and has since that period enjoyed a more than ordinary degree of success. The two most important buildings erected by him are, Hamilton Palace, the seat of the Duke of Hamilton, and the Royal Exchange of Glasgow ; both classical struc- tures, exhibiting great skill and carefulness in detail, and high powers of de- sign. In addition to these large structures, he erected many others, both public and private, which will transmit his name as one of the most successful architects of Scotland. He was a competitor for the new Houses of Parlia- ment, and succeeded in obtaining a prize of 500/. He was so much beloved for his amiable and generous disposition, and so much respected for the up- rightness of his conduct and his more than ordinary talent, that he may almost be said to have passed through life without experiencing the effect of any of those jealousies which too frequently embitter the life of the successful archi- tect. He was born on the 11th of May, 1768, and died on the 5th of De- cember, 1843.
It is our melancholy duty to record the death of a young artist of great promise and energy, who has fallen a sacrifice to a love of his art and filial affection. Mr. Thomas Hollis was the son of George Hollis, well known to the architect and antiquary for his engravings of monumental effigies, in- tended to form a companion to Stothard's admirable work on the same sub- ject. The father died in 1842, and the son in the October of the following year. Thomas Hollis commenced his studies as an artist in the gallery of the Louvre at about fourteen years of age, and continued them in the British Museum and public galleries of the metropolis. In 183G he was admitted as a student of the Royal Academy, and having resolved to devote himself to historical painting, became a pupil of Mr. Pickersgill. In 1839 his father commenced the work on Sepulchral Effigies, in which he assisted, many, if not
c
10
The Building Arts.
[January,
all, of the drawings being the work of his pencil. Upon the death of George Hollis, the son undertook to continue the publication, and commenced the etching of the plates as well as the drawing of the figures. To this great work, it is understood, he was led by his anxiety to alleviate the loss of his father, in a pecuniary sense, to the members of his family. His health failed under his intense exertions, and a rapid consumption terminated his course in the 25th year of his age. The early fate of this young man is another com- mentary upon the advice and experience of Horace :
" Fuge magna : licet sub paupere tecto Reges et regum vita prcecurrere amicos."
Art. VII.— ENGINES OF THE " GREAT WESTERN " STEAMER.
Of these engines, of which we give a drawing in the rpresent Number, we have little to say ; and, indeed, machinery of this quality is very well able to speak for itself. Messrs. Maudslay might, indeed, afford to laugh at our malignity, as we suppose they call it, if they produced only such works as this ; for we do not know of any production in steam machinery that is in every way more creditable. The framing, indeed, has been found to be rather weak, for it has broken in several places ; but this may, perhaps, be owing to the deficient strength of the ship ; and, at all events, the imperfection has sprung out of the laudable desire of making the machinery as light as possible. It is certainly to be regretted that the side-lever engine, after having been brought to the perfection of which this specimen gives evidence, should have to be rejected: yet such, we are assured, is its destiny; and the best plan of a compact engine will now win the day. This engine is, therefore, rather to be looked upon as a monument of former glory, than as a specimen of future practice ; and so soon as Messrs. Maudslay shall have produced anything nearly so good on the direct- action plan, they will at once disarm our cen- sure : until then, however, we shall continue to testify as resolutely of their faults, as we now do of their past perfections.
Art. VIII.— THE BUILDING ARTS.
BUILDING-STONES.
The magnesian limestone having been selected for the new Houses of Par- liament by the Commissioners appointed to examine all the different kinds of building-stone which this country produces, will probably become the fa- vourite stone of the London builder for many years to come. It is curious 'to observe that several well-marked*varieties of building-stone, like many other articless of less importance and more transitory in their character, have enjoyed for a certain period during which they were in fashion, a high degree of reputation, which has in time yielded to the popular passion for some new introduction. In many of the older buildings in London and the south of England, as in Rochester Castle, old London Bridge, and Westminster Abbey, we find the soft oolite of Caen, in Normandy; a stone which must have been extensively imported into this country when learned monks were our architects, and when it was desirable to keep up a friendly intercourse between England and her French possessions. In buildings of about the same date, particularly in many old cathedrals, we find specimens of the beau- tiful but fragile native marble of Purbeck, Petworth, and other places in Sussex. This marble, which was much used for columns and slender shafts, is wholly made up of a dense mass of univalve fossils, mistaken by the vulgar for periwinkles, imbedded in a calcareous cement, which unites them into stone. This marble is now entirely out of use, and is scarcely known beyond the immediate localities where it is quarried. Another favourite stone in London, where it was much more generally used than the Sussex marble for common building purposes, was the firestone of Reigate and Merstham, in Surrey. There is a good deal of this stone to be seen in St. Paul's Cathedral, in Westminster Abbey, and the neighbouring buildings, and in several old buildings about Croydon. It was altogether too soft for common buildings, at least for exposure to the weather ; and is now applied to what is probably a more profitable use, namely, the lining of ovens, furnaces, brick and lime- kilns, &c. The common hearthstone, so extensively used in the culinary de- partment of the metropolis, is precisely similar to the once famous firestone. The lower beds of the chalk were at one time much employed for building in the neighbourhood of London ; but these, like the firestone, are only suitable for interiors. All the varieties of stone which have been mentioned were superseded by the native oolites, which came to London principally from quarries in the neighbourhood of Bath. These are still extensively used for mouldings, cornices, and other intricate parts of buildings. For general building, again, the Bath stone was entirely thrown aside, in favour of the Portland stone, an oolite, which has become highly celebrated, from its em- ployment, since the days of Sir Christopher Wren, in all the principal public buildings, and many private mansions, of the metropolis. The Portland stone has enjoyed undivided celebrity for about 200 years ; during which time churches, palaces, public halls, mansions, and bridges, have been built of it in every part of London. It is said to have been owing, in a great measure, to the rapacity and bad faith practised by the stone merchants in the Isle of Portland, and the London contractors, who seem to have connived at the employment of soft and inferior stone, that the produce of the Portland
quarries had been for some years declining in public estimation, and that engineers and architects would no longer use it in extensive works. Hence many modern buildings, and particularly the two most famous bridges over the Thames, those of London and Waterloo, have been built wholly of granite — a stone which was not recommended for the new Houses on account of its great cost.
The magnesian limestone, which they considered, under all the circum- stances, to be the most suitable stone, and which is the one actually being used, lies immediately over the coal-measures, and is one of the lower mem- bers of the extensive formation geologically termed the new red sandstone. Its colour, when wet and first quarried, is commonly a reddish or brownish yellow ; but it dries to a fine cream colour, superior to that of the Portland, or any other common building-stone. From its granular texture, the mag- nesian limestone was long mistaken for a sandstone ; but since the geology of this country has received so much attention, the magnesian limestone has been more particularly examined, and recognized as a compound substance, consist- ing of carbonate of magnesia and carbonate of lime. The fracture of magnesian limestone exhibits innumerable small specks, which are crystals of these earths, arranged in such a manner as to form an aggregate of great toughness ; a quality by which the magnesian limestone is particularly characterised.
In order to form the most correct judgment as to the properties of a building-stone, and its capacity for resisting the action of weather, it is necessary to observe closely the evidences of decay and disintegration which it presents in the walls of old buildings, where it has been exposed for a con- siderable length of time to the vicissitudes of the seasons. The various forms under which this decay is presented, are almost as numerous as that of the stones themselves. In some the surfaces are observed to flake, or shale off in fragments of various sizes ; while in others, the surface appears shivered into loose, thin fragments, which hang together with considerable tenacity, and give to the whole face of the wall a peculiarly ragged and weather-worn appearance. This form of decay is strongly exhibited in the walls of many of the ecclesiastical and collegiate buildings of Oxford, where some of the softest and worst varieties of oolitic stone have been employed with very little judgment or discrimination. Other stones, such as the firestone of Reigate, and the varieties of chalk procured from the lower beds of the formation, are worn into large hollows and cavities, which indicate the progress of a constant and regular destroying action, in the alternations of weather to which they are exposed. The old buildings about Dean's-yard, Westminster, exhibit this form of decay in the firestone of which they are built : and in the old buildings about St. Alban's Abbey, and at Woburn, Bedfordshire, the Tot- ternhoe stone, which is a celebrated building-stone, procured from the chalk of Dunstable, may be seen in a similar state of decay. The oolitic stones, where their composition is nearly uniform, and where the fossils they contain are of minute size, will commonly decay in the same manner as the firestone, and others of the same soft and homogeneous character. But where fossils of large size are abundant, as in most varieties of the Portland oolite, the smaller grains will decay, and leave the fossils projecting out in a remarkable manner. This may be observed more or less in almost every block of oolite in Westminster Bridge, where the fossils stand out in relief on the surface of the stone, and indicate, with mathematical accuracy, the amount of disinte- gration which has taken place in the calcareous matrix which incloses them.
Although there are many bad specimens of Portland stone in London, there are also others which justify the high reputation it has acquired. In every quarry, whether of Portland stone or any other kind, the upper beds are commonly much inferior to the central and lower strata of the rock ; and hence it is easy to account for the great difference which has been observed in specimens of Portland stone procured from the same or neighbouring quarries. The magnesian limestone, judging from the best tests which can be applied, appears to be a stone well adapted for external work in this cli- mate. It is true that the evidence to be drawn from old buildings can scarcely be said to support its superior character over all others of the same class, because it has not been used to anything like the same extent as many other building-stones of repute. In their investigation into the qualities of this stone, however, the Commissioners, who fixed upon it for the new Houses of Parliament, met with a sufficient number of ancient structures in which it had been employed, to justify the favourable opinion they arrived at.
In buildings where the stone has to be carved and chiseled into mouldings, and other intricate forms, the immense expense of labour almost prohibits the use of a very hard stone ; otherwise it would always be preferable to use the most imperishable granites, and the hardest siliceous grits, which can be procured. The process for hardening the softest varieties of stone, to which Mr. Sylvester has directed his attention, is, therefore, very important, since, if successful, it will enable the architect and the sculptor to indurate the softest stones of nature, after they have received the last finishing stroke of the chisel. In Mr. Sylvester's process, the stone is said to be hardened by being steeped in a compound of alum and soap-water. The more porous the stone is, the more of this solution will it absorb ; and the consequence is, that its pores become filled with what chemists call an insoluble salt. The extent to which a stone so prepared will resist the action of the atmosphere, remains to be proved. There are various other compositions with which stones might be saturated, and which, in our opinion, would enable them to resist decay. Amongst these mav be mentioned the native bitumens, which, for this purpose, would be improved by being mixed with an equal weight of pounded chalk : secondly, coal tar mixed with an equal quantity of pounded
184*.]
