lOi 



THE CIVIL EXGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[AX'UIL, 



lines without guarantees, the money would have heen raised ; 

 «-herens now,' even with a punrnntee, the undertakiufrs linjier, and, 

 as »e liave said, liow lon^- they may liuircr no one knows. The 

 .sliare-market wlien once shaken does not recover at a fixed date ; 

 it is not witliiri the power of any one to know wlien it will recover, 

 while the shock is now very p-eat. The lianks throughout Europe 

 are Ijreakinjr, the hoarding of gold and of silver has hegun, money 

 will go out of sight, war may spring up, the goverunieut may give 

 as formerly six- or seven per cent, for loans, and tlien the common 

 returns of'joint-stock undertakings do not hold out hope enough 

 to the shareholder or lender. 



By the hlundering of the government has the welfare of India 

 hceii threatened, and it is only hy acting otlierwise than they have 

 done, tliat they can stop the evil from spreading further. India 

 Jias felt a great loss in the want of railways, hut if she is to he kept 

 without them for years, the mischief whicli will he done will be 

 great. India has to struggle in trade witli America and the West 

 Indies, where railways and steamboats are widely spread ; and un- 

 less India have the same help, she cannot keep up in trade against 

 them. India can raise cheaply — none can l)eat her; hut so much 

 time and so much money is spent in carrying goods to market, that 

 they come dear and bad, instead of cheap and good. 



It will do little for India that English gold is now not likely to 

 he sent abroad to France, Flanders, Italy, and Sjjain for railways ; 

 shareholders are sick of them, and will he afraid to have any thing 

 more to do with them. This is however no help, we fear, for India, 

 for the call for money at home cannot be met, as so much has been 

 lost. 



Among the undertakings which were brought into the market in 

 ISIj, none hardly were "more useful than that of the East India 

 Railway C'om])any, for making a railway from Calcutta for SOO 

 miles up the valley of the Ganges. Mr. JMacdonald Stephenson, 

 its managiuiT director, gathered together all that could be learned 

 in India, and in his works gave the heads of what Mr. Simms has 

 written since. There was quite enough to show the likelihood of 

 the undertaking, and when it was brought forward it was hailed 

 by the leaders of the money market as a railway well worthy of 

 their help. The heads of the East India Railway Company were 

 iii>me of the richest merchants here, and there was such trust given 

 to it that its shares rose very quickly in price. 



Thanks to the Board of Trade, the Company was withheld from 

 taking nu)re than five shillings a share when they could have had 

 two pounds ; so that now, instead of having some hundreds of thou- 

 sands of ixmnds in hand, enough to make a good beginning, they 

 have hard work to raise a hundred thousand pounds, which is to 

 be lodged with the East India Company. 



The East India Company has in the end given to the Railway 

 Company leave to go on, and offered a guarantee of interest, which 

 in 184-5 or 184.6 would have sent up the shares to such a price as to 

 have made them among the best in the market. There were then 

 uo shares in the market guaranteed by any of the English govern- 

 ments, and such was the call for guai-anteed shares that those 

 guaranteed hy the gi-eat railway companies were eagerly sought. 

 Tlierefore the market was clear for the Indian railway shares, and 

 notliing but the utter blindness of the government kept India back 

 at sucli a time. On what good grounds it could have been done 

 no one can readily see, for India is always in want of money, and 

 when there was a hope of getting it from England it should not 

 have been let slip. 



We have still the utmost trust in the East India Railway Com- 

 pany, for we believe that the line must be made, and we hope 

 tlierefore that everything will be done at once to help it on. We 

 see no good in leaving a hundred thousand pounds in the hands of 

 the government, that should be dropped at once. The Company 

 should likewise have full power to borrow money here and in India, 

 in whatever way they can. If there be any need of it, the govern- 

 ment of India must lend them money to begin, so that they make 

 a start, for there is no time to be lost. If there sliould be a war in 

 Euro])e, and the overland way to India be stopped or hindered, 

 then it will be still more needful that there should be a quick 

 transit between Calcutta and the north-west. 



On these grounds we say to the East India Railway Company 

 " Hold on ;" for if the government do their sliare, tlie undertaking 

 will beciune one of the first in the world. Much of the railway can 

 be readily made, and as cheaply as tliose of America, while it has 

 only to be o])ened to have a good income at once. We have always 

 believed, and we do still, that wlien a start is made, a great deal 

 of money will be got from India : India hnds money for banks, 

 assurance companies, steamboats, coal mines, indigo works, sugar 

 mills, and tea plantations, and we do not see why slie should not 

 /'or railways. The Indian mind is awakened. What has been seen 



of late years has laid the way for railways. The steamboat has 

 sliown tlie Hindoos that speed can he got, that goods can be brought 

 up quickly, and they are ready to believe that railways vi ill do for 

 tliem wliat it has been held out they can do. India waits only for 

 a beginning, and then railways will spread as many arms over the 

 land as they have in England or America. 



