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THE CIVIL ENGINEKll AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



455 



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CANDIDUS'S NOT E-BOOK. 

 FASCICULUS XI. 



I nmst have liberty 

 "Witliiil, as l:\rge a charter as the h irals, 

 Tu blow ou whoai I jilcase. 



I. And I may surely blow upon one of the newspaper gentry, even 

 at the risk of being blown up by some of them in return. " Covent 

 (iarilen Theatre," says the oracle of the Sunday Times, "is a much 

 finer edifice than Drury Lane, having been designed after the ' Temple 

 of Diana at Athens ' " ! btill, it is ])0ssible that he meant the Parthe- 

 non all the while, Diana having the reputation of being as good a 

 Parthene as Pallas Athen(^ herself, notwithstanding the bit of poetical 

 scandal about "chaste Dian" and Master Endymion. But if the 

 erudite newspaper critic imagines, that Covent Ganlen Theatre bears 

 any resemblance in its design, either to the Parthenon at Athens, or 

 the temple of Diana at Ephesus, or Diana anywhere else, he is gifted 

 with a very powerful imagination indeed. After all, the chief wonder 

 is, not that a newspaper writer should blunder after that egregious 

 fashion, even in this niarch-of-intellect age, but that the enlightened 

 public should be so mu(di in the dark as to swallow blunders which 

 a school-boy could correct. It is greatly to be feared that, without 

 libelling that very respectable personage the "Public," we may give 

 it credit for a vast amount of ignorance on ahnost every tiling con- 

 nected with architecture, for on scarcely any other subject do we hear 

 so nuich nonsense and absurdity uttered so fearlessly and with such 

 impunity. 



H. If our designers of shop-fronts do not display so much invention 

 as they might do, they certainly have not that excuse for not indulging 

 in it, which their belkrs avail themselves of; because they nray expe- 

 rimentalize without risk of incurring reproach on the score of licen- 

 tiousness. Hardly worth while is it to be correct, where correctness 

 is attended with no merit of any kind ; and most assuredly a miniature 

 facsimile of some ancient example from Stuart, applied as an order 

 to the frontispiece of a shop, can produce no effect in itself, whereas 

 an original composition for the same )nn'pose would at all events be 

 less stale ; and if clever and tasteful into the bargain, would have 

 value as a specimen, and might, should it be found worthy of such 

 distinction, become a model for something of the kind upon a larger 

 and more satisfactory scale. Whatever else we choose to impute it 

 to, our excessive shyness of any attempt at originality, cannot be at- 

 tributed to our aversion to novelty, Ijecause, in our eagerness for it, 

 we take a sudden juni]i from one favoiu'ite style to another diametri- 

 cally opposite to it, and make no scruple of adopting without hesi- 

 tation, the most ])re])osterous architectural fashions, provided only we 

 have due authority for them. While to innovate upon either Grecian 

 or Gothic, no matter in what way or with what intention, would be 

 reprobated as little less than sacrilegious, we may, without the least 

 offence, abandon both for the Elizabt'thau, or any other tasteless and 

 mongrel fashion, provided that we then also adhere strictly to prece- 

 dent, and not sacrifice one iota of its bad taste and deformity. Should 

 any one, instead of closely following some one of the various examples 

 of Grecian Ionic capitals, venture to compose something different, yet 

 with kindred feeling and spirit, he would greatly discompose all his 

 brethren, to v.hose astonishment at his presumption and rashness there 

 would be no end. Yet should it so please him, he might copy the 

 poorest — or, we might say the best, for almost the best are poor 

 enough, in all conscience — of the Roman and Italian specimens of the 

 same kind, without incurring censure. His taste, indeed, might not 

 be applauded by every one ; but his orthodoxy could be questioned 

 by no one. And truly, let the taste so shown be as bad as it mav, he 

 is not chargeable with it — it is none of his invention; he has taken it 

 just as he found it, which is, surely, a very fair and reasonable excuse, 

 and therefore I wonder that it should never be made use of. 



III. Of what use, I should like to know, have been such works as 

 Piranesi's llagnificenza di Roma, since, for any ideas they appear to 

 have furnished, they might as well have been flung into the sea, or 

 committed to the tlames. Though we there meet with much to con- 

 vince us that there was infinitely more variety in ancient Roman 

 architecture than existing monuments of it show, we have not cared 

 to turn it to any account, but have continued to plod on with the old 

 and limited stock of ideas, endeavouring to reduce all that appertains 

 to detail, to as few forms and as mechanical a system as possible, in- 

 stead of studying to enrich the langiuige of the art, by adding to its 

 synonymous expressions, in order to avoid the perpetttal and weari- 

 some repetition of tire same forms on every occasion. 



