236 Chronicles of Science. [ April, 
wrought-iron girders, 3 feet 6 inches deep, which serve partly to 
form the parapet. The pier head measures 42 feet by 50 feet, and 
is supported on eighteen piles, standing 65 feet in height above 
the ground. A new pier is about to be carried out at Saltburn- 
by-the-Sea, and a contract for the ironwork has been taken by 
Messrs. Cochrane, Groves, and Co., of the Ormesby Ironworks. 
Some time ago a premium was offered for the best design for the 
protection of the headland at Hartlepool, and we now learn that 
the plans and estimates of Mr. Thomas Fenwick, C.E., of Leeds, 
have been selected. 
A swing bridge has recently been erected over the river Hull, 
near its junction with the river Humber. The bridge consists of 
two parts, namely, a movable part on the eastern, or citadel, side, 
which, when open, gives a clear waterway of 100 feet ; and a fixed 
part on the western side, having a clear space of 40 feet. The 
London and North-Western Railway Company have been making 
good progress with their great bridge over the Mersey at Runcorn; 
the sixth and last great girder is placed, and traffic is expected to 
be commenced over the bridge in June next. The scheme for 
bridging the Forth at Alloa was fairly set afloat on 3rd January 
last; the structure will be similar to that across the Tay at Perth, 
having spans of 64 feet in width. In the centre the bridge will 
swing from both sides and open a space of 200 feet for vessels to 
pass through. A bridge has been thrown across the Boug, on the 
Balta and Olviopol Railway, which is 800 feet in length, and con- 
tains 1,640 tons of iron in its structure. The Perkiomen Railway 
Bridge, to be constructed across the Schuylkill, will consist of three 
spans of 170 feet, and one span of 125 feet, and having a total 
length of 635 feet. It is to be built on the plan known in America 
as the “isometrical truss.” 
LInghthouses—A novel sort of lighthouse has recently been 
erected at Lowestoft. In consequence of the tendency of the fore- 
shore to move steadily in a fixed direction, the design has been so 
arranged that the structure may be easily removed; and for this 
purpose the superstructure has been made independent of the 
bearing-piles and foundation-frame. The height from the level of 
high-water spring-tides to the centre of the lantern is 40 feet, and 
the illuminating apparatus is a second-order dioptric light by 
Messrs. Chance, Brothers, of Birmingham. The new lighthouse at 
Cochin, on the Madras coast, was inaugurated on the 15th January 
last. ‘Two lighthouses have been erected by the Abyssinian Expe- 
dition at Assaike and Adjnee Island in Annesley Bay. 
Railways.—The construction of the Sloane Square station of 
the Metropolitan District Railway involved, amongst other works, 
the destruction of a length of the Ranelagh sewer. The cast-iron 
tube, which has replaced the old brickwork, is supported on two 
