1839.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAT>. 



179 



he does not mention that lie had ever done so lilnisclf. Colonel Paslcy, after 

 comparing Dr. Hare's mode of tiring charges simultaneously, wilh other 

 modes which he also tiicd, considers the Doctor's method of soldeiiuj:; the 

 wires together in two parcels, one to bo led to one pole, and the other to the 

 other pole, of the voltaic hatlery, to he the best, and not likely to be improved 

 upon; but he has not adopted any of the Doctor's oilier arrangements, as they 

 are not applicable to snbaipieous explosions under ditliL-nlt circumstances, and 

 he neither uses the large nor the liiiiall iron wires, nor the fulminating pow- 

 der reeoniniended by Dr. Hare. His own experiments for tiring several 

 charges simultaneously have as yet only succeeded at very short distances, 

 because he had not a siithcieiit i|uantity of ihick copper wire in his posses- 

 sion ; and therefore was obliged to employ eonimon bell-wires, only 1-ltiih 

 of an inch in diameter, which are comparatively useless, the best conducting 

 wires being those of l-olli of an inch in diameter, which should always be 

 used for great exjiiosions, and none le^s than l-.Hih of an inch even for small 

 explosions or for blasting. Tiie otlicers who witnessed the various experi- 

 ments at Chatham are therefore of opinion that it would be absolutely im- 

 practicable to (ire gimpowder under water at the distance of ;ll)t; or 400 yards 

 by six of Professor Daniell's cells, with eonducting wires only about as thick 

 as a common bell wire, as was assoited in a paper on the subject of blasting rocks 

 by galvanism, published in a scientilic journal for the month of INIay, ly.'lB ; 

 ihst.'ad of which, they think that to produce ignition by such wires at the 

 last-named distance would rL((uire the operator to go to the enormous ex- 

 pense of providing himself witli a most unwieldy battery of far greater power 

 than has ever yet been used within the memory of man ; for in their own ex- 

 periments the) never succeeded in firing a subatiueous charge, even at the 

 distance of ItiO feet, by fewer than eight cells, with common bell-wires-, 

 whereas, in using the lariic wires, the same number of cells was found capable 

 o'' producing ignition at five times that distance. 



We shall conclude by mentioning with due applause the extraordinary 

 success of Mr. William Snow Harris, of Devonport, who did wonders in firing 

 gunpowder by wires led through water at a great distance by the common 

 electrical machine in 1S2-'J. Hut t'or a detailed account of the interesting ex- 

 periments of this justly celebrated electrician, which astonished a iiiuTiber of 

 distinguished naval otlicers and otlier spectators at Devenport, at the period 

 alluded to, we must refer to ihe Jiiili^/t Press newspaper of the 1 7th of 

 INIarch of that year. Notwithstanding this brilliant success, the voltaic 

 baitery must be considered preferable to the electrical macliine, because the 

 latter requires a much longer a|iprentlcesh p to use it properly ; and one 

 cannot expect such skilful manipulation as Mr. Harris has displayed either 

 from military or from civil miners; besides which, that gentleman worked 

 from a warm dry cabin, which is indispensable to the success of the electrical 

 machine; whereas in the experiments of the engineers at Chatham the 

 charges were always fired from Daniell's voltaic battery in the open air, 

 often when exposed to heavy rains, and on one occasion during a very violent 

 snow storm. 



EARLY GREEK SCULPTURE. 



AT THE niimsil JtUSEUiM. 



