1839.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



369 



figures matte oi four paste, of /(((//, and uf icood. Tliese kind of oHigies 

 were used also for .-orrery ; those ealleil iKuwjmstts and vscHIk, were 

 moved by means of tlircatl, like our puppets ; and some were also 

 moved by quicksilver. 



(7'o be conihmed.J 



FRENCH FURNITURE, MANUFACTURES, &c. 



Upon a former occasion we called adendon to an article in the 

 second number of the Foreign iVIonthlj Review, and we now do so to 

 the fourth number of the same journal ; not for the purpose of bestow- 

 ijig any notice upon (he capital, the witty, and humorous |)aper on 

 EsskunsI, or the Philimiphj uf Ealiiiii, which has generally been 

 poiuted to as the most atlractive of all the artic^les ; but in order to 

 lay before our readers some extracts from that entitled "French Manu- 

 facturi's." 



" These works (L'Exposition, Journal de L'ludustrie, and L'Allium 

 de L'ludustrie,) are directed to accurate rejjresentations and descrip- 

 tions of ail the best modern works of art (painting and statuary, pro- 

 perly so called, excluded), as well as of manufactured products that 

 eitiier exist in France, or are on the point of appearing. Does a new 

 moulding for a marble chinniey-piece appear — does a new bronze boss 

 for a iloor-liandle, &c., come out — is a house erected in more than 

 ordinary good taste — is a new lamp sold anywhere — has a splendid 

 carriage been seen in the Bois de Boulogne— in a few week's time it 

 is laid before the manufacturing public, in full detail, by these useful 

 publications, engraved with the uluiost care on steel, and coloured 

 ail nalurel. For example, one of the numbers contains a very elabo- 

 rate plate of the interior of Musard's cafe, a beautiful specimen ol' 

 Gothic work of every kind ; another has Marslial Soult's corouaticju 

 carriage; a third has the front of a mudis/t's shop in the Rue de 

 Richelieu; a fourth presents us with some curiiais pumps and other 

 liydraulic instruments; and all of them are embellished with repre- 

 sentations of various articles that have ligiu'ed in the great exhibition 

 of arts and manufactures in (he Champs Elysces." 



To go even no further than this, we have here a very striking proof 

 of the much greater taste for art generally in France, and for works 

 expressly intended to represent its productions; whereas such publi- 

 cations would not Ihid suflicient market in this country. Unless the^- 

 belong mors or less to the class of antiquarian specimens, subjects of 

 the kind would meet w itli no purchasers among ourselves. Indeed, 

 there is reason for suspecting that even works having architecture 

 professedly for their object meet with very inadequate encourage- 

 ment, or rather with discouragement, with chilling coldness aiidin- 

 diflference. To be at all a saleable commodity, architecture nuist be 

 served up in picture books, where the interest of the plates is made 

 to lie not in the buildings so much as in the figures and costumes in- 

 troduced, and in that s])arkling effect of light and shade which maj' be 

 made to set otl" the ugliest just as well as, perhaps better, than the 

 most tasteful piece of architecture. 



However let us drop these reproachful cununents, antl proceed w iih 

 our extracts. "The new stulf woven of silk and glass, or glass alone, 

 attracted much attention in these galleries. According as the glass 

 tlu'eads are coloured, jellow or white, they imitate gold or silver 

 brocade with the greatest nicety,and they have the advantage of never 

 tarnishing. Their effect fur /nmilure is most splendid. The price is 

 from 25 to 40 francs the ell."- — Here then, is a perfect novelty, wiiicli 

 will probably lead to some changes in decoration. If, as we presume, 

 tissues woven entirely of glass are not likely to be at all injured by 

 heat or Hame, they might be applied to draperies and canopies, over 

 chandeliers and lustres in a ball room, where, if tastefuUy designed 

 and arranged, they woidd produce a striking and appropriate etl'ec-j. 



" hi furniture, the prevailing taste of the Jiniaissaiice had it all its own 

 way — at least for all cabinets, tables, bookcases, &c. No other furni- 

 ture in the world can be compared to that of France — we do not s.\y 

 in solidity, but in taste and appearance. To these two qualities the 

 Parisian manufacturers have recently addetl those of good worknian- 

 shiii, of artistical design and execution, and of moderation of price. 

 In many articles, ingenuity has been grtfatly on the rack, and some of 

 the beds which turned into sofas or tents, and might aci-onnnodate 

 half-a-dozen sleepers or one as the case might be, with others that 

 shut up in a common portmanteau, were highly creditable to their 

 inventors. The carpets that come in for so important a share in Eng- 

 lish house-keeping expenses, were here in wonderful abundance, 

 and at comparatively moderate prices; the Aubusson carpets were 

 neady as sumptuous things as what the Gobelins or Beauvais could turn 

 out. The cabinets, the commodc;;, the tables, whether in oak, in 

 ebony, or in rose-woo<l, (mahogany is entirely gone out of fashion, I 

 were all eiu\ ed iu the most suinptuoua and expensive style, richly 



ornamented with gilt bronze, and incrustcd with plates of various 

 coloured nuubles, or mother-of-pearl." 



