.1848] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER ANL> AIlCHITECrs JOURNAL. 



££ 



navigation from London to the Channel would lie com])leted ; and 

 by continuinfT the navijration of the Test or Auton to \\'liitchiirch 

 or Ash, with a cut "f five miles to the Basiiijfstoke canal, a tliird 

 line would be com]>leted : and Lanf;ston, Arundel or Littlelianip- 

 ton, and Southam])ton become the ports of London. 



On the other side of the Irish Channel, conveyance companies 

 between Dublin and ^^'aterford (by the Barrow navif,ration, as 

 thrivinir a water concern as any in the kingdom, and the receipts 

 on whii-h last \'ear were greater than ever) ; and between Dublin 

 and Limerick (by the Grand Canal, one of the finest in the kinar- 

 dom, aud tlie Sliannon), obviously present tliemselves. A cut of 

 three miles, or tliereabouts, connectini; the Slaney with the Barrow, 

 would bring- Wexford witliin inland navigation of Dublin. A cut 

 of about the same length from the Grand Canal at Ballinasloe, into 

 one of the small rivers tliat run into Galway Bay, would connect, 

 in the shortest line, the Atlantic with the Irish Sea. 



It is believed by tlie writer tliat every one of the twelve or fifteen 

 lines here enumerated will be admitted by all practical men to pre- 

 sent, if properly conducted, as safe openings for capital and indus- 

 try as any in the kingdom. 



REVIE'WS. 



A Guide to the Proper Regxdation of Buildings in Towns, as a 

 means of Promoting and Securing the Health, Comfort, and Safety 

 of the Inhabitants. By Wm. Hosking, Architect & C.E. Lon- 

 don : Murray, 184.8. 



Mr. Hosking's book may be taken as one of the signs of tlie 

 times, and therefore we give our attention to it, and recommend it 

 to our readers. The outcry for sanitary reform can no longer be 

 unheeded ; it has led to a practical movement, which must go on. 

 Tlie architects, engineers, and medical men, who created this 

 movement, and have fostered it — and we rejoice that our publica- 

 tion has l)een found among the earliest advocates — may feel justly 

 gratified that their proceedings have at length received the coun- 

 tenance and co-operation of the legislature. Those, however, who 

 have held back, or thought that the agitation had no practical 

 autliority, and was merely a noise ab«mt trifles, must now bestir 

 themselves, or they will be left liehind by their more enliglitened 

 compeers. Obstinate adlierence to old prejudices has already 

 brought public ridicule on several men of standing; and reputa- 

 tions which have cost scores of years to build up are at once knocked 

 down, when it is found that tlie parties have for scores of years 

 been wasting the public money, in the despite of every warning. 

 The public are now awakened, and they require at the hands of 

 architects and builders a degree of knowledge as to structural 

 arrangements, which formerly was never thought of. For all the 

 better class of buildings it is no longer enough to run up a set of 

 walls and to line them, but the buildings must be made habitable 

 otherwise than by being mere shelters against rain. They must 

 have properprovision for lighting, warming, ventilation, and sewage; 

 matters about which employers and builders thought very little 

 some years ago. Tiie reports of tlie Sanitary Commissioners, the 

 labours of Messrs. Roe and Phillips, the work of Mr. Hosking, are 

 landmarks, whereby professional men may note the set of tlie cur- 

 rent, and observe the disposition of tlie authorities to carry out to 

 the full what used to be laughed at as the theories of sanitary 

 reform. Mr. Hosking, of course, disclaims any official character 

 for his book ; but his station as one of the Official Referees for Me- 

 tropolitan Buildings, will, in the eyes of the public, give an official 

 character to his book in despite of himself; and most of wliat he 

 says is so reasonable, that it will work its way with the legislature, 

 the public, and the profession, all of whom his book interests. 



Although it is perfectly true tliat the improved system of struc- 

 tural arrangements has arisen mostly from the labours of architects 

 and engineers, yet it has not been fostered so generally among the 

 profession as is desirable. Indeed, the public at this moment are 

 ahead of architects and builders — a state of ail'airs which cannot 

 long continue with comfort to the latter. This arises, we fear, 

 from a want of appreciation of tiie value of professional literature, 

 and therefore the want of a laudable spirit of investigation and 

 information. If it be remembered that until our Journal \va.s esta- 

 blished, no architectural periodical had been able to maintain 

 itself, this will show what the state of affairs formerly was ; but 

 though the number of years which this Journal has existed is a 

 proof that we have effected a change for the better, we cannot but 



be sensible that architects are not so much alive as they ouffht to 

 be to the culti\ ation of professional learning. To advert, as an 

 instance, to our own publication, we feel well assured that by a 

 great number of our readers our earlier remarks on sanitary and 

 structural arrangements were passed over as being of no interest, 

 or as not being immediately practical, because tlie reader did not 

 take the trouble to investigate and search out feu- liimself the truth 

 or justice of our arguments. The consequence has been that many, 

 instead of being gradually led and prepared to a jiractical appre- 

 ciation of the subject, wake up as it were suddenly to a conscious- 

 ness that they liave got to learn a great deal immediately and with 

 some trouble, which they might have learned slowly and easily. 

