180 



THI<] Civil. ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[Mav, 



he is armed with tlie liarp of Mercury ami the helmet of Pluto, which latter 

 has a pendant falling' on each side; the " caTrjua TreStha," or talaria, are re. 

 presented as covering the feet entirely, and bear some resemblance to the 

 ancient g^reaves ; the front part is attached to the ancle by thongs. The form 

 of I bo young Pegasus is exceedingly beautiful; he seems bounding from the 

 earth. The metope containing the figure bearing two others on its shoulders 

 represents the adventure of Hercules, surnamed Melampvges, from the black 

 and hairy appearance of his loins; the slory is as follows : — Passalus and 

 Acheraon, two brothers, reviled their mother, who warned them to beware of 

 a man whose loins were covered with black hair ; they attempted to rob 

 Hercules while asleep, and from that had the name of Cercopes ; in the at- 

 tempt they failed and awoke him, and he bound them hand and foot to his bow, 

 with their hen»!s downwards, and carried them in that manner; they began 

 laughing on the accomplishment of their mother's prophecy ; Hercules asked 

 them why they laughed, and on their telling him the reason, he also laurelled 

 and liberated them. The figure of the god is represented as strong and mus- 

 cular, and the two prisoners have a very ludicrous appearance ; in the reversed 

 position, the hair f,dls in a curious manner ; the whole group has been 

 painted in various colours, and in the countenances much of Egyptian ex. 

 pression is to he observed. The horses which draw the chariot formed part of 

 the centre metope of the Eastern Temple ; it is very imperfect, and is sup- 

 posed to represent the celebration of the race of Pelop s and jEnomaus ; they 

 are drawn full of fire and courage, and are finely (ore shortened ; they have 

 the cropped ears and manes which are observable in those of the Parthenon. 



Tliese sculptures nxa valuable as specimens of the third period of the art, 

 the earliest of which is probably the Hindoo ; the great resemblance both 

 these and the Egyptian bear to that style is remarkable, and gives warrant to 

 suppose that it was the original school. Of Hebrew sculpture there are no 

 remains; the command to form no graven image Jireventcd the art attaining 

 the perfection which it reached in the neighbouring country of Svria, and 

 would seem to account, that within the land of Judeano statue bearing marks 

 of great antiquity has been discovered. The Egyptian, the Etruscan, the 

 Selinuntine, and the .Egina schools, furnished the models for the Grecian ; 

 and the careful observer has it in his power within the walls of the Museum, 

 to trace, step by step, the progress of the art, till it attained its meridian 

 splendour in the production of those sculptures, wlosc dilapidated remains 

 arc there preserved, and which the accumulated knowledge, genius, labour, 

 and talent of 2,300 years has never yet been able to surpass. 



On the walls of the building containing the sculptures we have described 

 are a splendid collection of architectural models and casts from the antique, 

 which were collected by Sir T. Lani-ence, and purchased at his death. In 

 the centre is a model of the shield of Achilles, by Flaxman, taken from the 

 //joi/, and justice has been done to the conception of the bard. Under glass 

 casi s are some very curious models of Druid quoits ; the limits of this notice 

 will not allow us to describe them. 



ECONOMY OF FUEL. 



BY FREDEIIICK S. PEPPERCOKNE, ESQ. 



Perliaps tiiere is no subject of more general importance, botli in a 

 scientific and a national point of view, than that which forms the title 

 of this paper, more especially at the presL-nt time, when owing to the 

 vast and rapid augmentation of steam-power, whetlier as applied to 

 mines, maniifactures, locomotive or maritime pinposes, the consump- 

 tion of fuel has increased to an almost incredible extent. When to 

 these are added the enormous quantity constimed in the iron-works, 

 besides that which is annually exported to India, the Colonies, and 

 foreign parts, we cannot but contemplate the probability of the ex- 

 haustion of our coal-beds (there being no rejiroduction of coal in 

 tliis country, since there are no known natural causes in operation to 

 form other beds of it) otherwise than as a natioiml calamity, involv- 

 ing the destruction of a great portion of our manufacturing and com- 

 mercial prosperity. Nor is the period so very remote when the coal 

 districts, which at present supjdy the metropolis with fuel, will cease 

 to yield any more. The number and extent of all the |)rincipal 

 coal-beds in the north of England liave been asccttuined, and calcula- 

 tions made, by wliich it would appear that the supply w ill be probably 

 exhausted in a period of from 3.30 to 400 years. 



Professor Buckland, in his evidence on this subject, estimates the 

 duration of the coal in these districts, at the present rate of consump- 

 tion, to be 400 years. 



Professor Sedgwick, who is well acquainted witii the coal strata of 

 Northumberland and Durham, gave his opinion respecting the dura- 

 tion of the coal of these counties, as follows : — 



I am myself convinced, that, with the present increased and increasing 

 demand for coal, 400 years will leave little _morc than the name of our best 

 coal seams. 



And he further adds : — 



Our northern coal-lield will probably be in the wane before 300 years have 

 elapsed. 



