General Notices. 59 



because I think anonymous accounts of these matters are very often, and 

 perhaps very justly, open to suspicion ; and because, as a disinterested 

 person, 1 can say more of them than, perhaps, our friend Fenn vi'ould feel 

 disposed to do. I am. Sir, yours, &c. — S. Taylor, Gcldeston, near Beccles, 

 Snfolk, OcM. 1831. 



From some experiments lately made by Mr. Sinclair, the results of 

 which are given in the Farmer^ Journal of Jan. 2. 1832, it appears that the 

 Swedish turnip, unlike other turnips and the mangold wurzel, produces 

 most saccharine matter when the roots are large : a powerful argument in 

 favour of its culture in preference to the plants mentioned. In the same 

 journal, notice is taken of the great success of Mr. G. Mills at Cranbrook, 

 near Ilford, in procuring heavy crops from transplanted plants ; a practice 

 long known in Scotland. Mr. Mills's success, however, has been so great, 

 that he is going to publish a book upon the subject. — Cond, 



Architecture. 



Bridge-building. — It appears that the New London Bridge has sunk as 

 much as 7 in. on the western side, and about 13 in. on the eastern side. 

 Mr. Savage, an architect who has paid great attention to the subject of 

 bridges, and who circulated a pamphlet in 1823 disapproving of the late 

 Mr. Rennie's plan, assigns, as a cause for the sinking, the use of too many 

 piles under the piers. The foundation, he says, is a bed of dense clay, 

 which is not mended, but injured, by piling. At the building of Waterloo 

 Bridge, a bed of similar clay was wholly disturbed by piling, and, instead 

 of being rendered more secure, was raised into a sort of puff paste ; in 

 consequence of which, the security of the bridge depends entirely on the 

 piles acting as stilts. (See Mr. S. in Examiner, Dec. 25. 1831.) We con- 

 sider the reasoning of Mr. Savage as perfectly just, and in accordance with 

 the arguments against the use of piles in Mr. Smeaton's works, and with his 

 practice in the case of the Perth and other bridges. The real truth we 

 suspect to be, that the great success of the late Mr. Rennie in all his un- 

 dertakings prevented any part of his practice from ever being questioned, 

 except by a few men of science, like Mr. Savage ; and these being generally 

 poor, or young, or comparatively little known, their criticisms were never 

 listened to. Nothing is so difficult, in this country, as for an architect or 

 engineer who has nothing to recommend him but a profound knowledge 

 of his subject to procure employment. An eminent man like the late 

 Mr. Rennie not only carries every thing before him during his own life, 

 but leaves a sort of hereditary influence to his family, which secures to 

 them that employment which they would probably never obtain by merit. 

 We could name architects and engineers of first-rate acquirements, who 

 have scarcely any thing to do; and others of scarcely any mind, who are 

 full of employment ; but time will remedy this evil, as well as many others. 

 As the government, corporate bodies, and monopolists generally, get 

 poorer, scientific men will have a better chance ; for the force of money 

 being wanting, the power of skill will be resorted to from necessity. 



We shall probably give Mr. Savage's remarks on the design of the late 

 Mr. Rennie in an early Number ; in the mean time we would ask Mr. Sa- 

 vage and other scientific engineers whether sinking a caisson, and loading 

 it with three times the weight the pier was destined to bear, would not 

 effect a foundation as good as one obtained by even the best mode of piling ? 

 Suppose the loading to consist of regular layers of stone; and that, after all 

 the sinking which triple the weight would produce had taken place, the 

 courses of the loading were found not quite horizontal ; the loading could 

 then be taken down as low as the bed of the river, and the surface thus 

 exposed be hewn to a level. This done, the permanent pier, destined to sup- 

 port the bridge, might be commenced in the usual manner. This idea, we 

 believe, is expressed in detail by Smeaton, or by Belidor or some other 



