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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[Septkmbkr, 



their fathers, and left scarcely a trace behiiid, and the restoration 

 reigns in paramunnt splendour. The principal cafes and shops shine 

 with gothic ornaments and arabesques, to the exclusion of the Louis 

 Quatorze, and with only occasional instances of Ponipeian. This 

 latter style in some degree divides the empire willi that of the re- 

 storation, and it is to to be hoped will maintain its ground, us it pos- 

 sesses greater jiurity, and makes greater use of tlie human figure. 

 Scarcely one or two instances of old cstablislied cafi s does the bastard 

 French Greek remain at all undisturbed. The splendour of some of 

 the restoration buildings is s\ich as to be without parallel in London, 

 and shows eciually a more exteniled love of art among the Parisians, 

 and readier means of availing themselves of it. The number of first 

 rate decorators, which tlie quality of the work shows to have been 

 employed, is such as to mock all the resources of our London artists, 

 and forcibly to point o\it the advantage w'liich the Parisians possess 

 from the extension of artificial instruction. For practical purposes 

 decoration in London is so dear and so difficult to be obtained, that it 

 is out of the power of tradesmen to avail themselves of it. We are 

 particularly deficient in artists who can draw well, and still worse ofi' 

 for such as can colour even decently. There is however a class of 

 workmen from whom perhaps the decorators could draw recruits ; 

 the papier mache manufacture being now so much cultivated, tluit 

 tolerable men fur flowers and arabesque painting could be obtained for 

 thirty shillings a week. 



In Paris the taste for the restoration, like that for all other styles 

 arises from political causes, and is the manifestation of the mo;ul cir- 

 cumstances wduch affect the whole frame of society. Luxury and 

 degeneracy of taste produced the styles of Louis (Quatorze and his 

 successor, and the wants of a predominant monied aristocracy led to 

 its revival ; the reign of Louis Sixteenth, the precursor of immense 

 revolutions, first imitated the sober manners of the English, and then 

 in its farther li.cense fell back upon the Greek and Roman stvles. The 

 prevalence of the Egy[)tian style under the considate is referable to 

 the same elements, and in every instance we see the mind of the na- 

 tion chronicling its successive phases in the remains of the several 

 styles which are the outward figures and physical manifestation of the 

 moral agitation within. We have nothing of that kind here, the in- 

 fluence of a style or a fashion is confined to a particular class, produces 

 no eflfect on the nation at large, and leaves few monuments of its ex- 

 istence. Li France the vvliole nation is agitated, every department of 

 literature and art is called into active participation, and the style of 

 the day is that of the whole nation. The novellist calls into life the 

 personages and events of the middle ages; the dramatist exhibits 

 them on the theatre, the periodical press swarm with illustrative pub- 

 lications, the painter and the sculptor seek no other source of inspira- 

 tions, the engraver distributes their images among the people, the 

 decorator gotliicises the mansion, the architect repairs the old build- 

 ings, and even the cook and the barber participate in the general con- 

 flict. Thus in a few years the whole nation is physically and nationally 

 metamorphurized. One general tone pervades society, and whether 

 he will or no the artist must conform to it. With his hair and beard 

 a la Raphael, he dines in a Gothic restaurant, finishes the evening at 

 the Theatre de la Renaissance with a medieval drama, seals his billet 

 with a seal like that of an old abbot, and warned by the notes of the 

 cathedral like clock on his chimney piece, retires to sleep under 

 a canopy carved in quatrefoil. Go into the Bibliotbeque Royale, the 

 print-room is filled with students of castles and cathedrals, the library 

 with romaunt readers, and the musevun with copyists of furniture antl 

 costume. It is evident that we can never compete w ith such a con- 

 centrated force of application, but at any rate by a better instruction 

 of our workmen, we may become more efficient copyists, and avail 

 ourselves to a greater extent of what is already done to our hands. 



The most pleasing feature to an Englishman of this rage for the 

 restoration, is the respect which is paid to gotliic monuments, and the 

 efforts which are making for their repair and preservation. The 

 Archbishop's Palace vt'hicli was demolished, being now converted into 

 a Place, and the adjacent houses cleared away, Notre Dame towers 

 over the lie dc la Cite with a nuijesty which has few rivals. The 

 church of .St. Germain I'Auxerrois, and other gothic buildings are also 

 undergoing restoration and completion, and freed from the barbarisms 

 of the pseudo classic artists they will possess a greater interest than 

 ever. 



THE THAMES TUNNEL. 



