1848.J 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



ITS 



results should be also referred to : his researches respecting the 

 effects of friction of the parts of the engine are too complicated, 

 and depend on data too uncertain, to he available ; but some of his 

 investigations respecting the fly-wheel, &c., are invaluable, and 

 have the advantage of leading to simple arithmetical rules. 



The great continental authors require to be diligently and 

 thoroughly examined. It is principally from the French writers, 

 with Nav'ier at their head, that foreign assistance must be ex- 

 pected ; and the system pursued in France in the education of 

 engineers, renders almost eveiy treatise written in that country on 

 practical science worthy of consideration at least. The articles 

 contributed to our <>« n cycloprrdins, and the recent treatise of Mr. 

 Hann, also furnish several useful suggestions for rules, which an 

 intelligent artisan may understand and apply without a knowledge 

 of mathematics. 



The tranxnctions of learned societies contain invaluable records 

 of the results of experiment and routine experience. Numerous 

 papers have appeared under the auspices of the British Association 

 and Institution of Civil Engineers, on what we just now designated 

 tlie most difficult part of the problem of the steam-engine — the 

 resistance to which it is subject ; and in reference to the locomotive 

 engine the labours of Mr. Wyndham Harding may be particularised. 

 The transactions of the Royal Society also contain some papers 

 referring to the resistances to marine engines — a subject to which 

 Mr. Scott Russell has long devoted attention. 



The scientific periodicals — the Mechanics' Magazine, the Jovrnal 

 of the Franklin Institute, &c., ought also to be examined : they are 

 storehouses of facts of the greatest importance. Of course, dis- 

 cretion and accurate scientific views are indispensable in selecting 

 from the vast mass of contradictory and controversial statements, 

 contained in the correspondence of our contemporaries, but even 

 ejctragavant ideas coming from practical men have some use, if 

 suggested by experience — they serve at least to }iut debated 

 questions in a new light. 



The blue books of Parliamentary and Royal Commissions contain 

 also much that is valuable, amidst heaps of rubbish. It requires keen 

 instinct and patient industry to separate the grain from the chaff; 

 but such a labour must he accomplished, if a perfect work on the 

 steam-engine is to he written. .Commissions such as those upon 

 the Gauge question and Atmospheric Railways, are con\ocations of 

 all the most eminent engineers in the kingdom, and their collected 

 evidence is a synopsis which could not be obtained in any other 

 manner. 



There are many other sources of information and separate trea- 

 tises possessed of great merit, but too numerous to be here recited. 

 These ought all to be referred to. The labour of reference is great, 

 but is not the subject worthy of it ? — the great marvel of the 

 earth — the wonderful, wonder-working agent upon w hich the social 

 constitution of the whole world depends — which, when the human 

 family has become so numerous that all its labour can scarcely 

 obtain from nature sufficiency of sustenance, co-operates in this 

 struggle for existence. In some sense, our very lives depend on 

 the steam-engine. Without its aid to convey the emigrant from 

 over-crowded shores — to interchange the products of various soils 

 and climates — to convert those products into clothing and other 

 necessaries of society, — without, in a word, its help in canying on 

 the business of the world, the business of the world would 

 become too great to be accomplished. 



He who has increased by the least particle the knowledge of 

 the steam-engine, has therefore conferred on society a benefit of 

 which it is impossible to foresee the extent. Without hyperbole, a 

 perfect account of the steam-engine would stand among the high- 

 e.st of national undertakings. It can scarcely be expected, how- 

 ever, that any treatise now written can be absolutely perfect, for 

 tliere are many parts of the subject which it requires the experi- 

 ence of future years to entirely develope. Still, the present epoch 

 is particularly favourable for systematising the knowledge already 

 acquired. A uniformity of practice and experience has been at 

 length arrived at, w hich may indeed be hereafter extended ; but 

 which, in all probability, will never suffer any great fundamental 

 change. The chief difficulty to be encountered, is to render the 

 knowledge systematic. If it be not digested — if it be not perfectly 

 consistent with itself — if the whole observe not simple and demon- 

 strable dependence on definite principles, the failure of the un- 

 dertaking is inevitable. Simplicity and system are the two keys 

 to the success of all works on practical science. We insist the 

 more earnestly on the necessity of scientific connection and unity 

 of plan, because experience has shown how far the neglect of tliose 

 requisites impairs the utility of a treatise on the steam-engine. 

