1&48.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



45 



for brintring; this great reserve to bear upon any point attacked. 

 Tlie metropolis also is the reserve for defending the whole of the 

 northern and west coasts, in case of insufficiency of local force. 



It has been reconimeneled that the railway companies should he 

 encourajjed to adapt their %vagons so as to carry heavy artillery ; 

 but this is unnecessary, though they should have provision for 

 carrying light artillery. This country, yielding more than one 

 million and a half tons of iron yearly, can sujjply any number of 

 heavy carronades to carry G8 lb. hollow shot or solid red-hot shot. 

 In case of need, a thousand carronades could he cast daily. The 

 coasts can be lined with heavy ordnance, and proxided with fur- 

 naces for heating shot, the guns being worked by the local fencible 

 artillery. If the enemy effected a landing, the guns would be 

 spiked and left on the spot. Guns would likewise be brought up 

 along the line of the enemy's march, and upon the fortified lines 

 and cam))s, and as each position was abandoned the guns would be 

 spiked. There would be no object in lugging about heavy pieces, 

 and the enemy would not move spiked iron guns, if they had the 

 train to do it. 



Every encouragement should be given to telegraph companies to 

 lay down wires, for although we have got to a certain stage of 

 advancement, the electric telegraph system in this country is far 

 from being in a satisfactory state. It seems very desirable that it 

 should not be left a monopoly in the hands of the Electric Tele- 

 graph Company or the government, who, by inveterate adherence 

 to one system, may check the course of improvement. The use of 

 the needle telegraph by the company we believe to be fraught with 

 great inconvenience, and indeed, in particular conditions of the 

 weather, as the needle telegraph will not work, it may become 

 useless either to announce an invasion or to communicate orders. 

 It is to he observed that the electric telegraphs for the south coast 

 are in a bad condition. The coast line is not completed, and the 

 South Devon line is said to work imperfectly. The telegraph on 

 the Soutli-Eastern is worked in a complicated manner ; there is no 

 telegrajdi on the Brighton. There is a telegraph on the South- 

 western ; but on the Great Western, none beyond Slough. AV'e 

 say nothing about military communications with the inland sta- 

 tions, or with Chatham, Plymouth, and Milford. All this requires 

 looking to, so that ex'ery encouragement be given to complete the 

 system ; and in case of need, the government must themselves lay 

 down wires. 



The steam navigation resources of the country must be culti- 

 vated by a prudent legislation. On this head, as on railways and 

 telegi'aphs, private enterprise is ready enough to work without 

 requiring any great expenditure on the part of the state ; but, un- 

 ha])pily, legislation has generally been unfavourable to private 

 enterprise, or so tardy, that private resources have been exhausted 

 before public aid was afforded. The Great AVe^tern Steam Navi- 

 gation Company was allowed to drop, when slight aid from the public 

 would have given it an impulse, and we might had a weekly line to 

 tlie United States before now. Mr. Waghorn is still urging upon 

 the government the packet line to Sydney, and Mr. AVheelwright 

 has not too much reason to congratulate himself on the aid afforded 

 to Pacific steam na\'igation. From the tardiness of the govern- 

 ment, the Great Western, the Cape of Good Hope, and the Bahia 

 Steam Navigation Companies have been ruined, the Pacific Steam 

 Navigation Company has been kept in difficulties, and the Royal 

 'Mail and Peninsular Companies long had to struggle amid depres- 

 sion and neglect. 



The line to Australia should at once be authorised, as also one 

 to the BrazOs. Already a steam marine has sprung up in Sydney, 

 and it would be much extended under the impulse of a steam com- 

 munication with the mother country, while a slight encourage- 

 ment would fill with steamers the harbours of our possessions on 

 the Indian ocean, and greatly augment their defensive resources. 



It is very desirable that examinations should be established for 

 masters, mates, and enginemen of steamers, but accompanied with 

 tlie distribution of such prizes for proficiency as should stimulate 

 tlie acquirement of professional knowledge, and raise the character 

 of the persons employed. 



