EGYPT. 



ENGINEERING. (FORTH BKIDGE.) 279 



remains in force till 1900, and by tacit agree- 

 ment from that date on until it is revoked by a 

 twelve months' notice from either party. Its 

 benefits and obligations are extended to all Brit- 

 ish possessions except Canada, Australia, and the 

 south African colonies. 



Negotiations for the Withdrawal of Brit- 

 ish Troops. When the Drummond Wolff con- 

 vention was negotiated the Sultan refused to 

 sign it, acting at the instigation of France and 

 Russia. Count Montebello at that time pointed 

 out the prejudice that he would receive as Ca- 

 lif and as Suzerain of Egypt if he assented to 

 the condition that English troops should be per- 

 mitted to re-occupy Egypt at any time when the 

 British Government considered that peace and 

 order were exposed to dangers from within or 

 without. In March, 1890, Rustem Pasha, the 

 Turkish minister in London, was instructed to 

 re-open the negotiations, and in May he presented 

 the draft of a convention. Lord Salisbury said 

 that he was prepared to meet the wishes of the 

 Turkish Government by fixing the conditions 

 and the date for the evacuation of Egypt with 

 the indispensable proviso that Great Britain shall 

 have the right to intervene without further no- 

 tice in the event of any external or internal dan- 

 ger arising, that the British Government shall 

 be the sole judge of the necessity of re-entry, 

 and that no other nation shall have a right to 

 intervene in Egypt in any circumstances. Un- 

 less the Porte consented to these conditions and 

 obtained beforehand satisfactory assurances that 

 they would be acceptable to the powers the Brit- 

 ish Premier did not see the utility of discussing 

 the question further. With this exchange of 

 views the matter rested, as neither Turkey nor 

 France was prepared to concur in the British 

 standpoint. In a note to the powers in relation 

 to the conversion the French Government called 

 attention to the solemn declarations that had 

 been repeatedly given that the occupation was 

 only temporary and would cease as soon as order 

 should be re-established in Egypt. 



The Soudan. Khalifa Abdulla, the Baggara 

 leader, supported by all the Baggara tribes and 

 the Jaalins,'has ruled the Soudan for years with 

 grinding tyranny, under the pretense of main- 

 taining a pure Mohammedan religion and the 

 independence of the Soudanese from Egypt and 

 Christian domination. Revolts occurred at vari- 

 ous places, but they did not shake him in his po- 

 sition, and were easily put down by his Baggara 

 emirs, who are aided by 70,000 well-armed troops. 

 These live on supplies exacted from the more 

 peaceable tribes. A detachment of this force 

 threatened an invasion of Egypt in 1889, and was 

 stopped by a British expedition to Toski. In 

 1890 no hostile demonstration of the dervishes 

 was made on the Nile. Their advanced post was 

 withdrawn in March to Dulgo, 170 miles from 

 Wady Haifa. A famine was caused in 1889 by 

 drought ; 23,000 starving refugees arrived at 

 Wady Haifa, and were relieved by the Anglo- 

 Egyptian authorities, who have settled some of 

 them on Government land. During the winter 

 and spring Bisharis were driven in from the des- 

 ert by lack of food and water. Commercial in- 

 tercourse was opened at Assouan, but was not 

 profitable, owing to the poverty of the Soudan. 

 Unusually good crops in Sennaar, the granary 



of the Soudan, lowered prices and put an end to 

 the famine, except near Suakin and along the 

 coast. In consequence of the scarcity the iron 

 rule of the Khalifa has been weakened. A seri- 

 ous revolt broke out in the summer of 1890 in 

 Darfur and Kordofan. 



ENGINEERING IN 1890. With the ex- 

 ception of the bridge over the Firth of Forth, 

 in Scotland, no engineering work of very great 

 magnitude has been finished during the present 

 year, though many considerable works are under 

 way and promise early completion. The prog- 

 ress of some of these was seriously interrupted 

 by the financial crisis of the autumn and early 

 winter, but these difficulties have in most cases 

 been overcome. 



The Forth Bridge. .The preliminary work 

 on this stupendous structure was described in 

 the "Annual Cyclopaedia" for 1885, page 328. 

 The bridge was completed and formally opened 

 on March 4, 1890. The construction was begun 

 early in 1883, and the total cost up to the time 

 of completion may be given in round numbers 

 as $16,000,000. The following statistics are given 

 in a paper on " The Bridge and its History," by 

 Philip Phillips, one of the resident engineers: 

 Total length, upward of l mile; cantilever 

 arms projection (outer), 680 feet ; depth of canti- 

 levers over piers, 342 feet; depth at ends, 41 

 feet ; distance apart of lower members at piers, 

 120 feet; distance apart of lower members at 

 ends, 31*5 feet; diameter of largest tubes, 12 

 feet; top members, distance apart at vertical 

 columns, 33 feet ; top members, distance apart 

 at ends, 22 feet ; struts, largest diameter, 8 feet ; 

 ties, greatest length, 327 feet; central girder, 

 span, 350 feet ; central girder, depth at center, 

 51 feet ; central girder, depth at ends, 41 feet ; 

 internal viaduct spans, various, 39 to 145 feet ; 

 total amount of steel in bridge, over 50,000 tons ; 

 south-approach viaduct, total length, about 1.980 

 feet ; south-approach viaduct, average span, 168 

 feet ; wind pressure allowed for, 56 pounds per 

 square foot; depth of water in channels to be 

 spanned, 218 feet; height-of cantilever pier (ma- 

 sonry) above water, 209 feet ; greatest air press- 

 ure in working the caissons, 32 pounds above 

 atmosphere ; weight on a single pier, 16,000 tons ; 

 thickest steel plates, 1 inch ; length of plates 

 used in tubes alone, 40 miles ; greatest depth of 

 foundations, 88 feet below high water ; contrac- 

 tion and expansion allowed for, between 6 and 

 7 feet. The designers of the bridge were Sir 

 John Fowler and Benjamin Baker, civil engi- 

 neer, and the contractors for the construction 

 were Messrs. William Arroll & Co. 



Merchants' Bridge, St. Louis. This bridge 

 was completed and opened with suitable ceremo- 

 nies on May 3. The superstructure is in three 

 spans crossing Mississippi river. The approaches 

 rest on piers consisting of four cylindrical col- 

 umns. The eastern is in three deck spans of 125 

 feet each. The main trusses are 75 feet high in 

 the center and 30 feet apart, providing room for 

 two tracks, which are placed 12 feet apart. On 

 the city side the approach is of three similar 

 spans, beyond which a steel girder crosses one 

 of the streets of the city, and there is about one 

 quarter of a mile of trestle work. The bridge 

 track is laid with steel rails secured to the ties 

 by interlocking nuts, in order to prevent the 