Naval Architecture.
n
chalk : thirdly, resin dissolved in boiling oil, mixed, in like manner, with pounded chalk. We have tried, on a small scale, the first and last of these compositions with success ; and we recommend them to the attention of ar- chitects and others desirous of preserving the softer kinds of building-stone from decay. In order to use either of these compositions, nothing more is necessary than to heat it in a large cauldron to about the heat of boiling- water, and immerse each block of stone until it shall cease to absorb any of the mixture, when it may be taken out and dried.
Art. IX.— NAVAL ARCHITECTURE. The introduction of the scientific principles of constructing ships into this country is comparatively of recent date, when we consider the number of years we have had a navy consisting of large ships. The more immediate steps which led to the auspicious event are worthy of notice.
During the latter part of the past century the inferiority of our ships to those of the French was a subject of humiliation and regret to many who were interested in naval affairs, and who understood the importance of her navy to Great Britain. It was believed that whatever improvements had been intro- duced were derived from the French, and it was known that the ships of France were constructed on scientific principles. To discover the principles of construction was considered most desirable, and efforts were made to in- duce scientific men to apply their knowledge and abilities to the subject. A society for the improvement of naval architecture was formed by a number of private individuals, which in a few years classed among its members gentle- men of high rank and eminent attainments. Their endeavours, whatever may have been their amount, were not followed by any immediate benefit.
The attention of the government, had, however, been directed to the state of naval science, and in 1805 a " Commission of Naval Revision" was ap- pointed to investigate the affairs of the navy. The report of the commis- sioners on the qualifications of the officers whose business it was to make the designs for our ships of war, as well as of those who were looking forward to be their successors, was accompanied by a recommendation to the government to establish a school of naval architecture, where a course of scientific study should be pursued, such as would qualify the students for the offices in question.
In the year 1811 a school of naval architecture was established in Ports- mouth Dock-yard, and a professor was appointed to it who had distinguished himself at the University of Cambridge by his acquirements in science. His first object was to ascertain the state of naval science in France ; and he found that the treatise, which was pronounced by the French naval architects to be the best that had been written on naval architecture, was one by Chap- man, translated from the Swedish into French by Clairbois. This work he procured, with notes by the French translator and other writers on the sub- ject, and it was studied at the school in conjunction with practical ship- building.
In the meantime every means were employed which could be devised, in the absence of scientific knowledge, to improve the navy. Whenever a French ship came into our possession she was " taken off," as it is technically phrased, and used as a model to build from. Sometimes alterations were ventured on, but in no instance was an improvement made by the alteration. Ships were added to our navy in this manner ; and now a great majority of our ships of the line and frigates are French designs, or imitations of them, more than a half century old.
The French navy has been greatly improved by a general increase of the principal dimensions of her new ships, a measure which was recommended for all classes of ships of our navy by the professor of the School of Naval Archi- tecture ; the necessity of which, and the benefits to be derived from it, have been continually insisted on by the members of that institution from its com- mencement. The principles of naval architecture, and the method of apply- ing them, are as well understood in this country as in any other, and it is hoped, that as opportunities offer for the substitution of new ships for the old ones as they may go to decay, the advantages of science will be taken to ren- der our fleet as efficient as the fleets of other nations.
Of our mercantile navy it has been truly said, that, with few exceptions, it is composed of ships which would disgrace any civilized country. The laws of tonnage, which many of them were built to evade, are happily altered, and, by the alteration, one great obstacle to improvement is removed. The safety and expedition of the voyages which would be performed by well-designed ships would be a great advantage to the merchant, and the loss of human life would be small in comparison with what it has been for many years past.
It is our intention to devote some of our columns to as plain a method of explaining the principles of naval construction as the nature of the subject will admit of : it will first be necessary, to show the manner of making the calculations of a ship from the draught, to ascertain the areas of the principal sections, their centres of gravity, the displacement of its centre of gravity con- sidered as a homogeneous body ; the height of the metacentre and moment of stability.
The draught of a ship is a representation of its form by lines of intersection of vertical-longitudinal and transverse, horizontal and diagonal planes, with the exterior surface of the timbers. It is composed of three plans : the sheer plan, the body plan, and the half-breadth plan.
The sheer plan shows by its boundary -line the form of the ship when inter- sected by a vertical-longitudinal plane dividing it into two equal and similar
12
Naval Architecture.
[JANUARY;
parts, to the fore-side of the knee of the head, under-side of keel, after-part of rudder, the rake of the stern-timbers, and at the upper part by a line at the top of the side showing the curve of the top side, or the sheer of the top- side line.
The stem, stern-post, and keel, with their rabbets, are shown in this plan ; also the water-lines and the sections ; the principal or midship section de- noted thus, © ; those before it are distinguished by letters A, B, C, &c. ; and those abaft it by figures 1, 2, 3, 4, &c.
The projections of vertical-longitudinal sections are shown in this plan as curve lines.
The load water-line is a line drawn to the draught of water of the ship at the stem and stern-post, and the other water-lines are parallel to it ; the draught of water being generally greater abaft than forward, the water-lines are oblique to the upper part of the keel.
The level lines are parallel to the keel.
Besides the lines described above, there are shown the heights and sheer of the decks, ports, upper and lower edge of whales, channels and dead-eyes, cat- head, head-rails, quarter-gallery, and pintles and braces which hang the rud- der, and any internal or external fittings which may be required.
BODY PLAN.
The body plan is a projection of the several transverse-vertical sections on a vertical plane. The principal longitudinal section is represented in this plan by a straight line perpendicular to the keel, termed the middle line of the body plan ; at distances from this middle line on each side of it are set off the half breadth of the ship to the timbers, which is half the moulded breadth ; and perpendicular to the keel at these places lines are drawn to the height of the top-side line at the midship section. The level lines in this plan are straight lines ; the water-lines are curves passed through the spots at the several heights of the water-lines on the sections ; the diagonal sections are represented by straight lines oblique to the middle line, and the bow and but- tock lines by straight lines parallel to the middle line.
On the right-hand side of the middle line are the projections of the sections of the fore-body, and on the left side of the middle line those of the after- body.
The half-breadth plan is a projection, on a horizontal plane, of the inter- sections of horizontal longitudinal planes with the ship. The forms of the water lines, level lines, top-side line, &c, and the diagonal lines, are shown : it is a representation of the larboard side of the ship, and is usually placed so that the sections may be immediately under the corresponding sections of the sheer plan.
In the body and half-breadth plans, the half-breadths of the stem and stern- post are shown at the upper and lower ends, and the depth of the rabbets.
The middle of the rabbets of the stem and stern-post in the sheer plan is taken in the middle, between the fore and after- part of the rabbet, at the upper part where the body is full ; but lower down, where the body is finer, the middles of the rabbets are taken at one-third the distance from the fore- part, which is considered sufficiently correct in practice.
To transfer the water lines from the sheer plan to the body plan, take the height on each section, from the upper side of the keels, of the intersection of the water line with the section, and set it off on the middle line of the body plan from the upper side of the keel, and square out from this height to the corresponding section in this plan : the heights of intersections of water lines with the sections being thus transferred to the body plan, the perpendicular distances are taken from the middle line of the body plan to the heights of the water lines on the different sections, and are transferred to the corresponding sections in the half-breadth plan, and through the spots so obtained curve lines are passed. To end these lines in the half-breadth plan, square down the points where the water lines meet the middles of the rabbets of the stem and stern-post to the corresponding middles of the rabbets in the half-breadth plan ; — these will be the points on which to end the water lines.
The level lines being parallel to the keel, to transfer them to the half- breadth plan the distances from the middle line of the body plan are taken to the intersections of the level lines with the sections, and are set off from the middle line in the half-breadth plan on the corresponding sections: these lines end in the half-breadth plan at the middle of the rabbets. The top-side line, port-sill lines, and any lines originating in the sheer plan, are transferred to
the other plans in the same manner as described for the water lines. The diagonals are run off in the half-breadth plan by taking the diagonal distances in the body plan from the middle line to the intersections of the diagonals with the sections, and setting them off on the corresponding sections in the half-breadth plan from the middle line ; curves passed through the spots so obtained will be the forms of the diagonal sections.
To end these lines at the stem, the heights at which the diagonal lines cross the half-siding and middle of the rabbet in the body plan, are transferred to the corresponding lines in the sheer plan ; that is, to the middle and to the after-part of the rabbet. These points are squared down to the middle line in the half-breadth plan, and perpendiculars are drawn from them, on which are set off the diagonal distances from the middle line of the body plan to the siding and middle of the rabbet : the diagonals will end at one of these points, — the upper ones on the perpendiculars at the aft side of the rabbet, and the lower ones on those at the middle. To end those which cross the margin, take the perpendicular distance from the middle line in the body plan to the intersection of the diagonal with the margin, and set it off in the half-breadth plan perpendicular to the middle line, to meet the margin ; and through this spot extend the perpendicular, on which set off the diagonal distance from the middle line in the body plan to the intersection of the diagonal with the margin: this will be the ending. The lower diagonals are ended on the stern-post similarly to the manner of ending them on the stem. The main- breadth line, or line at the height of the broadest part of each section, is transferred from the body to the sheer plan and half-breadth plan, in the same way as water-lines are.
The bow and buttock lines are run off in the sheer plan, by taking the heights in the body plan from the upper edge of the keel to the intersections of these lines with the sections, and transferring them to the corresponding sections in the sheer plan, and passing curves through the spots. These lines may be ended on the main-breadth line. Those which cross the margin in the body plan will end on the margin in the sheer plan : by squaring up the intersection of the buttock line with the margin in the half-breadth plan to the margin in the sheer plan, we get the ending.
When the diagonals, bow and buttock lines, and level lines, all run off fair, the body is fair.
To calculate the Displacement of a Ship. The displacement of a ship, when it floats at rest in a fluid, is the weight of the fluid displaced ; and this is equal to the weight of the ship : for the ship is supported by the upward pressure of the fluid against its immersed part ; and this pressure supported a quantity of fluid equal in magnitude to this immersed part, the space occupied by the ship being previously occupied by the fluid ; and when there is an equilibrium, the same pressure sustains the same weight. The weight, therefore, of the ship is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the ship.
The form of the body of a ship is not that of any regular solid : we are therefore obliged to employ rules for approximating to the displacement. The rules given for calculating the area of a curvilinear space, are founded on the supposition that a parabolic line passes through the extremities of a cer- tain number of equidistant ordinates, and coincides with the curve, the area of which is required : if the ordinates be taken sufficiently near each other, the error in the assumption is inappreciable.
The same rules are likewise applicable in finding the contents of irregular solids. Having found the areas of the equidistant sections of the solid, they may be employed as linear measurements of the ordinates of a curve, the area of which contains as many superficial feet as there are solid or cubic feet in the body. This may be plainer, if we imagine the areas of the sections to be rectangles, one side of each being one foot ; it follows, that in the other side of each rectangle there will be as many linear feet as the areas contain super- ficial feet.