 M'e have sometimes met witli remonstrances because we liave given 

 attention to questions whicli were thought the whims of the day, 

 but the importance of which is now recognised by all, tliough 'it 

 should be remembered, that a periodical like our's is a liutw be- 

 tween tlie public and professional men, for those of the public who 

 feel an interest in professional pursuits, or seek for information, 

 naturally apply themselves to such a recognised source. Hence 

 we have lieen enabled on many occasions to forward professional 

 interests, and to awaken attention among the public, so as to in- 

 sure co-operation in carrying out measures which were desirable. 

 In reference to the present question of sanitary reform, Iiowever. 

 it is particularly incumbent on professional men to apply them- 

 selves to it, or otiierwise medical men and others will put them- 

 sehes forward to secure, if they can, some greater sliare than 

 fairly bekuigs to them in the new arrangements. 



Mr. Lloskiug's book must be read by the architect and builder, 

 because it is just the kind of book which will be read by the em- 

 ployer. The committee of a club who desire a superior house, the 

 gentleman who wants a comfortable mansion, the merchant who 

 requires a safe warehouse, the board of guardians who ad\ertise 

 for a healthy workhouse, are likely to look into the work before 

 us, as a guide to the best modes of securing the health, comfort, 

 and safety of a building. Perhaps Jlr. Hosking has a leaning in 

 favour of timber and against iron, and in favour of brick and 

 against stone ; but we hardly like to say this, for there is so much 

 candour in stating tlie case, and so much practical knowledge dis- 

 played throughout, that we believe Mr. Hosking is about as fair a 

 guide as we have yet had upon structural arrangements. There 

 is very little of his book which is new, and it is hardly likely tliat 

 there sliould be ; but \\hat there is new, is the careful and close 

 consideration of what is the best and most practical mode of reach- 

 ing any given end : and tliis may be called new, for we fear it is 

 too general to run up buildings without the least consideration of 

 their fitness for the purposes to which they are applied. It may 

 be said sliortly that the houses of the metropolis are made dan- 

 gerous to life from their combustil)ility, and to health from their 

 want of ventilation; while the sewers are so made as to form an 

 elaborate machinery for poisoning the population, for cutting ofT 

 the infant in its cradle, and taking years away from tlie life of 

 every inhabitant of tliis immense aud thickly-peopled city. 



We have said that Mr. Hosking is unfavourable to the use of 

 iron under some circumstances, and it will be useful to lay before 

 our readers his remarks upon the subject. He says — 



" There is no kind of economical structure that resists the action of fire so 

 perfectlj as brickwork does, and any structure wholly of bricks, set in and 

 combined with proper mortar, may be deemed for all econoiuical purposes a 

 fire-proof structure. But floors and roofs, or roof coverings, cannot be 

 formed in brickwork alone, without the sacrifice of space and materials, to 

 so large an extent as to render such a mode of structure inconsistent with a 

 due regard to economy in those important particulars. Means are to be 

 sought, therefore, by which brickwoik may be rendered available, to the 

 greatest extent possible, consistently with economy of space, and, if it may 

 be, of materials also. For this purpose iron presents itself as a substance 

 wholly incombustible, and capalile, in the form of beams and girders, of 

 bearing over space horizontally, and so as to leave, for economical purposes, 

 a large proportion of extent in height, which brick vaulting would absorb ; 

 and, requiring no such absorption of space as brick vaults require for their 

 lateral abutments, iron, employed as a means of vertical support, in columns 

 or story-posts, will give the requisite strength to that effect in far less space 

 within an enclosure than brickwork requires in piers or pillars to give the 

 requisite bed to the springings of vaults, and to carry the weight of brick 

 vaulting. But iron, although incombustible, is fusible under (he action of 

 intense heat, and is, in its more economical condition, frangible if suddenly 

 cooled when hot ; without reference to its generally brittle character, or to 

 the uncertainty which attends its manufacture, when applied in that condi- 

 tion. Beams, girders, and columns or story-posts, of wrought-iron, if suth 

 things could be produced in wrought-iron economically, would bend when 

 exposed to a high degree of heat, and let down any structure that bad been 

 made dependent upon them ; whilst beams or girders of cast-iron break 

 when dashed with water ; and columns of the same substance are liable to 



