of the United States of North America, 15 



limited, and as no other description of rail has been manufac- 

 tured in the country, it has been the practice to import both 

 the rails and chairs for the greater part of the American rail- 

 roads from Britain, as well as the iron used for some other 

 purposes. The government of the United States, indeed, in 

 order to facilitate the progress of railways, do not exact the 

 duty on iron rails and chairs imported from this country. It 

 may safely be said, that the manufacture of iron in the United 

 States, and what is more closely connected with the subject 

 of this paper, its application to engineering works, are still in 

 their infancy, at least when we regard the great extent and 

 perfection to which these arts have been brought in Britain ; 

 and my observations on the materials of the country will 

 therefore be confined to those of masonry and carpentry, as 

 these are in some degree peculiar to the country, and any re- 

 marks regarding them will of course be more interesting. 



Brick is the building material which is now invariably used 

 in the construction of dwelling-houses in the towns of the 

 United States. Timber is still pretty generally used for 

 houses in the country ; but of late years the erection of wooden 

 structures, from their liability to take fire, has been prohibited 

 in the neighbourhood of towns. Clay suitable for brick- 

 making is found in great quantities, which is a fortunate cir- 

 cumstance for the inhabitants ; and the bricks, which are 

 burned with wood, and manufactured in other respects like 

 those in this country, generally cost about 6 J dollars or 26s. 

 a thousand. 



Experience in our own and in many other countries, has 

 proved that brick is well suited for house-building ; but expe- 

 rience has also shewn that it is by no means so well adapted 

 as stone for engineering operations generally ; and to some 

 works it is with us considered wholly inapplicable. Marble 

 and granite, of which I shall afterwards have occasion more 

 particularly to speak, occur in the northern parts of the United 

 States; but stone easily accessible to the quarrier, and fitted 

 for building purposes, is very rarely to be met with, and the 

 American engineers have therefore been obliged, as is the case 

 in all countries, to adapt the structure of the works, to the 

 materials they possess ; and in making this adaptation, they 