There are several rules given for finding the areas of curves ; but only two of them are in general use for this purpose.
The first rule is applicable when there is an odd number of equidistant ordinates ; that is, when the axis is divided into an even number of equal parts. It is founded on the supposition, that the curve of a parabola of the second order passes through the extremities of three successive ordinates of the curve whose area is required, and that it coincides with this curve between these limits : the third of the first three ordinates being the first of the second three, and so on.
The rule is, — Measure the equidistant ordinates : add the first and last ordinate together : take the sum of the even ordinates, and multiply it by four : then take the sum of the odd ordinates, and multiply it by two : add these products to the sum of the first and last ordinates, and multiply this sum by one-third of the common interval between the ordinates. This will be the area of the curve.
The second rule, which is sometimes used, is applicable when the number of ordinates is greater by one than some multiple of three, as four, seven, ten, thirteen, &c. It is founded on the supposition that the curve of a para- bola of the third order passes through the extremities of four successive ordinates of the curve whose area is required, and coincides with it between these limits : the fourth of the first four ordinates is the first of the second four ; the fourth of the second four, the first of the third four ; and so on.
The rule is, — Measure the lengths of all the equidistant ordinates : add the first and the last together : take the sum of all the remaining ordinates, which are one greater than a multiple of three, as the fourth, seventh, tenth,
I
1844.]
Canal across the Isthmus of Suez.
13
\~c, and multiply it by two ; and take the sum of all the others, and mul- tiply it by three : add these products to the sum of the first and last ordi- nates, and multiply this sum by three- eighths of the common interval be- oeen the ordinates, and it will give the area of the curve. When the areas of all the equidistant sections have been calculated by one of these rules, they are, as has been explained, used as ordinates of a curve: and the same rule is applied to find its area, which contains as many super- ficial feet as there are cubic feet in the displacement.
Art. X.— CANAL ACROSS THE ISTHMUS OF SUEZ.
1. Observations on the Practicability and Utility of opening a Communica- tion between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean by a Ship Canal. By Arthur Anderson. London : Smith, Elder, and Co. 1843. . Inquiry into the Means of establishing a Ship Navigation between the Mediterranean and Red Sea. By James Vetch, Capt. R.E., F.R.S. London: Pelham Richardson. 1843.
These are both very able pamphlets ; and the subject of which they treat is one well deserving of a large expenditure of talent. Captain Vetch contents himself with showing that the project of a ship canal across the Isthmus of Suez is accomplishable ; and he points out, with much clearness and force of argument, the engineering expedients which must be adopted in its for- mation ; while Mr. Anderson takes a still wider range, and discusses the questions, whether financial or international, which naturally arise out of such an undertaking. We fear that we shall not be able to follow Mr. An- derson very far into these inquiries ; and, indeed, the questions which he has touched may well afford to dispense with our elucidations. We shall be rash enough, however, to volunteer a few remarks ; and they maybe classed under these two heads : — 1st, Is this enterprise expedient ? and, 2nd, Is it possible? There are some persons, it appears, who object to the formation of a ship- canal across the Isthmus of Suez, on the ground that we should thereby be opening up a highway to the East for the Mediterranean nations — an achieve- ment which would derange the current of commerce, and give our competitors an undue advantage in the Indian market. These, it will be remarked, are the very objections brought against Oriental steam navigation ; and, as we answered the objections to steam navigation at some length on a former occa- sion, we may be excused from again performing the inglorious office. We may, however, here observe, that whatever force maybe attached to the argu- ments of these objectors, their premises are obviously untenable, as they one and all proceed on the assumption that India does not constitute a part of the British empire. Whatever might be the effect upon England per se of open- ing up this line of intercourse, there is no one who doubts that the effect upon India would be highly beneficial ; and, even were a little injury inflicted by the measure upon England, in her individual capacity, the loss might be more than made up by the benefits conferred upon the British empire. We do not, however, believe that any injury would be done to England, either individually or otherwise, by the formation of this canal ; nor would the stream of commerce, in our opinion, be in any degree disarranged, though its current would, no doubt, be enlarged and quickened. All nations would be benefited, but England more than any other, as she has the greatest interest in the amelioration.
We think, then, that the formation of this canal ought to be promoted by England, even supposing that its formation, or otherwise, depended entirely upon her nod. But we would beg leave to insinuate, that this is by no means the case ; and, as a canal of some sort will probably be made, whether Eng- land likes it or no, the question for her to consider is, whether she is willing that such a canal should be made as will satisfy the wants of the insignificant ships of the Mediterranean, but will be of inadequate dimensions to be navi- gable by the larger ships of England ? Such a canal as this would, there can be no doubt, be hurtful to British commerce ; and England's interest, therefore, obviously lies in taking such a part in the formation of this canal as will ensure its suitability for the ships of all nations.
There are three projects, which have been lately agitated in*Egypt, for facilitating the intercourse between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. These are, 1st, a railway from Boulac to Suez ; 2nd, a canal from the Nile to the Red Sea ; and, 3rd, a ship canal across the Isthmus. The first two are projects of merely local interest ; for nobody in Europe imagines that the accomplishment of the one or the other would sensibly affect the current of commerce between Europe and the East. Whether the passengers of the monthly mail vessels are transported across the Desert in eight hours, by means of coaches, or are whirled across in four hours by means of a railway- engine, really appears to be a matter of very small importance, or, at least, the acceleration is not worth the outlay at which it would be purchased. The canal from the Nile might be useful for the purposes of irrigation, and might also facilitate the transport of luggage and coal ; but the first of these benefits is one in which Egypt alone is concerned ; and the second is too trivial in amount to be an object of solicitude to any party. So far, then, as the in- tercourse between Europe and the East is concerned, there appears to be no advisable alternative between constructing an effectual ship canal, which may be navigated by the largest vessels, and doing nothing at all ; for the other expedients proposed would cost a thousand times more than any benefits they could produce would be worth.
The distance between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean is about 75
English miles ; and the level of the waters of the Red Sea above those of the Mediterranean, is about 30 English feet. This declivity, Capt. Vetch com- putes, would give a current of about two miles per hour ; the canal being supposed to be of a size suitable for large vessels : and this velocity he con- siders abundant for maintaining a navigable channel, especially as the scour- ing efficacy of salt-water is superior to that of fresh, on account of its greater specific gravity. The ground between the two seas presents no engineering difficulty : the water at Suez, however, is shallow ; and the same objection holds to the Mediterranean shore ; for there is no port in the Bay of Tineh, and but little depth of water. We agree, however, with Captain Vetch, in thinking that the current in the canal would suffice to cure these evils ; for the in-draught at Suez would carry away the mud and sand opposite to the mouth of the canal ; and the rush of water into the Bay of Tineh would deepen the water there. The French engineers of 1800 proposed, with the view of giving a greater scouring efficacy in the Bay of Tineh, to carry the canal from Suez, for a certain distance, on a level, and to throw the whole fall into the remaining distance. Of this plan we do not think favourably, as the effect would be, to raise a bar at the mouth of the canal, in consequence of the water being deflected upwards when it impinged upon the bottom of the sea. The greatest evil to be apprehended, indeed, is the formation of a bar at the mouth of the canal ; and the way to obviate its formation is, to so deflect the current at the mouth of the canal, that its waters will not con- flict with the ocean waves in a direct antagonism.
In ancient times, as is very well known, a canal existed, connecting the Mediterranean with the Red Sea ; the remains of which are visible still : and there is every reason for believing that, in times still more remote, the whole of the isthmus was submerged, constituting Africa a continent. The record of this state of things is preserved in the geological features of the country ; the most prominent of which is, the existence of a number of salt-lakes and marshes, extending nearly across the isthmus ; and, if the obstructions which now block up the ancient canal were removed, these lakes would assume the same level as the Red Sea, and, in all probability, overflow into the Medi- terranean. The track of canal which has been viewed with most favour, runs through these lakes : but we agree with Captain Vetch, in thinking that a straight cut across the isthmus, without weakening the current by need- less bendings, or entangling it in lakes and marshes, is by far the preferable procedure. Indeed, there is much danger, in our judgment, in filling these lakes up to the Red Sea level ; as, in certain states of the Red Sea, they would overflow through the valley, which extends from the Bitter lakes to Bubastes, on the Nile, and the Delia might be inundated with salt water. It was, probably, some such accident as this that caused the ancient canal to be stopped up. A wall, at some remote period, has been built across its mouth, and mounds have been raised in the valley, which reaches from the Bitter lakes to Bubastes, to prevent any flow of water in that direction.
It is impossible to determine, at present, the exact direction which a canal between Suez and the Mediterranean ought to follow ; for the necessary borings and levels have not yet been taken with sufficient accuracy to justify a decided opinion. In the event of no obstacle interposing, however, the straightest line is the best ; not merely because there is less cutting, but because the straightness of the channel will have a great tendency to keep it clear. Captain Vetch recommends that the entrance of the canal at Suez should be capable of being closed by gates, and that the entrance should be situated within a basin, so as to protect the gates from the effects of storms. He also proposes that the bottom and sides of the entrance should be pro- tected by a strong gauge of masonry, and piles of masonry, of the form of the cross section of the canal, should be constructed at regular distances, so as to prevent the current from making dangerous inroads. In the whole of these suggestions we concur ; and we would merely remark, in addition, that we would make two sets of gates at the entrance, instead of one, as the one set would sometimes require to be removed for repair, and might get damaged by the awkwardness of some ship in passing through.
Captain Vetch estimates the cost of this canal at about two millions ster- ling ; and Mr. Anderson computes that the receipts would be 200,000^. per annum, or 10 per cent, on two millions of outlay. The canal would be used chiefly, we think, by vessels to India. Steam-vessels would, of course, make use of it in both directions ; but sailing vessels Jrom India would still, in our opinion, prefer the route to India by the Cape, on account of the prevalence of northerly winds in the superior part of the Red Sea ; and the difficulty, in so narrow a sea, of contending with them.
There is only another question of any moment, connected with this work, which remains to be considered ; and that is, by whom it should be under- taken ? The Pacha of Egypt ought, in our opinion, in some way or other, to be connected with it ; yet we do not think the weight of the enterprise should rest upon his hands, as, in that case, the probability is, that it would be committed to the care of some ignorant pretender, and would be executed on an insufficient scale of magnitude. The best plan, perhaps, would be, for the Pacha to be associated, in the undertaking, with a company of English merchants. He would take care that all local impediments were removed, and they would take care that the work was executed upon a proper scale, and that the money was not uselessly squandered. We agree with Mr. Anderson, in thinking that gain is not the only incentive that would stimulate Mehemet Ali to take part in such a work. He appears to feel that it would add to his renown, and be a worthy climax of that career which has already achieved immortality.