This work now approaches completion, and people naturally ask 

 what is to be its future destinw That it w ill pay no one ever con- 

 ceives, and that it is of any great utility is equally problematical. To 

 climb down one pair of stairs antl up at another, and to promenade in 

 a catacomb is little inviting as a matter of pleasure, and rather too 

 tediou* for business, so that it will probably remain what it has hitherto 



been, more a kind of show, than productive of public advantage. It 

 may however be well worth the consideration of its managers, wliether 

 by the use of a stationary engine, it could not be made a relatively 

 convenient mode of passage, so that by a low rate of toll carriages 

 nught be induced to pass over. If too foot passengers could also be 

 conveyed across in a car for a little higher toll than they could pro- 

 ceed alone, it would perhaps become a favourite source of amuse- 

 ment. 



One of the most interesting propositions hitherto made respecting 

 this great work, emanates from a destinguished foreign nobleman, the 

 Count Hawks Le Grice, a member of several of the academies abroad, 

 and eminent at Rome for his taste and his cultivation of the arts. He 

 proposes that the tunnel should form a repository for busts of illus- 

 trious men, and that the entrances on the Middlesex and .Surrey shores 

 should be efi'ected by two triumjdial arches, one recording the achieve- 

 ments of the navy, and the other the heroic deeds of the army. That 

 the public maybe enabled to judge of the feasibility of this arrange- 

 ment, and of the efi'ect which it is calculated to produce, the Count 

 has kindly ottered to fit it up temporaril)' with a number of busts for 

 this purpose, so that soon an op])ortunity may be attbrded for bringing 

 it into full operation. Alter alluding to the interesting features of 

 this project as a national work, the Count observes, that "if we con- 

 sider the grandiose style of the architecture, the massive and broad 

 ert'ect of the whole, and the form of the semi-elliptical arch which 

 allows the eye to embrace the whole stupendous str\icture without 

 being distracted by any details, we nuist say that it all goes to prove 

 that the viaduct of the tunnel is singularly adapted fur the exhibition 

 of sculpture. To those -who have had the high intellectual treat of 

 seeing those chefs d'ouvre of art, the Apollo, the Laocoon, the Olym- 

 pian Jupiter, the Minerva Medici, and the Ariadne in the Vatican by 

 torchlight will at once acknowledge that the circumstance of the 

 Tunnel being lighted with gas would greatly contribute to the effect 

 of sculptural art. It is moreover known that artificial light is superior 

 to daylight, as the contrast of light and shade is greater, and the 

 effect of chiar'oscuro enhances the value and the beauty." The Count 

 reconmiends that the busts should be semi-colossal, executed with 

 more than usual spirit and boldness, the hair should be well massed, 

 and in their execution should be that simple majesty of form, that 

 solemn quietude and sedate expression, that dignity of gesture freed 

 from ostentation, vvhicii is the distinguishing character of Greek art. 



EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCHES UPON THE RELATIVE 

 ILLUMINATING POWERS OF DIFFERENT LAMPS AND 

 CANDLES, AND THE COST OF THE LIGHT AFFORDED 

 BY THEM. 



By Andrew Ure, M.D., F.R.S., &c. &c. &c. 



Read before the Institution of Civil Engineers, Wth June, 1839. 



The production, diffusion, and economy of light are subjects of the 

 highest interest both to men of science and men of the world ; leading 

 the former to contenqjlate many of the most beautiful phenomena of 

 physics and chemistry, while they provide the latter with the artificial 

 illumination so indispensable to the business and pleasures of modern 

 society. The great cost of light from wax, spermaceti, and even 

 stearine candles, as also the nuisance of the light from tallow ones, 

 have led to the invention of an endless variety of lamps, of which the 

 best hitherto known is undoubtedly the mechanical or Carcel lamp, so 

 generally used by the opulent families in Paris. In this lam]i, the oil 

 is raised through tubes by clock-work, so as continually to overfow at 

 the bottom of the burning wick ; thus keeping it thoroughly soaked, 

 while the excess of the oil drops back into the cistern below. I have 

 possessed for several years an excellent lamp of this description, 

 which performs most satisfactorily, but it can hardly be trusted in the 

 hands of a servant ; and when it gets at all derangeil, it nuist be sent 

 to its constructor in Paris to be repaired. The light of this lamp 

 when furnished with an appropriate tall glass chinmcy is very brilliant, 

 though not perfectly uniform ; since it fluctuates a little, but always 

 perceptibly to a nice observer, with the alternating action of the pump- 

 work ; becoming dimmer after every successive j et of oil, and brighter 

 just before its return. The flame, moreover, always flickers more or 

 less, owing to the powerful draught, and rectangular reverberatory 

 shoulder of the chimney. The mecluuiical lamp is, however, remark- 

 able for continuing to burn, not only with unabated but with increasing 

 splenduvu- for seven or eight hours, the vivacity of the combustion in- 

 creasing evidently w ith tne increased temperature and fluency of the 

 oil, which, by its ceaseless circulation through the ignited wick, gets 

 eventually pretty warm. In the comparative experiments made upon 

 dilfcrent lights by the Parisiiiji philosophers, the metlwiiicul lamp is 