{Ffoin the Times ) 



The casts from the /Egiiia marbles, of which some time since we gave a full 

 description, have within these few days been placed on the pediment which has 

 been erected for them ; it is in that part of the gallery of antiquities called llio 

 Phigalian room, and is an ex'act representation of that portion of the temple 

 of .lupiter Panhelleniuj, in the island of ^ligina, in t!ie ruins of which the sta- 

 tues were discovered. The composition is of brick stuccoed. Although a 

 great improvement on the former shelf, as being deeper and bolder in the relief, 

 and also as having the ornamented figures placed on the apex, yet it is much 

 to be regretted that the situation has not been more happily chosen — first, be- 

 cause it is not erected at a sufficient height from the p^ivement to give the full 

 effect to the statues, and also, as the width of the apartment does not all'ord 

 sufficient space for the angles to be carried out, they are necessarily cut oS, 

 vshich gives the whole an unfinished and uncouth appearance. Neither, from 

 the locality, can the spectator take that distant view which is required to bring 

 out the beauty of the whole. Both in the Vatican and in the gallery of I'lo- 

 rence a great effect is given to the master-pieces of antiquity by assimilating 

 the edifices in which they are contained with the works exhibited, and avoiding 

 as much as possible the warehouse look which a number of statues of sll sorts, 

 sizes, conditions, qualities, placed in juxtaposition must always, in a certain 

 degree, give to the building, which reduces tlie eft'ect on tiie beholder, as it 

 prevents the merits and beauties of the sculptures being observed, creates con- 

 fusion in his mind, who, if he afterwards sees a cast of any single one, is sur 

 priced th.At he has overlooked or forgotien it. The statue of the Apollo in the 

 Vatican, and the \'enus de Medicis in the Ducal gallery at Florence, would 

 lose half their grandeur were they republicanised amidst the heterogenous 

 denizens of the spacious halls of the British Museum. The truth of this mav 

 easily be proved: let any one observe the superb statue of the Venus found in 

 the baths of Claudius at Ostia through the entrance of the terra-cotta room, 

 and he cannot fail to be struck with its beauty ; but he will find on entering 

 that other sculptures placed around, of diifercnt character and dimensions, ma 

 teiially reduce the effi?ct. We are well aware that it would not be possible so 

 to arrange that every sculpture of consequence should possess its distinct apart- 

 ment ; bnt here the contrary practice has been cai'ried to excess. It is strange 

 that as one of the principal defects of the National Gallery consists in the 

 dijiiiinulive proportions of its rooms, so that paintings which require both light 



and space to bo viewed with advantae? are deprived of both, that in the statue 

 galleries of the British Museum uosl.ing but spacious halls are to be found, 

 and that there is not one chambar • - onstructed as to hear resemblance in its 

 proportions and its " dim religion* it* it," its "solitude of silence," to thofe 

 sanctuaries in which many of «h^ «* tues exhibited were originally placed. 

 We mention this, because there ir? • tuutions in the Museum where, at least 

 with regard to those .Kgina figurea, tnis object might have been effected. In 

 the great centre saloon it would have been easy to have made the partition 

 columns harmonise with the pe<liment, by which it would have been placed at a 

 sufficient elevation from the pavement ; or in the new building which is to cc 

 copy the ground the twelfth room now covers and about to be rebuilt. Ol' the 

 whole collection within the walls these statues are .ilone as a group j.er se per- 

 fect, and had they been placed to advantage would have given to the general 

 visitor a far better idea of the grandeur and beauty of ancient art than the 

 headless, armless, and legless remains contained in the Elgin saloon. We 

 protest, also, against the unseemly impalement of the horses, which creates a 

 feeling of horror in Uie mind, and which might easily have been obviated by 

 attaching them to the w.tlls with iron rods invisible to the spcctatoi-s ; also th ! 

 wall within the pediment forming the back ground should have been made to 

 resemble -stone, and not have bad the glaring colour it now possesses. On ;V.O 

 opposite side of the apartment a similar building is preparing, in which arc to 

 be placed the nine figures that ornamented the eastern front of the same Ttm;j'e 

 of Jupiter whence these were taken. 