14
Our Club.
[January,
Art. XL— OUR CLUB— No. X.
The Jubilee.
Welcome, brother labourers all ! Come ye here at Friendship's call — •
(Whose dear voice doth oft create
Joy in hearts most desolate) ; Hither drawn by Poesy —
(That fair maid whose sacred mien
Wraps the soul in thoughts serene) ; Or by stern Philosophy —
(His staid visage for a while
Brightened to a jovial smile) ; Or by Curiosity —
(Who, in search of strange and new,
Lights, sometimes, on what is true) : What for differing moods care we ? Welcome to our jubilee ! Hither to our banquet haste ! We have food for every taste ; Be your motives what they may — Pleasure, profit, or mere play — Hither come — ay, great or small 1 Welcome, welcome, one and all !
(Club.)
Scene — The Club-room: illuminated with a mild refulgence from a globe of light, resembling the moon at full rising in the east : the western hori- zon skirted with a dense cloud, which " turns forth its silver lining to the night." Banquet laid out on the table. Reporting box on the side- board.
Present, Gray, solus.
Gray {with folded arms, gazing round the room). Feth, it's a' admirably contrived ; they '11 no ken the place again — that 's positive. Ha ! ha ! It 's well they gave up the management to me. I certainly have a genius that way ; neither Sir Jonah, nor that poetical chap Montgomery even, would ever have thought of this, I 'se warrant ye. I should no wonder now if Scalpel turns up his nose at it, and calls it a violation of decorum — protests it is not in good keeping, and pours oot such like phrases which the critics have aye at their fingers' ends to damp the fire, or, as they are pleased impertinently to call it, the extravagance of genius. A pretty tame warld of it we should hae if criticism succeeded in chaining doon genius with its airen fetters 1 But
it canna. The young eagle soars aloft into its own etherial expanse high aboon the shafts o' criticism, and looks down with pity on its puny malevo- lence. {Looks curiously at the self-reporter.) So this is the marvellous production of our President. A wonderfu' man is Sir Jonah. There is no fathoming the depths of his mind. To think, now, that this little creatur' should be gifted as it were wi' intelligence — instinct with life. {Peeps into it, and starts with surprise.) Preserve us a', if it is na operating awa at this blessed moment, I 'm no man ; there it is — scribble, scribble, like, a hu- man creatur'. Why I can see, even while I speak, the letters form them- selves on the paper. Sauf us, but this is a most marvellous affair. No wonder that the Artizan flourishes under the superintendence o' such a man. {Advancing footsteps heard.) Hush ! here comes the company. I '11 hide myself, just to hear their opinions on my handiwork, and enjoy their surprise. {Goes behind Sir Jonah's chair.)
Enter Sir Jonah, Scalpel, and Montgomery, ushering in Lardner and Jeffrey.
Sir Jonah. And now, gentlemen, let me bid you welcome to the Artizan Club-room — converted for the nonce to a banqueting hall. Once before you honoured it with your presence, and — {Turns round, as he perceives Scalpel and Montgomery start with astonishment, on viewing the change which the room has undergone, and all three laugh heartily.)
Gray {softly). A hearty guffaw that — at my expense too.
Montgomery. This is a metamorphosis truly : pray who is the artist, Sir Jonah, who has shown so much judgment, as well as skill in the affair ?
Gray {sotto). I hardly expecket that frae you, my bonny chiel.
Scalpel. Need you ask who is the artist ? 'T is Gray, to be sure ; who else, do you think, would have concocted such a raree show ?
Sir Jonah. Ay, you are right : Gray is the culprit. Some explanation is due in the matter, especially to you two gentlemen {turning to Lardner and Jeffrey). Know then that Gray (who has come from Scotland on purpose to be present at our jubilee) asked for, and obtained my consent, to make such alterations to the room as he deemed necessary, to befit it, as he said, for so august an occasion as our jubilee — the first anniversary of the birth-day of the Artizan. He has taken rather a freer license than I could have wished, or than good taste would perhaps dictate. [Gray. You too, Sir Jonah !] But he meant well : be that his apology.
Jeffrey. Oh 1 it is a very picturesque extravaganza.
Lardner. Considerable skill is shown, too, in the execution. That moon is really quite moonlike.
Scalpel. " Very like a whale." It is a sorry attempt altogether — I am
1844.]
Our Club.
15
surprised, Sir Jonah, at your permitting the man to perpetrate such a kick- shaw.
Gray {rushing from his concealment). Keekshaw to your teeth, Mr. Scalpel. You would never have had genius to conceive, nor skill to execute such a work.
Scalpel (laughing). I should not, indeed !
Montgomery. " Listeners," you know, Gray, " hear no good of them- selves."
Lardner and Jeffrey (in a breath). Ah ! Gray, glad to see you (shaking him heartily by the hand). Never mind our censures. You can afford to laugh at them.
Gray. Thank you, gentlemen, both. But it is hard, you will allow, for flesh and blood to thole when censured by those we love. You, too, " damn- ing with faint praise." I '11 never forgive either of you, till I have had my revenge ; so I tell you.
Sir Jonah. Tut, man, tut ! At your time of life to expect to please every body — you ought to know better. Remember the fable of the Man and his Ass.
Gray. I did not expect it, Sir Jonah. I knew that Scalpel, if in one of his crabbid humours, would have his sneer, and so I was saying to myself before you came in.
Sir Jonah. Enough. Let us be seated. Montgomery, I nominate you vice-president.
[The magic reporter, it is supposed, was here seized with a fit of obdu- rate disloyalty ; for of all the preliminary toasts — such as " The Queen," "The Church," "Army and Navy," Sfc, 8fc. — which were, of course, given from the Chair in due form, and drunk with all becoming warmth — of all these, not one word hath our reporter vouchsafed to give : and of the conversations of several additional guests who now arrived, it has preserved no memento. It would have been easy to fill up this blank from imagina- tion, and to intersperse it with brilliant sallies of wit, which, doubtless, were uttered on the occasion ; but as that is a thing not to be thought of in a veritable report, such as ours, the reader is affectionately requested to supply the wanting matter from his reminiscences of similar interesting occasions, and then pass on with us to the toast of the evening. ]
Sir Jonah. You are aware, gentlemen, that this is the anniversary day of the Artizan. In the pleasure and pride derived from its unexampled suc- cess all of us may justly share, because in it each has been more or less in- strumental. Our gratification at the favourable reception of the Autizan is derived, however, from a purer source than self gratulation ; for in its suc- cess the best interests of the working-classes, I am convinced, are deeply con- cerned. But why expatiate on such a theme to you whose contributions have so dignified its pages, and whose encomiums, the more to be prized, coming from such severe judges, have strengthened our feeble hands ? A set speech would be here misplaced, especially as I purpose, by and by, to call upon my zealous and ever honoured co-labourer opposite to sing us some- thing in praise of the Artizan. So I beg you will hold yourself in readi- ness, Montgomery, and Gray, — and Scalpel as well, — for each of you must contribute your share of verse, to the harmony of the evening. Without further preface, then, let me give you — Success to the Artizan.
Omnes. Success to the Artizan.
A great clattering of glasses, Gray hob-a-nobbing with every one in his vicinity.
Lardner. Mr. President, I crave permission to give a toast.
Sir Jonah. It is given as soon as asked.
Lardner. At the outset of your undertaking, I looked very doubtingly upon the institution of "Our Club" — I could not divine its purpose. I wish now to make the amende honorable ; for " Our Club," so far from ap- pearing misplaced or purposeless, is to my mind one of the most charming features in the Magazine. I fancy that it gives evidence at times that a cer- tain person (looking significantly at Jeffrey) takes his share in the dialogue. Gentlemen, I give you — The health of the members of "Our Club," and may their monthly sittings continue to delight and enlighten the world.
Gray. That 's very like drinking to our noble selves. Shame will prevent its being drunk with much spirit.
Jeffrey and Lardner. Gray ! Gray !
Sir Jonah. You hear, Alexis, you are called on to speak to the toast just given.
Gray. Na, that maun surely be meant for a taunt. It is long since I had any han' in the doings of the Club, although I have often longed, I '11 confess, to be wi' you when far awa. For my part, I never had any misgivings, though many persons had, about the success of the Club. I knew what stuff ye a' were made o'. And did na Sir Jonah himsel', in the second Number, say, in answer to the doubts enterteened concerning the purposes of the Club, — " Twelve months hence our superfine literati may understand more about our aims, as well as about our means of giving them effect ?" And did na some- body say at the same time how that we would " touch the hearts of the illiterate with a live coal from the altar of genius ?" Sure, truer prophets never spake. I think the world pretty well kens by this time all aboot the " aim" and " means " of Our Club ; it has spoken out with a voice not to be misunderstood, and wi' a power which all maun hae felt. In conclusion, Sir President, I would make bold to drink to the health of our venerated visit-
ors, Misters Jeffrey and Lardner and the lave, and may Our Club be often honoured with their presence, and the Artizan with their writings. (Mut- teringly) — That 's a fair tit for tat. I 've caught them in their own trap. [Drunk with three times three.']
Jeffrey. You do me too much honour. I am sure that the gentleman whose name is coupled with mine in the toast just given, and so flatteringly received, will agree with me, that it is a sufficient honour to be thus admitted to your editorial sanctum. My abilities, such as they are, you know that you can command ; and I only regret, for the sake of the Artizan, or in other words, for the sake of the public, that they are not of more avail.
Lardner. To the remarks of my worthy friend I have only, on my own account, to repeat, that to the sayings and doings of Our Club I attach infinite importance. Of the scientific portion of the Artizan, there is, I believe, but one opinion. What that is I need not say — nor, indeed, from me, would any Pcean be perhaps altogether becoming.
Sir Jonah. Now, if you please, Montgomery, for your song. I would just hint to you that, as it is to save you from making a speech, which, in your capacity of vice-chairman, is expected from you, the lines should be applicable to the subject of our meeting.
_ Montgomery. I fear I am not rightly in the key to-night. Scalpel, with Sir Jonah's permission, I must beg you to go on with something while I endeavour to collect my ideas.
Scalpel. I have no objection. (Sings.)
The Artizan.
Artizans ! for you we toil :
Oft — how oft ! — the midnight oil
We have burn'd for your dear sake, — Toiling many a weary hour,
That with us ye might partake One and all of wisdom's dower ;
Striving ever to impress
This great truth with earnestness —
Knowledge is the spring of power — On your heart of hearts, that ye Might be wise, and just, and free, So upraise each artizan To a veritable man.