 That bearing the appellation of the " Artizan," will always be in 

 high repute, for the vast quantity of practical information which it 



contains ; but this advantage is greatly diminished by the want of 

 plan, ^yorks which contain the labours of several indeiiendent 

 writers should always be subject to the supervision of some con- 

 trolling editor, who should be responsible for the scientific accuracy 

 of the whole. Many readers of engineering works are necessarily 

 obliged to receive scientific principles on trust — their own ]>revious 

 education being devoted to practical, and not to theoretical pur- 

 suits. It is all-important that such readers should not he misled. 

 The slightest error of jirinciple, the neglect of particulars in them- 

 selves apparently trivial, will frequently lead to the greatest en-ors. 

 Of what importance is it then that all mechanical doctrines should 

 he accurately conceived and strictly expressed ? 



Lastly, it should be carefully and constantly explained to the 

 student, that the abstract hiws of mechanics are demonstrated — 

 that respecting them, debate would be as frivolous as respecting 

 the truth of the conclusions of Euclid. The only persons who argue 

 about mechanics are those who are imperfectly acquainted with the 

 science. In the apjilications of mechanics to the steam-engine, 

 the only questionable topic is the accuracy of data— the methods 

 of calculating from those data have been long since settled beyond 

 all possibility of dispute.* 



* We observe wilh satisfacMoii, that a new and improved edition of Treriguld on the 

 steam-engine is proposed. The name of tlie publisher is a euarnntee for the excellente 

 of the typograph.v and value ot the illustrations. If scientific tccuracy. which we have 

 here insisted upon as all-important, be also attained, a most valuable addition to the 

 engineer's library will be protiuted. 



REVIE'WS. 



Account of the Skerryvore Lighthouse, with notes on the Illumination 

 of Lighthouses. By Alan Stevenson, LL.B., F.R.S.E., M.I.C.E., 

 Engineer to the Northern Lighthouse Board. Edinburgh : Adam 

 and Charles Black, 184-8. 



When we lately noticed the praiseworthy labours of Sir John 

 Rennie, in bringing out his costly work on Plymouth Breakwater, 

 we hartlly hoped to be so lucky as to have brought before us so 

 soon another professional contribution of like merit. It may be 

 thought that we are better satisfied by this, and less ready to 

 grumble ; hut we must freely own that it makes us grumble the 

 more. It is not because Sir John Rennie and Mr. Stevenson have 

 so well done their duty, that the ground of our complaint is 

 gone. Our outcry is not against them, but against the other 

 engineers of high reputation, who, having the same means, have 

 done nothing for professional literature. We know the answer: the 

 hackneyed one of want of time. Sir John and Mr. Stevenson have 

 answered that, and the public are quite willing to make every al- 

 lowance for any short-coming on the ground of the want of time ; 

 but it should not be forgotten that the greater share in a professional 

 book is not in the writing, but in the plates : we may add that the 

 greater part of the cost is for the plates. Nothing, therefore, can be 

 more easy for those who have the money, than to put into the engra- 

 ver's hands the drawings which they have by them, and then, if 

 they cannot themselves do all the writing which is required, they 

 must get some one to help them ; and that, too, is only a matter of 

 money. In any way in which the question can be looked at, it 

 resolves itself into one of outlay, and of good will; and we 

 cannot help saying, that it is far from creditable to our engi- 

 neers to be so neglectful of publishing proper records of their 

 works. We cannot free them from the charge of want of will, for 

 it is too well known to spirited engineering publishers, to authors, 

 and to editors of professional works, that it is next to impossible 

 to get information, either from the leading engineers or their as- 

 sistants. Thus, what is published is mostly very imperfect; and then 

 the parties who ought to have given the information are the first 

 to decry what has been done, and to lay blame for what is wrong, 

 or is wanting. 



We would rather believe that the wrong lies in this want of will, 

 than in want of liberality, because many of those open to blame have 

 always given very freely to professional institutions. AVant of 

 means we cannot allow ; for those who can spend money in buying 

 boroughs, and in getting a seat in parliament, can well give a few 

 hundred pounds for bringing out a book. If, too, the evil lay in 

 the want of liberality, we should be hopeless of overcoming it ; but 

 if it be from want' of rightly thbiking about it, or fiom want 

 of the will to set to work, then we have some trust from what we 

 know of our leading men, that they will not in the end be foun«l 

 wanting; but will, after careful 'thought, do that which Xhvv 