With a population of fifteen or sixteen millions on sixty thou- 

 sand square miles, and with vast material resources, nothing but 

 the inibecilitj- of a government, or the treachery of a party, would 

 make a foreign invasion possible ; and one great source of moral 

 strength and confidence is a knowledge of those resources. What 

 can be more desperate than the embarkation of landsmen in steam- 

 ers and small craft, which, if the sea-force of England be annihi- 

 lated, must still he landed on a hostile shore under a well-directed 

 fire of red-hot and hollow shot and shells from heavy pieces. By 

 the time a landing is effected, the local force is mustered, troops 

 pour in from all quarters, the people, cattle, and corn are driven, 



the roads and bridges broken up, and the enemy would have to 

 advance under the tire of mounted and dismounted sharpshooters, 

 lurking in a country full of hedges, ditches, and enclosures. 

 Every bridge and culvert would form an obstruction, every grove 

 of trees near the roads be cut down for an idjattis ; barriers would 

 be formed at the hamlets and villages, and guns mounted in the 

 churchyards, mUls, and on tlie hill-tops. In the face of such ob- 

 stacles the enemy would have to advance, each man carrying sixty 

 rounds of ammunition and three days provision. Tirailleurs 

 would ha\'e to be thrown out around the column of the mo\-ing 

 brigade, and, after two or three miles* advance, more must be kept 

 in the rear, as the skirmishers would get behind, in order to 

 slaugliter the wounded, for it is well understood in such affairs 

 that no quarter is given. The brigades landed at various points 

 along the course, would have their communications interrupted by 

 the deep and wide mouths of the rivers, and their progress impeded 

 by gorges and steep passes in the chalk range, which would admit 

 of a stand being made by the local forces. The brigades would 

 not know whetlier their whole army had made good its landing, 

 and would not in many cases know the fate of the brigades on 

 their flanks ; while, at the points named for the concentration of 

 the dix'isions, many brigades would not be able to get up, and 

 movements would be necessary in flank and rear to extricate bri- 

 gades which were cut off and surrouiuled. E\-ery hour lost to the 

 invaders would be thousands of men added to the' protecting force, 

 and if divisions could be got together for an advance, they would 

 then have to carry entrenched camps and fortified positions, against 

 a superior force well provided with cavalry and artillery, and 

 knowing that the carrying one strong position x\as only shifting 

 the field of battle to another strong position in the rear. When 

 it is considered that in a broken country, swarming with skirmish- 

 ers, a force weak in ca\'alry could not keej) up communications 

 without moving such a body of men as could defend themselves 

 and cut their %vay through, the demoralization of the invading 

 force within twenty-four hours would be certain. A xery hard 

 day's work would have to be done ; nothing would be known as to 

 the fate of other portions of the force ; many of the men would 

 have become the victims of the infuriated skirmishers; and a night 

 would come on, when a large force would have to be detached for 

 piquets and outposts, of which the sentries would be picked off on 

 their guards, x\hile the outposts would be driven in by night 

 attacks. The next morning would offer the choice of a surrender, 

 a retreat, or an attack from a superior force ; and this without 

 having got more than twenty miles from the coast. This is rather 

 a different picture from that drawn by Lord Ellesmere, of the 

 guards marching out of London ; but then it is the true one, 

 which those %vho have had experience in such matters will recog- 



REGISTER OF NB'W PATENTS. 



PNEUMATIC SPRING. 



Moses Poole, of the Patent Office, London, gentleman, for " Im- 

 provements ill. the construction of pneumatic springs." — Granted Jlay 

 22; Enrolled November 22, 1817. (A communication from a 

 foreigner.) 



The nature of this invention consists in applying the elasticity 

 of atmospheric air, or any permanently elastic gas by means of air 

 expanding and contracting chamber or chambers, made in one, two, 

 or more parts, and connected togetlier by means of two or more 

 belts of india-rubber cloth or other flexible or impermeable material, 

 with alcohol or other liquid interposed, the more effectually to pre- 

 vent the escape of the gas or air contained in the apparatus, and 

 to aid in relieving the flexible connexion, and preventing its rup- 

 ture from the action of the weight or force on the spring. 



This mode of connecting two vessels being applicable without 

 the air to other purjjoses, such as hydrostatic presses, ike, by 

 forcing the water into or between the two vessels. 



And the improvement also consists in providing this apparatus 

 with one or more of what is denominated a respiratory chamber or 

 chambers, attached to one or botli ends of the apparatus, and sepa- 

 rated from the main chamber of the apparatus by a dia]ihragm or 

 diaphragms perforated with holes, which will check the passage of 

 the air, and thus relieve the apparatus from the injurious effects of 

 sudden shocks. 



The manner in which it is preferred to construct this apparatus 