Man I what power is in that word ! Rightly spoken — rightly heard, To its depths the mind is stirr'd With a kind of dread amaze — In bewilderment we gaze, Dimm'd by the excessive blaze.
Ye who 'd reason's depths explore, Or in beauty's regions soar, Search that miracle call'd man — All his complications scan. Mind ! that beautiful profound — Plummet ne'er its depths could sound — Dimly seen the riches shine Of that all but unwork'd mine.
Giant ! waking from thy trance —
Captive ! struggling to get free From the bonds which ignorance
In thy nonage forged for thee — Eaglet ! whose unpractised glance Strives to pierce the far expanse,
Soon to scour earth, sky, and sea,
Winging, with tempestuous glee, Like a thunderbolt, thy race Through illimitable space —
Thee in each we pictured see
Mind ! thou spark of Deity !
To upraise man's low estate,
Prompt, enlighten, elevate, —
Purge the bad, and re-create
All the good ; behold our plan
Thus to mould each Artizan
To a veritable man. Jeffrey. Excellent ! Why, Scalpel, that is a flash of the vigour of your early youth. How you misconceived yourself when you set up for a misan- thrope ; you have none of the requisite ingredients, man, for such a character.
Montgomery. Scalpel has, perhaps, rather too keen a sense of the ridicu- lous for his own comfort. A foible is to him what the rumpled rose-leaf was to the Sybarite.
Sir Jonah. I am not aware that Scalpel ever set himself up as a misan- thrope. There may be those who have imputed such a character to him. But they know not the man.
16
Our Club.
[January,
Gray. It's a' in the manner — he's a wee rouch an' rugged — no polished, like me. Then he 's perpetually twitting me, as Sir Jonah ca's it : but I ken he means nae harm. Misanthropic, indeed — didna he rescue a poor —
Scalpel {putting his hand on Gray's mouth). Have done, have done; we want no sycophants here, to trumpet forth a man's praises to his face.— Montgomery, I call upon you for your song. You 've had plenty of time to think of the subject ; and, as Sir Jonah has set me improvising, he shall have abundance of songs to-night : on that I am determined.
Gray. The more the better, for I daur say it will save muckle foolish talk.
Sir Jonah. Hush ! Alexis, be more guarded over your words.
Scalpel. He means, that it will keep him from talking, Sir Jonah. I am glad the man possesses so much self-knowledge.
Gray. I 'm no angry — ye canna mak' me.
Lardner. Now then, Montgomery.
Montgomery. My stave will be lugubriously sentimental ; so I prepare you.
Gray. All aboot plighted troth, an' vows forsworn, an' broken hearts. Let 's hae it in a' its horrors.
Montgomery, with much feeling, sings the following
Serenade.
Wake, Mary, wake ! it is the hour
You loved in former days so well ; And still as sweetly blooms each flower,
As blithely through your own loved dell The wild birds pour their joyous strain : Shall they and I but sing in vain ?
Wake, Mary, wake !
A lovelier morn ne'er rose on earth :
What glories meet the raptured eye ! How softly swells the song of mirth !
How sweet the rose's fragrant sigh ! Earth's radiant things — around, above, — All nature breathes a tale of love.
Wake, Mary, wake !
Wake, loved one, wake ! for ah 1 too soon
These rapt'rous moments fleet away ; Like flowers, which, ere the burning noon,
Have wither' d into dull decay. Life hath but few such joys as this : O haste ! and seize the fleeting bliss.
Wake, Mary, wake 1'
I've cull'd for thee each lovely flower,
I've wreath'd a chaplet for thy brow, I've deck'd with spring's first fruits thy bower,
But, Mary ! Mary ! where art thou ? Each beauteous object chides thy stay : O, why dost thou so long delay ?
Wake, Mary, wake ! Jeffrey. Beautiful, but incomplete. I must tack on a sequel. (Recites with solemnity) —
Hark ! in low whispers, faintly heard,
Some far-off echo seems replying — Like leaves with summer breathings stirr'd,
Or e'en as Nature's self were sighing — A dirge-like moaning on the gale — And this the burthen of the wail : —
Nor spring's gay smile, nor summer's bloom,
Will cheer again thy Mary's breast ; Oh I nought can lighten now the gloom
Where low she sleeps in dreamless rest. In vain the birds their wild notes pour,
And flowers their choicest fragrance shed — E'en thy glad voice delights no more :
Ah ! what can rouse the slumb'ring dead ?
Sleep, Mary, sleep ' LapvDNEr. Pitched in the il penseroso key, but withal most sweet. There is no gift I envy more than that of thus giving expression to one's sentiments in verse. How poetry leads the soul captive — giving to truth a twofold charm — playing upon our heart-strings, and evoking thence most subtle music !
Sir Jonah. I fully agree with you, sir, as to the elevating tendency of poetry ; and you will perceive we make pretty free use of it, from time to time, in Our Club — such sort, at least, as our Artizans can produce ; and I really think they acquit themselves respectably, all things considered.
Jeffrey. Our young friend at the foot of the table could, single-handed, maintain the honour of any manufactory, if he only chose to put forth his strength. It is rare to find so delicate a taste with so comprehensive a one, or so much vigour with so much sensibility.
Gray. Haud — haud — you '11 shame the callant. Dinna ye see hoo he blushes areddy ! But the truth is, he 's as clever as he 's braw, an' as amiable as he 's clever.
Sir Jonah. Come, come, Alexis, you are only making the matter worse ; though, indeed, I cannot contradict you. I will not ask you, my boy, to reply to these fine compliments, for I know you can say nothing ; but, if you will, you may give us another song, to extricate yourself from the dilemma.
Montgomery (sings) —
I tread alone the sacred spot
Long consecrate to love and thee, Where once it was my happy lot
To hear thy vows of constancy ; And oh ! all other joys above ! When first I breathed my tale of love, To feel thy beating heart reply, And give me, answering, sigh for sigh.
But all the hopes which then shone bright,
And flourish'd as the flowers of spring, Now mourn a desolating blight,
And cheerless lie, and withering. I look back on the happy past As on a dream too sweet to last ; And ah ! a dreary blank to me Are present and futurity. Gray. It 's glorious ! — an' she maun be a gude for naethin' jaud. But dinna greet, my bonnie callant : here, dicht your een wi' this naupkin.
Scalpel. Pooh ! it 's all pretence ; and, if not, who could feel thus who had the spirit of a mite ? Any puling rhymester could spin such poetry by the yard. I must cure this weak sentimentalism, by Sir Jonah's permission. (Sings) —
Crumbs of Comfort for a Love-sick Swain.
Come, cease this childish folly,
And dry these foolish tears ; Why should dark melancholy
Invade youth's sunny years ?
Because a jilt deceived thee,
Why make so much ado ? Thou mayest find, believe me,
As fair, and far more true.
Nay, tell not of her graces,
Her many witching wiles — When round thee radiant faces
Are brightening with smiles ;
And hearts with love are glowing,
And eyes glance tenderly ; And Beauty is bestowing
Her blandishments on thee.
O shame ! to pine in sadness,
Those beauteous forms to leave ! To turn from haunts of gladness,
For one false fair to grieve !
Then cease this childish folly,
And dry these foolish tears ; Nor let dark melancholy
Abridge youth's joyous years.
There — I put it to the company, whether my song is not better than the lack-a-daisical production that preceded it ?
Gray. Your song better ! — as if the likes o' you could haud a caunle to Montgomery !
Sir Jonah. For my part, I do not aspire to determine the knotty question.
Gray. Then I '11 determine it; an' I determine it by sayin', that Mont- gomery's is divine, an' yours — pretty fair.
Montgomery. The point is not worth contesting. We are not a pair of poetical gladiators, but merely seek to make ourselves agreeable to our worthy friends here assembled. But, if I do not mistake, Alexis, you told me you had prepared a song yourself in honour of this occasion.
Gray. That have I. Ah', what is more, I 've been burstin' this half- hour to deliver it ; for I 'm flied, that it gangs oot o' my head ; an' I canna mak' a sang at a breath, as you twa gentry can. I hae na book lear aneuch for that.
Lardner. Your song, I presume, is something about the steam-engine?
Gray. Then your presumption is quite in the wrang, as presumption generally is. A bonnie thing 't weel be to mak' a sang aboot — the overhang o' the beam, an' lap o' the slide, an' way o' fixin' the holding-down bolts, or of makin' the foot or discharge -valves gang easy! These are a' poetical subjects, truly. O, Doctor, Doctor, does your raither know you 're oot ?
Sir Jonah. Now, Alexis, I must call you to order — really, you 're very rude.
Montgomery. Let us have the song : it is to the pressure within we owe the impetuosity without.
1844.]
Our Club.
17
Jeffrey. And, pray pitch it in a sprightly key — something after the fashion of V allegro.
Gray. Na, I dinna ken what ye mean by your foreign lingos ; but I '11 tell you what I would wish my sang to be— the blast o' a trumpet, to mak' your hearts dirl within your bosoms ; and then, again, like the distant bag- pipe, echoed by the rocks o' my native valley, subdued, an' woefu', an' soli- tary, so as to melt your very heart into tears. That 's what I would do, if I could. Shall I go on ?
(Sir Jonah nods assent.)
Gray sings —
Rhymes of the Poor.
The rank is but the guinea stamp ; The man 's the gowd for a' that."
Burns.
I sing the Poor ! The Rich can bribe Flattery frae many a hireling scribe ; But me ? — I '11 shun the venal tribe, Nor add one to the number more, Wha sell their sangs for glittering ore. No — I '11 not prostitute my lays ; My 'feckless voice I rather raise To celebrate the poor man's praise. I sing the Poor !
The rich man doth some deed o' worth ; A thoosan' clarions trumpet forth To a' the corners o' the earth
The wondrous tale : His lights on every hill are seen, An' fix mankind's admiring een :
Yet, not without avail In Poverty's low hut, I ween, The light of love doth burn serene, Though by the multitude unseen,
Deep hidden in the vale.
Its bonny glimmer shineth clear, Bright'ning, within its narrow sphere, All the relationships so dear,
O' parent — husband — wife. What merry groups ilk ane may see ! What pictures o' felicity
In humble life '
Such scenes o' perfect happiness The human heart doth seldom bless,
As in the poor man's hut is known, When, frae his daily toil set free,
His bairnies welcome dad's return Wi' mony a noisy burst o' glee ; The youngest perch'd upon his knee,
As cheerily the fire doth burn, An' the gade wife, wi' quiet smile, Attends his savouiy mess the while.
Proud as a monarch on his throne
Is he— for these are all his own.
Ay ! let the vulgar great disdain The sons o' care, an' toil, an' pain, And o' themsells unseemly vain,
Scorn a' below. One o' your sells, O, let me not, Unmindfu' of your rugged lot,
Contumely throw. Your many vices— chief of all, Vile drunkenness, whose hellish thrall Holds iron bondage o' the soul, —
Owre weel I know.