Though we ought to desist from quoting further, we cannot refrain 

 froni extracting what is said relative to an invention l)y M. Cola.-,. 

 "This process admits of very speedy and clieap appliiation to all 

 works of art, anil as an instance of its usi-, we may mention that a. 

 great quantity of wooden gothic panel-work being wanted at a low 

 rate for the restoration of the church of SI. (jcrmain, L'Auxernois, 

 the inventor has contracted to furnish many thousand feet, sculptured 

 in the most exquisite manner, after the original model taken from tlie 

 old church, at lillle mure llian the value if tlie malerial " ! ! After this 

 we need not say that the article deserves to be perused by all our 

 readers; and we should be glad if any could confirm what is stated as 

 to (he new process for copying gothic panel-work, since, unless vetr 

 greatly exaggerated, it nnist be a most important invention, and one 

 likely to improve our modern church architecture in that style. 



.SPEED ON RAILWAYS. 



A CO.MJIUMCATION BY THJJ COPTK DE PAMI30UR TO W. ARAGO. 



The resistance of the air to bodies v^ hich (ravel through the atmos- 

 phere with a rapid motion, having given room to some persons to 

 imagine that locomotive engines coukl never attain a very great ve- 

 locity on railways, I think it will be interesting to you to know, that 

 in an experiment I have just made (on the Ijrd August,) upon the 

 Great Western Railway between London and Maidenhead, ue attained 

 a speed of 55-1 English miles per hour. Tin- experiment was per- 

 hirmed by (he "Evening Star" locomotive, manufactured by Mr. 

 Robert Stephens(jn, of Newcastle: it has wheels cf 7 feet diameter, 

 and ilrew only the tender loaded with 8 persons. It maintained easily, 

 during 7 or 8 miles, a speed of 'la miles per hour, afterwards, for a 

 distance uf 3 or 4 miles, a speed equal to 48 miles per hour, and at 

 last, two miles were travelled over, each in one minute and live se- 

 conds, wdiich gives a velocity equal to 5.5-1 miles per hour. Although 

 this \ery lapid motion gives one the idea that we are left to the 

 mercy of chance, by the difficulty there would be to stop the engine in 

 time, iu consequence (d' (he almost conqilete instanlaneousness with 

 which obstacles present themselves, to overcome this difficulty it 

 would be necessary to increase the inspection of (he state of the rail- 

 way, and to euqiloy rapid means of transmitdng to a distance, by sig- 

 nals, (he state of the road. 



With the engine employed for the experiment we were not able to 

 go beyond the speed stated above, because the pump was not suf- 

 liciently large to feed the boiler, consequently we were obliged to 

 suspend the vaporisation, and to decrease the speed, until (he lioiler 

 was again replenished with water; but there is no doubt that in only 

 enlarging the diameter of the jiump and feeding pi])es, we might be. 

 able to nmintain the greatest speed for a long distance — and even to 

 go beyond il. .Speed equal to what 1 have reported has alreaily been 

 mentioned in some journals, but as these statements are often made 

 upon hearsay evitlence only, I have thought (hat it would be useful tu 

 you to be hiformed of it by the experimentalist himself. I have no(; 

 given here the ditierent dimensions of the engine, because my only 

 object now is to make known the facility that there is in attaining 

 considerable speed. I shall only add that the Great Western Railway 

 is sensibly a level. 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE RESTORATION OF RUINS. 



Many who imagine themselves anticpiarians consider it as a. perfect 

 desecration to remove the verdigris anil dirt from a coin, so as to 

 render (he device plain and distinct, or to clean the jiages or renovate 

 the binding of a Ciei-lim. 



Now this opinion, no inalter how common, is generally admitted by 

 those wdiose authority in such matters is unquestioned, to be a most 

 mistaken and absurd one. In what possible way can it be defended ? 

 If a coin jiossesses any value from its antiquity, it is because we have 

 ill it a specimen of ancient workinanshi|) and device, and also because 

 it is the same object which was fanuliar to those who have long since 

 ceased to exist. Therefore the more that coin resembles in its ap- 

 pearance what it was when in circulation, the more distinctly shall wc 

 see in it the workiuanshi|), the devii-e, -and the image, that were fa- 

 miliar to those who lived when it was in circulation. And not only 

 is the value thus highly increased bv the greater distinctness (d' the 

 image, but a new and not ideal value in some instances originates. By 

 the study of these devices we are able to ciieck the accuracy of the. 

 historians of the age in which they were made, aii<l Capl. Smyth, R. X. 

 has lately written a book on coins t^which from such a title might 



2 f 2 