In Southern India the companies are still less ready to begin 

 work, so much have they been weakened by the loitering of the 

 stand-still government, but as railways are fully as needful there 

 as in Bengal, we luqie very little time will run before steps are 

 taken to bring them forward. The growth of cotton in Bombay 

 and Madras is kept back by the want of railways, and a little help 

 only will enable the merchants and people of those two presidencies 

 to make their own railways. They lia\e come forward most warmly 

 and although their bite losses have lessened their means, they will 

 he found ready to follow up the lead of the government. 



Railways in India must be made, and they must be carried out 

 as joint-stock undertakings ; for whatever may be the want of power 

 of these latter now, the government in India are no stronger, and 

 always find it hard to raise money. Let us hope, as so much blame 

 belongs to them for the hindrances they have liitherto thrown in 

 the way of railways, that they will see good to make a change, and 

 do all they can to make up for lost time. If they do not do it of 

 themselves, the parliament of England must do it for them ; for if 

 the cotton-growers of India cannot be heard there, they will be 

 heard here, and the cotton-weavers of JIanchester have already 

 spoken out. We cannot be left in the power of America for the 

 cotton, on which our great staple manufacture depends, and whereby 

 so manv Englishmen earn their scanty livelihood. 



The third edition of the book before us is on the same plan as 

 those that went before it. It is enlarged by some new extracts, 

 which are put together without any great regard to order, and the 

 staple is still from the works of Mr. Macdonald Stephenson. The 

 right title would be " Indian Railways from the works of Mr. ]\Iac- 

 donald Stephenson, with other matter by an Old Indian Post- 

 master." Except Mr. Stephenson's materials, the best tiling in 

 the book is a map of tlie lines of railway in Northern India. 



THE WICKSTEED ENGINE. 



Mr. AVicksteed was the first to introduce the Cornish engine 

 into the metropolis, and he deserves great credit for his exertions. 

 The first engine was put up about four years ago, when a descrip- 

 tion of it was published in this Journal. The second, which is 

 larger, is named the AV^icksteed engine, and is erected at the East 

 London Water AV^orks. It was started to supply water to that 

 company's district in June 1847, and is the largest engine hitherto 

 erected in London; it was designed by Mr. AVicksteed, who is 

 engineer to the company, and was erected under his superintend- 

 ence. It was manufactured by Messrs. Sandys, Carne, and Vivian, 

 of the Copperhouse Foundry, Hayle, Cornwall. Tlie diameter of 

 the cylinder is 90 inches, the diameter of the puni)) 44 inches, 

 length of stroke 11 feet, and it pumps 20 imperial barrels at each 

 stroke. When working at the rate of eight strokes per minute, it 

 raises 5,792 gallons per minute, or 8,340,480 gallons per diem, or 

 84,563,200 imperial barrels per annum. The power when working 

 at this speed is 200 horse-power. The main beam is 39 feet long, 

 and weighs 33 tons — it vibrates on a cast-iron main gudgeon 16 

 inches diameter, and the whole is supported by four columns and 

 an entablature of cast-iron, designed in the Grecian-Doric style. 

 The plunger with its apjiendages weighs 43 tons, «hich mass of 

 matter is raised 11 feet high at each stroke of the engine. The 

 pump-work is supported by two iron girders weighing each 10 tons, 

 and is strongly bolted down to a mass of masonry in the founda- 

 tions. The boilers, four in number, are cylindrical, 34 feet long, 

 6 ft. 6 in. diameter, with an internal fire-tube four feet in 

 diameter. The diameter of the steam-pipe is 16 inches. 



The total weiglit of the engines, pump-work, and boilers is 414 

 tons, and the whole cost was i2 10,000, or ii50per horse-power, or 

 about £24 per ton. 



The quantity of coal consumed by this engine, if working at full 

 power night and day, would be 2,000 tons per annum, and the 

 quantity of coals that would be consumed by the best of the ordi- 

 nary mm-expansive engines in doing the same work would be 4,500 

 tons; showing a saving in favour of the Cornish engine of 2,500 tons, 

 which at 13*-. per ton is c£ 1,625 per annum, or 16j per cent, upon 

 the cost pf the engine for coals only. 