But while for vice we heave a sigh, To virtue shall we close the eye —
Blind only there ? Intent for fauts alone to pry
Wi' howlet stare ?
No — let the better part be mine To show their virtues as they shine
O'er Life's dark way ; To prove that in each bosom's shrine Still burns unquench'd the spark divine,
Though dimmed its ray.
And Education's breath will blow That spark into a flame whose glow,
Serenely bright, Shall soften doun the shades o' woe An' owre the gloomiest prospects throw
A chastened light, Like that which moonlight doth impart To the dark sorrows o' the heart.
Though on the simple poor looks down The noble wi' disdainfu' frown, Oft might he from the veriest clown
A lesson learn ; An' oft beneath a home-spun gown
Affections burn Micht shame full many a high-born jade Flauntin' in satins an' brocade.
Nature's nobility surpass
Art's creatures, as the horse the ass,
Or man the monkey-kind ; It 's true they are na formed to grace A court wi' sycophant grimace, Or stab a foe wi' smilin' face ;
Not to one spot or race confined, They spring promiscuous every place To dignify the human race.
Ane o' these worthies know I well, An' o' his life such tales could tell
As would each honest heart delight ; But, being well-nigh spent in rhyme, Must leave it to some future time
His history to write.
No baron, earl, or duke, was he : To fix, atweel, his due degree, Wad task the scrolls of heraldry,
And shame the paltry art : He knew nought of earth's pageantry ; A common labourer was he,
Wha drove his horse and cart ; His patent of nobility
Was of the heart ; His 'scutcheon was his own true breast, Wi' virtue's coat-of-arms imprest !
Spirit of Independence ! thou
Dost deck the common labourer's brow,
In pride of honesty, With a far nobler coronet Than graced the haughtiest forehead yet
Of aristocracy. Dukes, earls, and barons — great and small — One honest man is worth ye all !
0 Honesty ! best policy Indeed thou art.
Can wealth, or fame, or rank impart Such hallowed joy as springs from thee,
Gem of the heart ? The lowliest mortal, thee possessing, Is wealthy in thine own rich blessing.
1 sing no rich man's merits. He Lives shrined in fame's emblazonry ;
Him multitudes adore ; His deeds of generosity Are writ in sunbeams all can see :
What wants he more ? The deeds o' virtuous poverty, These are the fittest themes for me — I sing the Poor ! (Prodigious applause, distinguished in the notation of the reporter by nu- merous blurs and contortions in the writing,) Sir Jonah. Why, my dear Alexis, you have outdone yourself — I never heard anything half so admirable or half so benevolent.
Scalpel. Your hand, my worthy friend — that song has clinched the few loose rivets in our friendship — I have done with bantering for the future ; and you may stick yon moon of yours in the floor, or beneath the table, for what I care. The man who can conceive such a song as that, whatever be his whimsicalities, is sacredly exempt from aught of ridicule at my hands.
Montgomery. You have indeed roused us with the voice of a trumpet. I fear our " book lear," as you call it, stands little chance against so vigor- ous a genius —
18
Engines of the Steam-Vessel " Nimrod"
[January,
Gray. Noo that 's ane o' the maist sensiblest things you 've said the nicht-, for I ken, brawlies, I 'm a man o' genius, and what 's the use —
Jeffrey. But where, may I ask, did you pick up that wild, unearthly music to which your lines are set ? Sure it was formed by the spirits of air in their midnight revels round the top of Lochnagar.
Gray. Ah ! that 's a secret. Whether it was given to me by a war- lock, or by some natural-born genius made a musician of by frequent com- munings with nature in her wildest mood, and who framed it as if in scorn o' your rules of art, I am no gaun to tell.
Lardner. Well, we must drink to your health and song, I suppose.
Jeffrey. Yes ; and may as well include the two previous performers in the aspiration — The Rival Nightingales ?
Gray. The what? Rival Nightingales? He! he! haugh! — a ;bonnie cagefu'. Haugh! haugh! haw. It 's capital !
Lardner. How is it that we have not been favoured with the company of your reporting-box this evening, Sir Jonah? I expected to have seen this curiosity of science.
Jeffrey. Ay, ay, the msgic-reporter — where is it?
Sir Jonah. It is in the room, gentlemen.
Jeffrey. What, here ? And has it been chronicling Gur sayings ?
Gray. That 1'se warrant ye it has. I took a peep into it before ye cam in, and faith it was working away just like a leevin' creatur'.
Lardner. But surely it does not work when there is nothing for it to do ? Coining words when none are uttered ?
Gray. No ; but ye maun ken I ha'e a knack of talking to myself at times ; so, whilst I was speaking, I could see the words as they dropped from my lips form themselves on the paper. It 's a real fact, 1 can assure ye.
Lardner. May I be permitted to inspect it, Sir Jonah ?
Sir Jonah. Most certainly. Perhaps Gray will take it to you.
Gray. That will I. [Takes the box from the sideboard with a reverential air, andplaces it on the table before Lardner. .] Here, Doctor, is a thing not to be equalled ia the whole world, I take it. Do ye see ? Whilst I am speak- ing— jot — jot — down goes every word as steady as clockwork.
Lardner [examining it curiously). It is indeed a miracle of human skill. It must have cost you much time, after the crude suggestion had first flashed upon your mind, Sir Jonah, to bring it to maturity ?
Sir Jonah. Many years of persevering toil. Sometimes baffled for a length of time in some apparently trifling point ; but gradually, bit by bit, overcoming all difficulties.
Jeffrey {eyeing the box attentively). Little skilled as I confess myself to be in chemistry and mechanics, there is no wonder that I cannot conceive what the manner of the process is : I can only wonder and admire.
Enter Servant with another bowl of punch.
Scalpel. Most opportunely arrived.
Montgomery. Yes ; we cannot do better than drink to our President's health.
Jeffrey. In a bumper ?
Gray. Ay, ay. -■" Whatever the drink, it a bumper must be."
Lardner. With all my heart ; and pray couple with Sir Jonah this piece of natural magic.
Scalpel. Our wotrthy President and his Self-reporter.
{The toast, drunk with enthusiasm : all standing.)
Sir Jonah. Honoured friends,- — from the bottom of my soul I thank you for this mark of your regard. Praise is at all times dear to the human iieart ; how much, then, must it be prized by me on the present occasion, coming, as it does, from friends long tried ; whose praise is not tendered lightly, and whose attachment I know to be as deep as it is ardent ! Permit me, in return, to drink to your very good health, one and all.
Montgomery. Here 's to our next merry meeting.
{Drunk with much cheering.)
Gray. [Aside. Umph ! strong symptoms of breaking up, I 'm thinkin'. There canna be a better time. Sir Jonah is just sittin' as he oucht to do for his picture, wi' the ladle in his han' an' his feet upon the wee stule there ; an' Montgomery, opposite to him, will show his bonnie profile. It 's nae odds for the lave except mysel', an' I took care to put on my best coat an' brawest ruffled shirt to meet the occasion. Some o' them will no like to see the pictures o' their bald pows ; but then there 's Montgomery and me to grace the group. I '11 tak my staun here by the fire an' engage them a' in conversation while the man is striking it aff. Ah! there 's Mr. Varryjust come in : he '11 be took as well. It will do exactly.] Rings the bell.
[The bell is no sooner rung than the decorations of the room disappear — the moon suffers an eclipse — the ordinary Boccius globe-lamps resume their wonted position on the table — and the sanctum recovers its ordinary aspect.']
Montgomery. Hallo ! The place is bewitched.
Sir Jonah. Why, what means all this, Alexis ? What infernal machinery have you beneath the floor to work all these theatrical enchantments ?
Jeffrey. Machinery ? I hope there 's nothing that can explode. Really transformations of this description are scarcely safe or prudent.
Gray. Poo ! ye needna be on the fidgets ; am I no' here mysel' ; an' div
ye think T 'd blow myself 'up wi' gas or pouther ? There 's nae machinery forbye that wee bit black box in the wa'.
Mr. Vairy [Aside. There 's a demon in the box ; he 's actually making signals to it] . What does the box contain ?
Gray. It contains you, an' me, an' Sir Jonah, an' us a' ; or, at least, will contain very shortly. Na, Sir Jonah, you needna put that smirk upon your face, for I 'm no' fou, that 's positive. It 's as true as the book o' Nehemiah.
Montgomery. Why, man, the box is not twelve inches square.
Gray. Ay, ay, lauch awa' — maybe it '11 be a little against you presently ; but I told you I 'd ha'e my revenge.
Jeffrey. [Aside. An explosion to a certainty.] What means the man ?
Gray. Why this ; that 1 've stolen a march upon you a'. As Sir Jonah has thought proper to give a' our stitchet sangs to the world and vapouring speeches, I have thought that they might as well ha'e our portraits also ; so, whilst you 've been boozing here, I got a chap to tak' ye all aff by the po- pho-to — ay, that 's it — the photographic system ; and there you are in the box every father's son o' ye.
Sir Jonah. Now, Alexis, have done with your jokes.
Gray. Jokes ? It 's nae jokes— as sure ,as death. What 's mair, too, I ha'e told the printer to clap the picture aboon Sir Jonah's report, so that you '11 be a' kent noo. You won't be able to walk the streets without hearing ae laddie whispering to anither, " that 's Sir Jonah,'' and '•' that 's Scalpel ;" an' the lasses will be sayin', " there goes Montgomery, the bonnie chiel that sings the love-sangs ;" and " there 's me, a braw an' salutary man ;" and the men will be a' spierin' when the next Club sits, an' whether we '11 let them in. I tell you ye 're marked for life.
Sir Jonah. It 'sa most malevolent invention.
Gray. Not waur than yon clyping-box there : mine is only a magical reporter o' the ootside, but yours is of the heart. I told you I 'd ha'e my revenge.
Montgomery. And most skilfully you have taken it ; but I hope the printer will have more sense than to put it in.
Gray. It 's in already— now bein' prented ; for you see the — the — ay, the process prents an' carves at the same time, according to the last improve- ment. But I see the Bockys are beginning to wink, an' — for you see 1 broch them back an' performed the ither cantrip o' makin' the room as ordinal-', to prevent the photy writing it down ; for if the extravaganzas had been pic- tured, as our frien' ca's them, folk wad hae thoucht it was Beldam we were in.
Sir Jonah. The toast.
Cray. Ay, this is it. You 've been drinking success to a' sorts o' per- sons an' things the nicht except one class o' persons for whom we 'd, I sure, a' do muckle. I therefore give you, " Success to the readers of the Artizan; — may they increase in knowledge and in numbers."
Lardner. A right good toast.
