1839.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



243 



The Royal Excliange, however, is an object which in a national 

 point of view may never occur again ; its purpose brings us in distinct 

 competition with the other nations of Europe, but particularly with 

 France ; the situation is as striking as could well be cliosen in London, 

 the means are ample, and, with a fair opportunity, I cannot but believe 

 that most of the architectural talent of England would have been en- 

 listed in the competition. I am sorry, however, to say that in this 

 matter the expectation of the public, with respect to public competition, 

 will probably be disappointed. So far as I am able to judge, this feel- 

 ing prevails tln-oiighoiit the profession generally, and from connnuni- 

 cations we have received from the histitute, they appear to have not 

 only felt but acted as we have done. The course we have thought it 

 right to take has been shortly this ; a special committee was summoned 

 on the 15th of A]iril to consider the subject, at which the follow- 

 ing resolutions were agreed to : — 



At a special meeting of the Architect lual Society held on Monday evening 

 the 15th April, 1830, for the purpose of considering tlie resolutions of the 

 Gresham Committee, issued as instructions to architects furnishing designs for 

 the new Royal Exchange ; it was 



Resolved, — That this society beg respectfully to represent to the Gresham 

 Committee the difficulty under «liicli it appears to thcni that architects nuist 

 lahoiu in preparing designs for the new Royal Exchange, from the indistinct- 

 ness of the instructions contained in resolntion No. 13. 



That the arrangement of a well considered plan is of the greatest impor- 

 tance to the value of a design ; and that it is not possible to meet the oIj- 

 vious necessities of the case, unless the olijects proposed in the general 

 distribution of the apartments be specified, together with the individual 

 application of each of those apartments. 



That it is a matter of notoriety that, under the roof of the Old Exchange, 

 accommodation was provi<led for the Lord Mayor's Court office, the Mer- 

 chant Seaman's Asylum, Lloyd's Coffee House, and the Royal Exchange Fire 

 Office ; it is presumed, however, that one or other of these establishments 

 must now be omitted, because three only arc spoken of. 



That it ap))ears to this society that there could be no objection to the 

 explanation now sought, similar information having been universally given 

 in competitions for other l)uildings, without which, indeed, they cannot con- 

 ceive that a design of any value could be sidjmitted. 



That the Idock plan required in resolution No. 4, would he inconveniently 

 large at the scale deternuned upon. 



That a question has arisen as to the exact meaning of resolution No. j, in 

 which the words " coloured drawings" occm', in conjunction with the " two 

 perspective drawings" required to be made, this society having been led to 

 understand that all drawings, whether views or othei-wise, are to he tinted in 

 Indian ink only. 



And lastly, 'That it appears exceedingly deshable for the uniforuufy of tlie 

 arrangement of the facades, that the levels of the ground shoidd he fmnished. 

 (Signed) William Tith, President. 



35, Lincoln' s-inn Fields, 15th April, 1839. 



These were sent by the secretar)- to the clerk of the Gresham Com- 

 mittee ; on the 27th April, following, this answer was received. 



Mercers Hall, 25th .tpril, 1839. 

 Sir, — I am duected by the Joint Gresham Committee to acknowledge the 

 receipt of your letter of the 1 8th instant, enclosing copy of the resohitions 

 passed at a meeting of the Ai-chitectural Society of the 15th, in reference to 

 the printed instructions to architects who may wish to send in designs for the 

 new Koyal Exchange, and to state in reply, for the information of the Archi- 

 tectural Society, that the committee having sent out their instnictions to 

 architects, cannot now, without great inconvenience to all parties, alter what 

 they have done, except to say that the rooms required are for three distinct 

 compaaies. I have tlie honom- to be, Sh, your most obedient humble 

 servant, Jamks Babnks, 



Clerk of tlie Gresham Committee. 

 William Grellier, Esq., 



Hon. Secret art/, ij-c. ^-e. S(c. 



The Institute of Architects, it appears, by a letter obligingly com- 

 mimicated by that body, also addressed the committee on the same sub- 

 ject ; the answer to them was as follows : — 



Jlercer's Hall, 25th April, 1839. 



Sib, — I am dkected by the Joint Gresham Committee to acknowledge the 

 receipt of yoiu- letter of the 17th instant, respecting the printed instructions 

 to architects who may wish to send designs for the new Royal Exchange, and 

 to state in reply, for the information of the Royal Institute of British Archi- 

 tects, that the conunittee regret they caonot accede to their request for an 

 extension of the time already detennined upon. 



That with respect to the questions whether the committee require a tower 

 with a chime of bells .' and whether there will be any objection to the prin- 

 cipal entrance floor being raised upon a flight of steps i the committee leave 

 those subjects entirely to the taste and judgment of the architects. And tliat 

 the three series of rooms as described in the printed particulars arc intended 

 for three distinct companies. 



The committee are perfectly satisfied that the anonymous advertisement 



mentioned in your letter, had not the sanction of the Royal Institute of 

 British Architects. I have the honour to be. Sir, your most obedient luuuble 

 servant, 



(Signed) James Barnes, 



Clerk of the Gresham Committee. 

