Suspension Bridges and other Structures, 887 



act of giving way, is identical with my illustrative diagram, 

 Fig. . 



It has, therefore, appeared to me, that I cannot give to the 

 reader a better conception of the nature of the evils I have 

 attempted to elucidate and remedy, than by presenting him 

 with Col. Reid's sketches of the Brighton arch in. the act of 

 giving way, and after it had fallen, along with his own de- 

 scription of the event. 



Fig. 1, Plate I, is a sketch shewing the manner in which the 

 third span of the chain-pier at Brighton undulated, just before 

 it gave way in a storm, on the 29th November 1837. 



Fig. 2, Plate I, is a sketch shewing the appearance of the 

 third span after it gave way. 



" The same span of the Brighton chain-pier (the third from the shore), 

 has now twice given way in a storm. The first time it happened in a 

 dark nighty and the storm was accompanied by much thunder and light- 

 ning : the general opinion of those who do not inquire into the causes 

 of such matters was, that it was destroyed by^ lightning ; but the persons 

 employed about the pier, and whose business it was to repair it, were 

 satisfied that the first fracture was neither caused by lightning nor by the 

 waters, but by the wind. 



" The fracture this year was similar to the former, and the cause evi- 

 dently the same. This time, it gave way half an hour after mid-day, on 

 the 30th of November 1836, and a great number of persons were there- 

 fore enabled to see it. 



'' The upper one of the two sketches annexed, shews the greatest de- 

 gree of undulation it arrived at before the road- way broke ; and the under 

 one shews its state after it broke ; but the great chains from which the 

 road is suspended remained entire. 



'* When this span became relieved from a portion of its load by the 

 road-way falling into the sea, its two piers went a little on one side, and 

 the curve of the chain became less, as in the sketch. The second and 

 fourth spans in these sketches, are drawn straight, merely to shew better 

 the degree of undulation of the third span. These also undulated greatly 

 during the storm, but not in the same degree as the third span. A move- 

 ment of the same kind in the road- way has always been sensibly felt by 

 persons walking on it on high winds ; but on the 29th of November 

 183G, the wind had almost the same violence as in a tropical hurricane, 

 since it unroofed houses and threw down trees. To those who were at 

 Brighton at the time, the effect of such a storm on the chain-pier was 

 matter of interest and great curiosity. For a considerable time, the un- 

 dulations of all the spans seemed nearly equal. The gale became a 

 storm about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, and by noon it blew very 