Jeffrey. Ay, we '11 drink it with hearty good will.
Sir Jonah. Fill all glasses — to the brim.
Omnes. SUCCESS TO THE READERS OF THE ARTIZAN.
[Drunk with the most rapturous enthusiasm — again, and again — and one time more, and then anothei — and then once more ; Gray volunteering the musical hips, in which Sir Jonah joins heart and soul. The bowl of punch is ladled dry. The guests break up, with many cordial shakes by the hand; and hopes expressed of more such merry-makings. And so the curtain drops upon the first Anniversary Jubilee of the Artizan. Reader, we wish you had been at it.]
Art. XII.— ENGINES OF THE STEAM-VESSEL "NIMROD," BY MESSRS. BURY, CURTIS, AND CO.
We give in our present number a portrait of the direct-action engines intro- duced by Messrs. Bury and Co. into the Nimrod, of which we gave a carica- ture in the Atlas plate of direct-action engines. Of the merits of Messrs, Bury's plan we have already expressed our opinions, aod have now only to furnish such technical explanations as will make the structure of the engines more fully comprehended. This will best be done by furnishing letters of reference in the usual way, and they are as follows : — rA, cylinder ; B, air- pump ; C, slide-valve ; D, slides for guiding bottom of side-rods ; E, con- denser separated into two chambers by a diaphram, which chambers are con- nected or disconnected by the valve O ; F, hot wells ; G, expansion-valve ; H, feed-pump ; I, bilge-pumps ; J, cross-head ; K, cross-tail ; L, inner side- rods ; M, outer side-rods; N, columns; P, cane for expansion-valve; Q, air-pump cross-head ; R, air-pump connecting-rod ; S, air-pump slides ; T, crank or intermediate shaft for working air-pump ; U, steam-pipe ; V, cranks ; W, shaft; X, framing ; Y, waste water-pipe ; Z, eduction-pipe.
The air-pump, it will be seen, is double-acting; and there are two injec- tion-pipes, fj q, one for the upper and the other for the under condenser. This air-pump has not, we understand, recommended itself so fully as Messrs. Bury expected, though we are at a loss to conceive why. The foot and dis- charge-valves appear to us to be set at too great an angle : they will strike more heavily than if more upright.
18-44.]
Relative Merits of Wood and Iron Steamers.
19
Art. XIII.— DISCONNECTING GEAR FOR PADDLE-WHEELS.
In our last number we gave drawings of the disconnecting gear employed by- Messrs. Maudslay and by Messrs. Miller, but had not space left for the de- scription of those plans, which we therefore now give. Messrs. Millers' plan is a mere clutch upon the shaft, the paddle-wheel being loose upon the shaft, and consequently moving with the engine only when the clutch is in gear. Messrs. Maudslay's plan is less easily comprehended, and requires a longer explanation to make it understood.
The plumber-block and bottom brass is made and fitted in the ordinary way, but the top brass is five inches longer than the bottom one, and fitted into the bearing of the shaft. In the top of this brass is a recess and teeth- rack, as shown at A ; and in gear with this rack is a wrought-iron pinion with four teeth (cut out of the solid) ; the spindle of pinion passes up through the centre of plumber-block cover, and a brass wheel is keyed on itb as shown at B. In gear with this wheel is an endless screw, and the spindle of it is led up to a convenient part of the deck. The person to disconnect the paddle is stationed at the end of the screw-spindle, and drives it round until the paddle- crank is drawn out of the crank-pin. An index-point is fixed on to the top of the brass wheel, and another is fixed to the plumber-block cover, and the disconnexion is complete when the two index -points are together ; but these points and the recess in the side of the paddle-crank are more for the purpose of safely forming a connexion while the intermediate shaft is revolving.
Suppose one of the paddles to be disconnected, the two index-points would then be together, and the person to connect the paddle is looking to the points while he turns the screw-spindle till the points are run over about two inches from each other, the paddle-crank has thus been moved so as to come three- eighths of an inch (which is the depth of recess inside of paddle-crank) in contact with the pin ; so that, the pin coming round, drops into the recess and strikes against the opposite side of the hole. The man at the end of the spindle, on seeing this, quickly turns the screw-spindle until the two points are right opposite each other. The connexion is then complete, and the iron palls, P, are made to fall into the recess inside of top brass. The connexion continues till the palls are lifted out and the brass wheel moved back the half-turn ; the top brass and paddle-shaft has then been moved five inches out, and the other palls are made to fall in so as to maintain the discon- nexion.
Art. XIV.— RELATIVE MERITS OF WOOD AND IRON STEAMERS.
This is a subject upon which we can no longer refrain from saying some- thing, though we fear we are hardly prepared to say all that will probably be expected of us. The question, however, has now become of such pressing im- portance, that we can no longer urge our own imperfect preparation as a reason for further delay, but must prepare to deliver ourselves of what we have to say, whatever be its quality. We shall, therefore, here set down a few of the more prominent considerations which have suggested themselves to us by the way of an instalment ; and shall add, on some future occasion, any further remarks which appear to us as important.
The advantages of iron, as a material for river steamers, we consider to have been already demonstrated ; and the present inquiry will, therefore, be restricted to the question of the eligibility, or otherwise, of iron, as the ma- terial of large sea-going steamers. This inquiry, though one upon which we have long purposed to enter, has been more immediately pressed upon our attention, at the present time, by the announcement that the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Company purposes to build a large iron vessel of 1500 tons, or thereby, for maintaining the communication between Suez and Calcutta. The general question is obviously involved in the expediency, or otherwise, of this particular measure ; and our remarks will have reference chiefly to this measure, though, of course, applicable universally.
Of the objections brought against iron vessels, there are three only which appear to us to have any plausibility. These are, 1st, the corrosion of the iron in salt-water ; 2nd, the accumulation of sea-weed and barnacles on the bottom ; and, 3rd, the tendency of the iron to become brittle. These objec- tions, it must be premised, are to a great extent hypothetical ; for they can- not be shown to have, in any case, proceeded to a very injurious extent ; and one of them, at least, is certainly imaginary. Nevertheless, in a work of such magnitude and expense, as this vessel will be, the existence of a doubt is of itself a reasonable objection ; and, to justify the fabrication of such a work of iron, it must be shown not only that the charges against that mate- rial are unproved, but that they are fictitious.
We begin, then, with the offence of corrosion : and here we must admit that there is some reason for the charge, provided the iron be unpainted. But no one thinks of launching an iron vessel without first painting her ; and, with an occasional coat of paint, there is no corrosion discoverable. While writing this we have received a letter from Messrs. Todd and M'Gregor, of Glasgow, in reply to some inquiries of ours upon this very point. They say, *' We are taking the boilers out of the ' Royal George,' after running four years and a half, to replace them with new ones ; and we find the vessel as free from decay as when she was launched. We have found red lead to be the best kind of paint, when well put on ; and the time it will last is not ascertained."
We should not be disposed, however, to trust altogether to paint, as an antidote to corrosion, in so remote and inaccesible a situation as the Indian seas. The vessel, in ascending or descending the Ganges, might at times touch the bottom, and rub off the paint in some places ; and, in the parts thus left unprotected, corrosion would certainly begin. If it were possible or convenient to dock the vessel at the end of every voyage, to examine or paint the bottom afresh, any such accidental removal of a part of the paint could not be productive of much mischief. But we suppose this could not be done ; and even if it could, the inconvenience would be an objection : so that it appears necessary to make such provision, that corrosion wiJl not take place even if the paint be rubbed off. With this view, the plates of the bottom should, we think, be zinked within and without. If the paint were rubbed off, the zinc would still preserve the iron ; and if both paint and zinc were rubbed off the outside, the iron would still be shielded from corrosion, by the galvanic influence of the zinc inside — the bilge-water being sufficient, or capable of being made sufficient, to complete the galvanic circuit.
To carry out this idea, it would merely be necessary to build the ship with zinked plates instead of unzinked plates — not to zinc the hull after it has been completed. It would not be necessary to zinc the rivets, as their prox- imity to the zinked surface would be an effectual protection. Jeffrey's Marine Glue is, we believe, preferable to paint, for coating the bottom ; and by mixing this substance with arsenic, previous to its application, the ad- hesion of weeds and barnacles will be effectually prevented. In fact, an arsenical paint of any kind is an effectual remedy against these adhesions — the arsenic being destructive of both animal and vegetable life.
We have now, then, disposed of two out of the three objections against iron ships, and the last may be treated still more summarily, as experience shows it to be a mere fabrication. There are innumerable iron boats and barges on the various canals throughout the country, some of which have been in use for twenty years, and no symptom of brittleness is discoverable in them, though full of cruel bruises, in consequence of large stones, pigs of iron, and other similarly unceremonious materials, having been forcibly thrown into their holds ; or, to take a steamer as the experimentum cruris, we have the Aaron Manby, built in 1822, sometimes running in salt water and sometimes in fresh, and now full of dinges from the rough usage to which she has been exposed in the Seine. This vessel has never shown any symptom of brittle- ness ; and we might adduce numerous other instances as verifications of the same general result. It would be idle, however, to waste more time in fencing with a phantom ; and we have not a single well-authenticated case to show that the brittleness. imputed to iron vessels has any real existence.
We have spent so much time in considering the objections to iron steamers — among which we have not enumerated falsification of the compass, as every one knows that defect to have been completely overcome — that we have very little room left to speak of their recommendations. Nor, indeed, is it neces- sary that we should say much upon this subject, as they are, for the most part, abundantly conspicuous. We may, however, here repeat what has been often asserted and never denied, that iron ships are more buoyant than wooden ones — have a greater internal capacity — and are less subject to danger from collision,, fire, or lightning, the electric fluid being conducted by the iron into the water. In tropical climates, too, they are more cleanly and more salu- brious ; and, in the event of the vessel striking a rock, the injury will pro- bably be less than in a wooden vessel. If, however, a hole should be made in the bottom, the water-tight bulkheads will prevent the vessel from foun- dering ; and although these bulkheads may certainly be applied in wooden vessels, it is in iron vessels in which they may be introduced with the greatest ease and efficacy. The subjoined cut represents the injury done to the " Phle- getbon," during the war in China, by striking upon a rock. It is the opinion of the persons on board the vessel, that a wooden steamer in such a situation would have gone to pieces ; but the vessel steamed into port after the acci- dent had occurred, the sternmost compartment only having been filled with water.
One fault of many of the iron steamers which have been heretofore con- structed is, that they are too weak. The accompanying is a rough sketch of part of the starboard side of the H. C. iron steamer "Nemesis," seen from the interior, showing where she broke down in doubling the Cape of Good Hope, and the means taken to repair her on the Coast of Africa. Both sides are alike.
»2
20
Steam-Boat Boilers.