 Thos. L. Donaldson, Esq., Hon. Sec, I. B. A. 



Now surely any thing more unsatisfactory than these answers, par- 

 ticularly the former, can scarcely be conceived ; liow easy would it 

 have been to have issued explanations, as was dune in the case of the 

 Houses of Parliament, and a short advertisement would have announced 

 them — but every thing is refused, and a competitor can only grope in 

 the daik imless assisted by private information unfairly obtained. The 

 labour of such a design must be excessive, the drawings enormously 

 and uselessly large at the prescribed scale, the premium almost paltry, 

 and as it appears the successful competitor is not to be employed 

 as architect, the whole affair may be considered in the words of 

 Shakspeare, as an attempt " to keep the w'ord of promise to the ear, 

 but break it to the hope." 



Leaving now this unsatisfactory topic, I pass on to notice one or 

 two matters of interest which it appears to me desirable to mention. 

 There are first, as a nuitter of great usefulness, the experiments of Mr. 

 Hodgkinson and Mr. Fairbairn, in the seventh report of the British 

 Association of Science, on the mechanical properties of cast-iron. 



The results of these experiments are shortly given in the Ajjpendix 

 to Professor Moseley's Illustrations of Mechanics, and some of the 

 most important to us are comprised in the following extracts: — 



The experiments of Mr. Hodgkinson and Mr. Fairbairn have been published, 

 in the Seventh Report of the British Association of Science, since our chapter 

 on the strength of materials went to press. Their great practical importance 

 will sufficiently account for their introduction here, as an appendix to that 

 chapter. They have reference — 



1st. To the resistance of cast iron to rupture by extension. 



2d. To the resistance of cast iron to ruptm-e by compression. 



3d. To the resistance of cast iron to rupture by transverse strain. 



4th. To the destruction of the elastic properties of the material as the body 

 advances to rupture. 



5th. To the influence of time upon the conditions of r\ipture. 



6th. To certain relations of the internal structm-e of metals to therr condi- 

 tions of rupture. 



7th. To the relative properties in all these respects of hot and cold 



BLAST IRON. 



The experiments of Mr. Hodgkinson on transverse strain present less of 

 novelty and importance : they fully, however, confirm the views previously 

 taken on this subject by him, and detailed in articles GO, 68, &c. A series of 

 them, directed to the verification of the conunonly assumed principle, " that 

 the strengths of rectangular beams of the same width, to resist rupture by 

 transverse strain, are as the squares of their depths," fiiUy estabUshed that 

 law. 



With regard to the destruction of the elastic properties of the material, as 

 it approaches to rnptme, the experiments of Mr. Hodgkinson possess great 

 interest and importance. 



It has been asserted by Mr. Tredgold, and commoidy assumed, that this 

 destruction of elastic power, or (hsplacement beyond the elastic limit, does 

 not manifest itself mitil the load exceeds one third the ireakini/ iceight. 



Mr. Hodgkinson found that, in some instances, this eft'ect was produced, 

 and manifested in a permanent set of the material, when the load did not 

 exceed one si,rteenth of the breaking weight. Thus, a bar one inch square, 

 sujiported between props 4 J feet apart, which broke when loaded with 496 

 ft,., showed :ii permanent defection, or set, wiien loaded with 16 Iti. In other 

 cases, permanent sets were given by loads of 7 Iti. aiul 14 lb., tlie breaking 

 weights being respectively 364 lb. and 1120 ft. These sets were therefore 

 given by one-fifty-second and one-eighteth the breaking weights rc5])ectively. 

 Thus, then, there would seem to he no such linuts, iu respect to transverse 

 iYrai;), as those known by the name of elastic Umits; and it follows from 

 these experiments that the principle of loading a beam within the elastic 

 limit has no foundation in practice. 



It was ascertained by a very ingenious experiment, that a bar, subjected, 

 under precisely the same circumstances, to extension and coiojiression by 

 transverse strain gave, for eqiial loads, equal defections, in the two cases. 



The most remarkable results on the subject of transverse strain were, how- 

 ever, those of Mr. Fairhahn, baring reference to the influence of time upon 

 the deflection produced by a given load. 



A bar one inch square, supported between jirops 4^ feet apart, and loaded 

 with 280 tt)S., being about |tlis its breaking weight, had its deflection accu- 

 rately meastu-ed, from nmnth to month, for fifteen months, ami it was found 

 that, throughout that jieriod, the deflection was continually increasing; 

 the whole increase in that period amounting to the fraction '043 of an inch. 

 A bar of the same dimensions, similarly supported, and loaded w itli 336 Its., 

 being about }ths of its breaking weight, increased its deflection similarly, an(l 

 in the same period, by tlie fraction -077 of an inch. Another similar bar, 

 loaded with about |ths the breaking weiglit, similarly increased its deflection 

 by the -OSSth of au inch. The deflection of these bars still daily .idvances 

 imder the same loatls, and, a sufficient period having elapsed, will no doubt 