IV. That the design for the Royal Exchange which obtained the 

 first premium is not to be executed, is the most satisfactory circum- 

 stance in all the proceedings of the competition ; nevertheless, it is 

 l)y no means very satisfactory and intelligible in itself, how such very 

 marked distinction came to be made in favour of that particular design. 

 Neither the report of the tin-ee architects appointed by the committee, 

 nor that of the committee itself, affords us the slightest information, 

 nor helps us even to a conjecture. Surely the reasons for such prefe- 

 rence ought to have been most explicitly stated by the tirst-mentioned, 

 if merely in justice to themselves, because at present they seem to 

 have been guided only by caprice— certainly not by taste, for in that 

 respect. No. 3G was far from pre-eminent It might possibly fulfil the 

 conditions — such as they were — imposed by the committee, more 

 exactly than any other design did. As to that, I cannot speak, for, 

 thanks to the manner in v.hich the exhibition was managed, and the. 

 hurry with which it was closed, it was impossible to study either thai; 

 or any other design sufficiently to judge of it in all its bearings, unless 

 attention had been confined to a single set of drawings. But it seems 

 to me that, wanting one great ]ire-requisite, namely, originality and 

 grandeur, it wanted what was most of all essential. ^Hnor defects as 

 to arrangement and accommodation might be overcome, got rid ol by 

 after study; but where the original idea is poor, the general taste 

 defective, the case is without remedy. Where there exists want of 

 conception at first, it can be supplied by no revision or correction, by 

 nothing short of abandoning the iirst scheme and beginning entirely 

 afresh. It does not appear to me the wisest way, either in this or any 

 other competition, to attach any merit to a mere literal compliance 

 ^^ ith the terms of the instructions issued. The great point is to obtain 

 an idea worthy of being adopted, a satisfactory ground-work and basis 

 of a design, leaving the author of it to correct those particulars in 

 which it may be considered defective or objectionable. If uudeistood 

 beforehand, there would not be the slightest unfairness in this, because 

 the successful competitor would have earned for himself a privilege 

 that would else have fallen to the lot of another. By this means we 

 should have a chance of obtaining very s\iperior buildings to what we 

 now do ; because opportunity woidil then be afibrded for thoroughly 

 revising and correcting the whole, and perfecting it in every respect. 

 Not toTdlow this to be done, is not to allow an architect to bestow all the 

 study upon his design that he may be capable and willing to do ; but 

 to conline lum to what, though shown in finished drawings, may be 

 little more than a first sketch of his ideas for the subject, which he 

 would be able very greatly to improve upon, were he allowed to make 

 such alterations us a mature re-consideration of it might suggest. 



ON THE PRIMING OF LOCOMOTIVE BOILERS. 



Experiments on the quantity of water in the liquid state, mechanically 

 carried over with the steam during the working of locomotives ; by M. de 

 Pambour. 



There exists in locomotives, and perhaps more or less in all olhet' 

 steam engines, a loss which has not hitherto been measured, and which 

 is nevertheless very important. It consists in a very considerable 

 quantity of water in the liquid state mechanically mixed with the 

 steam, and carried over with it into the cylinders. To account for 

 the production of this effect it is sufficient to observe the enormous 

 volumes of water which are continually carried away by the wind, and 

 held in suspension in the air in the form of clouds. Since also the 

 steam formed in the boiler of a high pressure engine has a mucli 

 greater density than the air, and instead of touching only the surface 

 of the licjuid, it is evolved in the very midst of tlie water, it is not sur- 

 prising that it should be ab!e to draw along with it in its motion a 

 considerable mass of water, and this effect must be produced during 

 the whole time the engine is in action. 



This loss must be much greater in locomotives than in other steam 

 engines, on account of the continual shocks which they receive in their 

 motion, and of the slight elevation of the orifice of the steam pipe 

 above the level of the water, of the small capacity of the steam chest, 

 and lastly on account of the enormous rapidity with whicli the steam 

 is evolved from the water in the boiler. In order to obtain an evalua- 

 tion of the quantity of water thus carried over with the steam, we 

 placed the engines submitted to experiment on inclined planes, uuder 

 such circumstances that the pressure of the steam in the cidinder was 

 sensibly equal to that in the boiler, and we thencompared their actual 

 speed with that which they would have atl.uued, if the whole of the 

 water expended by the engine had been really transformed into steam, 



Tliis calculation is very easy ; as wc Lnow by observation the velo^ 



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