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A, top stringer ; B, middle do. ; C, lower do. ; D, after paddle-beam ; E E, line showing extent of crack ; dotted lines round the above, showing extent of new plating ; F F, end of coal-box ; G G, part of coal-box ; H H, part of engine-room ; I I I, showing the spaces between the angle-irons filled up with wood ; K, end section of stringers ; L L, deck angle iron ; large dots on stringers, showing the points of the (|in.) bolts which secured them to the ship's side. The " Pluto" met with a similar accident.
The want of strength thus made manifest in this vessel is a very serious fault, and it is one, we believe, which attaches to iron vessels very extensively. The " Nemesis" was built by Mr. Laird, one of the most experienced iron ship-builders in the kingdom, and his production may, we think, fairly be taken as a specimen of the average practice. It is obvious, however, that the error is one that is easily corrected ; but its correction is of the utmost im- portance, and, in the case of a large vessel, deficient strength would be fatal.
From the tenor of these remarks, we believe our readers will have little difficulty in guessing to which kind of steamer we incline. The iron, indeed, has a thousand claims to our suffrages, while the wood has very few ; and in future ages, when wooden vessels will have ceased to hold .any existence but in the page of the historian, mankind will begin to wonder at their own temerity in having trusted their lives in such fragile and precarious structures as wooden ships will then appear to them to be. In that history the Directors of the Peninsular Company, through whose enterprize and penetration the first grand step in the supercession of wooden vessels is to be effected, must hold an honourable place, for the merit is by no means insignificant, of having taken so bold a step and wrought out so majestic an improvement without shaking the public confidence, or raising a doubt of the success.
Art. XV.— GRAY'S EPISTLES TO THE ENGINEERS OF THE UNIVERSE.— No. I. Beloved, — I hereby begin to give you my promised instructions in the whole art and science of steam, for you must know that I am very anxious that the working-men should understand such subjects well, and that they can do if they like. There is no difficulty whatever in the matter ; for, to tell you the truth, these philosopher folk ken far less than they pretend, and it is easy for any man to be upsides with them if he has only common sense. It is them that make things appear wise, and learned, and diffeequelt, when there is no mystery or hardness about them.
The first thing of which I have to speak is of the nature of heat, and this subject is, in a small degree, kittle, the fact being that nobody knows much about the thing. Some of the philosophers say that heat is merely motion, and others say that it is a material substance ; but as they have not settled the point among themselves, it is not to be expected that we should trouble ourselves with it. Whatever heat be, however, there are three modifications of it to which it is necessary to attend, and these are sensible heat, latent heat, and specific heat. Sensible heat is that heat which is observable by the ther- mometer ; and there is a certain quantity of heat in the air, even in the most frosty day, for there is no day so cold in this country as it is sometimes in Russia ; and Russia, again, is not so cold as the north-pole. There, is there- fore, a certain degree of heat in everything — in things that feel cold, as well as in things that feel hot ; and the heat thus resident in bodies, and the fluc- tuations of which can be discovered by the thermometer or by the senses, is termed sensible heat.
Latent heat, again, is heat that is not discoverable by the thermometer. If you put a pan of water on the fire it will boil in, say five minutes, and the thermometer will stand at 212 degrees ; but however long you may let it boil, it will not get hotter than this, and all the heat which the water con- tinues to receive from the fire after the boiling has commenced is spent in the production of steam. This steam, however, is not hotter than the water ; so that if you boil a thermometer ever so long, or keep it ever so long in the steam, the quicksilver will not rise beyond 212 ; and, on account of its thus hiding itself, this heat is called latent. The term is, however, a bad one, for the obvious explanation is, that heat is capable of producing two distinct effects, — one, the elevation of temperature ; and the other, the augmentation of volume, — and these effects are equivalent and convertible' into one another. There is no more propriety, therefore, in saying that heat is latent when it does not elevate the temperature of any body, than in saying it is latent when it does not enlarge the volume. In either case it produces its full effect, and that is all we can expect.
The latent heat of steam is said to be 1000 degrees, which means, that it would take 1000 times more heat to raise a pound of water into steam, than to raise it one degree in temperature ; or, what is the same thing, the heat required to raise lib. of water into steam, would raise lOOOlbs. of water one degree. From this it will be seen, that it requires about 5£ times as much heat to raise any given weight of water into steam, as would raise the same weight of water from the freezing to the boiling point. The freezing point is 32 degrees, and the boiling point 212 ; so that the difference or number of degrees through which the temperature has to be raised between the freezing and boiling points is 180, and 180 multiplied by 5| is 990, or 1000 nearly.
Specific heat means the quantity of heat contained by one body at a given temperature as compared with the quantity contained by another body at the same temperature. It no more follows that a pound of different substances at the same temperature should contain the same quantity of heat, than that a cubic inch of every substance should be of the same weight. Some bodies are more easily made hot than others ; and those which are most easily made hot are said to be of the least specific heat, because at the same temperature there is the least heat in them. Thus, a pound of quicksilver is more easily raised to the temperature of 212 than a pound of water, not because the quicksilver is a better conductor of heat, but because it takes less heat than the water to raise it through the same range of temperature. The specific heats of a vast number of bodies have been ascertained and arranged in tables just in the same way as their specific gravities.
Some of you are perhaps not aware, and I may therefore here tell you, that all bodies in nature are supposed to be composed of atoms just like shot, but millions of times smaller probably than the smallest animalcula. The relative weights of these atoms have been ascertained, and they ai-e printed in tables. Now it appears very probable, from various considerations, that every atom, whether heavy or light, requires the same quantity of heat to raise it through the same range of temperature, and, if this be so, the specific heats of bodies must be inversely as their atomic weights, for there are more atoms in a given weight when the weight of each is small. The experiments, however, which have been made to test this doctrine have not confirmed it, but they are ob- viously vitiated by the fallacy of confounding the specific heat with the latent heat. This is a fault the philosophers very often commit. Thus, in esti- mating the specific heat of a piece of iron, they proceed by heating the iron to a certain temperature and plunging it in water, the rise in the temperature of the water being taken as an index of the specific heat. This method would be correct enough provided iron did not expand by heat ; but it does expand, and, during the expansion, absorbs a certain quantity of latent heat, which, being given out again in its contraction, vitiates the result, and makes the heat shown by the water partly specific and partly latent. With the adjust, ment of this error, it appears probable that the specific heats of all bodies would be found to be inversely as their atomic weights.
I think I have now said enough on the subject of heat, and I dare say yon will think so too, for it is all dry enough. My next will be about steam, and that will be more practical and takey.
Believe me, beloved, yours egregiously,
ALEX. GRAY.
Art. XVI.— STEAM-BOAT BOILERS.
We give, in the present Number, drawings of the boilers of the " British Queen" and " Great Western", and also a drawing of the boilers now being put on board the " Infernal" by Messrs. Miller and Co. These drawings tell their own story so effectually, that we need not trouble our readers with many remarks of ours. There are four boilers in each of the vessels we have mentioned ; and the diameters of the cylinders of the several vessels are as follow : —
" Great Western " . . . 73 inches. " British Queen" . . . 77-g- „ " Infernal" . . . . 68 ,, These dimensions, taken in conjunction with the sizes of the boilers, will give the relative efficacy of each kind of construction.
The kind of tubular boiler adopted for the " Infernal," is fast coming into use, and promises to be productive of the most important benefits to steam navigation. Tubular boilers and direct-action engines, will, we are per- suaded, be now employed universally : indeed, this innovation is indispen- sable to make steam-boats pay ; for, filled up as they have been heretofore with machinery, their profitable employment is hopeless.
We do not know whether it will be considered altogether fair to make public these plans, which, we believe, are hoarded up as mighty secrets. If we thought it was not fair, we would not do it ; but, we confess, the unfair- ness appears to us to lie in attempting to shut out the public from the results of that experience which the course of events will invariably bring. If any man makes an invention or improvement, we are the last in the world who would attempt to deprive him, either directly or indirectly, of the advantages it ought to bring : but the law of patents prescribes the method by which that advantage is to be secured ; and in all cases where this security is not availed of, the presumption certainly is, either that the inventor does not wish to monopolize the advantage, or that there is no invention in the case. With those who place their strength in secrets we have little sympathy ; and we really think they ought, by this time, to be sensible how very little secu- rity lies in any of their precautions. For our own parts, we know that there is no plan which we could not get, if we only thought it worth our while to take the trouble ; and we suppose other people find it much the same. The
1844.]
Stray Leaves from the Magical Reporter.
21
very affectation of secrecy, indeed, is sure to excite unusual attention ; and, in these days of Daguerreotype eyes, to rouse curiosity is to make public.
It must not be supposed, from what we have here said, that we would suborn any one to betray the trust reposed in him, by making public things he was commanded to conceal. That would be an act to which exception might fairly be taken, and which we would be the last to defend : but we have no difficulty in obtaining a knowledge of any plan, without a breach of trust on the part of any one to whom trust has been committed ; and the publication of such information is, we think, no more unfair than if it related to a peak of the Himalaya, or the " musical harmonies" of St. Peter's, at Rome.
Art. XVII.— STRAY LEAVES FROM THE MAGICAL REPORTER.
1. Something about Coals. Gray. I tell you, ye're nae judge o' coal : ye dinna ken the Llangennech frae the Graigola.
O'Donohue. No judge? Is it no judge, you said? By the powthers, there 's no better judge from this to the Bog of Allen — yoursilf included.
Gray. Weel, weel, I canna stop claverin' here — so, gude mornin'.
O'Donohue. Hark ! Hick ! Hear me now — jist take a look at thim. Now thim won't do. Thim prodiMtes the red, roaring, hot, scorching, burn- ing, blazing flame, that will destroy the existence of the durability of your boilers — fracture your furnaces, and contaminate your furnace-bars.
Gray. They 're gayen sulphury.
O'Donohue. Yis, they 're not the sort for producing the warm, kindly, genial, ginirating flame, that will circumnavigate the concavity of your flues to ginirate in the solidity of your cylinder the miraculous power of steam, to propil you along at the extraordinary and Jehu velocity of tin, or tin and a half, with only fifteen of consumpt.
Gray. Hoo muckle is the Jehu velocity ?
O'Donohue. How much ? Why, with the livity of the liveret.
Gray. Noo, there 's the " Bentinck," div you think you could mak' her gang at the Jehu ?
O'Donohue. And why not? The " Bentinck's " a top marker, in spite of her two horns of smoke. Yis, I 'm tould, on good authority, that she 's the most beautifulest perfection of novelty and grandeur on the wide Atlantic world of says.
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2. Steam-boat Owners and Steam-boat Makers.
Montgomery. There appears to be great need of some definition of the respective functions of the owners and makers of steam vessels. Some owners, in getting a steam vessel mended