Within a temporary building opening from the fifth room are the casts from 

 the marble metopes of the great temple of .lupiter Olympius, at .Sclinus, in 

 .Sicily. Valuable as they are, as belonging to a school of art prior to that of 

 -ligina, and probably of a date coeval with the earliest Egyptian, a short notice 

 of them may not be unacceptable, as no account of them is to he found in the 

 synopsis, and to the public in general, although subjects of ureat curiosity and 

 inquiry, the legend which they tell, and their appearance are altogether as 

 unaccount.ible as mysterious. At Selinus, in .Sicily, there are the remains 

 of six temples of the earliest Doric, within a short distance of each other, and 

 it was during the researches into the ruins of the largest, called the western, 

 and the one furthest from it, named the eastern, by Messrs. Harris and Angell, 

 in 183-2, that these ancient sculptures were found: among them there were 

 no single and perfect statues as in the temple at /Egina, which probably arose 

 from the neighbourhood being well peopled, and they had no doubt been re- 

 peatedly ransacked. These temples may be reckoned among the largest of 

 antiquity, being equal in their dimensions to those at Agrigentum, in the 

 fluting of whose columus there is sufficient space for a man to stand. Imme- 

 diately after the discovery, application was made to the Neapolitan Govern- 

 ment to allow them to be shipped for England, but permission was refused, 

 and they are now in the Royal Gallery at Palermo ; casts were allowed to be 

 taken, and they are these we now describe. They are probably of as early a 

 date as any that have reached our times, and are of different styles of art ; 

 those whii li belonged to the Temple called eastern, whence the sculpture of 

 the head of the dying warrior, and the chariot drawn by horses, were taken, 

 possess much of the .-Eginitan character; those of the western are of a ruder 

 age, in mo=t of the figures the anatomy resembles that of the earliest coins, 

 but different in many respects from the Greek sculptures ; and there is a short 

 and full character in the faces approaching the Egyptian. From the short 

 proportions, the fleshy part of the thigh overcharged, and the peculiar manner 

 in which the hair is arranged, they might be taken for specimens of .Eginit;m 

 art ; but on a close inspection it will be found, that they are the work of ar- 

 tists educated on different principles. At a much later period it is known 

 that the artists of /Egina were employed by the kings of Sicily, and these 

 therefore are not unlikely to have been the work of Carthaginian sculptors 

 brought to decorate a city in alliance and newly founded, which will account 

 for tiie Egyptian character given to the whole. The cast, which consists of 

 the body and head of a dying soldier, a part of a female figure behind, formed 

 the third metope of the eastern temple, and is a most valuable and curious 

 fragment, and determines the style and character of the sculpture of the temple. 

 It bears a marked resemblance to some of the lieaJs in the -Egina marbles, 

 but it has much more expression ; the artist has evidently intended to mark 

 the agonies of death, by the closed eyes, the mouth slightly opened, an. I the 

 tongue appearing between the teeth ; the hair and beard are most carelully 

 amfsyme-.etrically arranged and most elaborately finished, the helmet is thrown 

 back, and is of the kind called " yfTiaui':' part of the crest " Ao<f-os " is visible 

 under the left shoulder of the figure. The fragment of the female is very 

 spiiited, and evidently in strong action. These metopes, like those of the 

 Parthenon, are in high relief, and in some parts detached. 'I'liorwalsden has 

 pronounced them equal in execution to the .d'"gina. 



The next, which consists of three figures, one of which has a horse under 

 the arm, is particularly interesting, from the illustration it presents of the 

 death of the Go.-gon Medusa. Perseus, emboldened by the presence ol 

 Minerva, is represented in the act of slaying i\ledusa ; his eyes are averted 

 from the object of his honour, while his right arm, guided by the goddes-s, 

 thrusts his sword into the throat of the monster. Pcg.isus, a winged loul, 

 springs from her blood, and Me.lusa presses him to her :,ide with apparent 

 solici'tude. The monstrous face of the Gorgon is finely lepresented ; the large 

 r(,uiid head and hideous face rise from the shoulders without the intervention ot 

 a neck; all the features are frightfully distorted, the nose is fl:it and spreading, 

 and the mouth is nearly the whole width of the face, and is armed on each 

 side with two immense tusks ; the hair over the forehead is ciirioiisly shown, 

 and almost appears to have represented the serpent's, to which it was changed. 

 'Ihe fi.'ure of .Minerva on the right is draped with the '' uarXov " and has 

 t le M.-eandcr ornament o\\ the edge. The figure of Perseus is m the centre; 



