APPLICATIONS OF TIMBER. 195 



and thus, while they are equally strong with weightier 

 bridges of long timber, they are not so apt to loosen 

 at the abutments by shrinking and expansion, and 

 they can be repaired with less hazard and at much 

 less expense. 



It is rather singular that the wooden bridges on 

 the river Thames, in the near vicinity of the British 

 metropolis, are at once the most clumsy and the 

 most totally destitute of any thing like scientific prin- 

 ciple in their construction. The bridges that we more 

 immediately allude to are those at Chelsea, or, as it is 

 now called, Battersea, and Fulham. Fulham bridge 

 is the more ancient structure; and that it should be 

 destitute of even the least display of constructive skill, 

 is the more singular, considering the mechanical 

 talents of the designer. It was contrived by Chesel- 

 den, the eminent surgeon and anatomist, who was, 

 perhaps, the first Englishman that wrote scientifically 

 and at the same time intelligibly, on the mechanics 

 and statics of the human body; and yet there is not 

 one principle in his bridge, except the mere inert 

 strength of the timber. The length of this bridge 

 is seven hundred and eighty-nine feet, and the 

 breadth twenty-four; the cost was at least twenty- 

 three thousand pounds. It is hardly possible to 

 imagine a more clumsy and tasteless structure, or one 

 (constructed of wood) that could offer more interrup- 

 tion to the navigation of the river, or suffer more 

 itself from the action of the ice in severe winters; nor 

 is there the least doubt that if the learned contriver 

 had but bestowed on it a tenth part of the mechani- 

 cal skill displayed by the unlettered Ulric Gruben- 

 man, in the bridge of Schaffhausen, an elegant struc- 

 ture of three or four arches might have been formed, 

 of little more than half the timber, which would 

 have been at once far more convenient for the navi- 

 gation, and not have cost half the sum in repairs. The 