Already'this event has occurred in the coal-lields of Staffordshire, 

 Warwickshire, and Leicestershire, once amongst the most important in 

 the kingdom, and now nearly exhausted ; owing to which cause the 

 manufacture of iron, for which these districts were for a Ion" time cele- 



brated, has been nearly discontinued in those counties, and the chief 

 seat of the iron-trade is now removed to Monmouthshire and Glamor- 

 ganshire ; in which two counties alone there are upwards of luO blast- 

 furnaces for the smelting of iron at present at work, which may be 

 equal to the production of about 400,000 tons of iron a year. Now it 

 is a known fact, tliat from five to six tons of coal are required for the 

 production of one ton of iron, consequently '2,400,000 tons of coal 

 would be consumed in South Wales in the iron-works alone. 



The quantity of iron made in Great Britain in the year 1830 is 

 stated in llie " Mining .Journal," of October 7, 1837, to be about one 

 million of tons, in the manufacture of which six millions of tons of 

 coal would be consumed. 



The total consumption of coal in .Great Britain in the year 1S27 

 was stated to be 22 millions of tons, and the quantity exported to 

 India, the Colonies and foreign parts about two millions of tons. It is 

 probable, however, tliat even tliis amount was considerably under the 

 actual quantity consumed ; and if we take into consideration the im- 

 mense increase that has taken place since that period for the purposes of 

 steam-navigation and locomotive engines, we shall probably be conside- 

 rably under the mark in stating the whole quantity of coal consumed 

 iu Great Britain, exclusive of that which is exported at 30,000,000 

 of tons, to which must be added one-third of the whole amount, or 

 10,000,000 of tons, fur coal left and wasted in the mines. (See 

 " Holme's Treatise on the Coal Mines," who states the waste of 

 small coal at the jiils' mouth to be one-fointh of the whole, und that 

 in the mines one-third.) This enormous proportion of coal left an-J 

 waited in the mines seems so incredible as to require some further 

 ex|)lanaiion, and this cannot be better givin than in the words of an 

 eminent geologist, Dr. Buckland, in his " Bridgwater Treatise," who 

 says :— " 



We have fur many years witnessed* the disgraceful and [almost iuciedible 

 fact that more than a million of chaldrons (1,350,000 tons) per annum, being 

 nearly one-third part of the best coals produced by the mines near New- 

 cas'le have been condemned to wanton waste, on a fiery heap, perpetually 

 blazing near the mouth of almost every coal-pit in that distriit. This destruc- 

 tion originated mainly in certain legislative enactments, providing that coal 

 in London should be sold, and the duty upon it rated, bi/ meusure and not Ijy 

 wivjld. The snraller coal is broken the greater the space it tills; it became, 

 therefore, the interest of every dealer in coal to luij it of as large a size and 

 to sell if of (IS small a size as lie was able. This compelled the proprietors 

 of the coal-mines to send the large coal only to market, and to consign the 

 small coal to destruction. 



In the year 1830 the attention of Parliament was called to these evils, and 

 pursuant to the report of a Committee, the duty on coal was rej^ealed, and coal 

 directed to be sold by weight instead of by mensure. The eiFect of this 

 change has been that a considerable quantity of coal is now shipped for the 

 London market in the state in which it comes from the pit, that after land- 

 ing the cargo the small coal is separated by skieening from the rest, and 

 answers as fuel for various ordinary purposes, as well as much of the coal 

 which was sold in London before the alteiatiou of the law. 



The destruction of coal on the fiery heaps near Newcastle, although dimi- 

 nished, still goes on however to a frightful extent ; that ought not to be per- 

 mitted, since the inevitable consequence of this practice, if allowed to con- 

 tinue, must be, in no long space of time, t© consume all the beds nearest the 

 surface, and readiest of access to the coast, and thus enhance the price of coal 

 in those parts of England which depend on the coal-field of Newcastle for 

 their supply ; and, finally, to exhaust this coal-field at a period nearer by at 

 least oiie-lhinl, than that to which it would last, if wisely economised. 



The coirduding observations of Dr. Buckland, on this important 

 subject, are so much to the purpose, that it will be a sufficient apology 

 fcir introducing them here. He proceeds thus : — 



V/e are fully aware of the impolicy of needless legislative interfeionee, but 

 a broad line has been drawn by nature between commodities annually or pe- 

 riodically reproduced by the soil on its surface, and that subterranean treasure 

 attd sustaining foundation of industry which is laid by nature in strata of 

 mineral coal, »ho.»e amount is limited, and which when once exhausted, is 

 gone for ever-. .\s the law most justly interferes to prevent the wanton de- 

 struction of life and property it should seem also to be its duty to prevent all 

 needless waste of mineial fuel, since the exhaustion of this fuel would irreco- 

 verably paralyse the industry of millions. 



The tenant of the soil may neglect er cultivate his lands, and dispose of his 

 produce es caprice or interest may dictate ; the surface of his fields is not 

 consumed, but remains susceptible of tillage by his successor: had he the 

 physical power to annihilate the land, and thereby inflict an irremediable in- 

 jury upon posterity, the legislature would justly interfete to ptevent such 

 destruction of the future resources of the natior. 



This highly favoured country has been enriched with mineral treasures iu 

 her strata of coal, incomparably more precious than mines of silver or of gold. 

 From these sustaining sources of industry and wealth, let us help ourselves 

 abundantly, and liberally enjoy these precious gifts of the Creator ; but let us 

 not abute thenr, or by wilful neglect and wanton waste, destroy the foundation 

 of the industry of future generations. 



Might not an ejsy remedy for this evil be found in legislative enact- 

 ment, that all coals from the ports of Northutaberland and Durham, should 

 be shipped in the state iu which Ihey come from the pits, and foibid 



