THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[January, 



RAMBLES BY PHILOMUS^US.— No. IV. 



LANDSCAPES ABROAD. 



:VER advantage foreipi nations may derive by the education 

 e to beauty irom the contemplation of objects of art, it is 



WllATEV: 



of the eye , 



pretty certain tliat they will not easily surpass us in the scenes of na- 

 ture. They may possess the same or liner outlines, they may bear 

 the ])alia fo'r correct drawing, but it is to us they must concede the 

 chiar'oscuro, and what disputes with drawing itself the magic touch 

 (if colour. To carry out our artistical allegory, foreign landscape is 

 of an Eginetan cast, severe and correct in its form, but destitute of 

 that animation and finish which mark the later and more cultivated 

 school. It is perhaps from the contemplation of our highly finished 

 scenes, that our painters succeed in colour, and show such proficiency 

 in landscape and cattle; that our poets excel in the descriptive; and 

 that whatever is rural with us, is beautiful without coarseness or rus- 

 ticity. 



An Englishman passes from the tertiary scenes of our beautiful 

 south, to tlie assimilated district in the neighbouring country of France, 

 he can recognize the same smooth slopes, the same gently swelling 

 knolls, the same richness of soil, and the same softness of character, 

 but he finds a tameness, a want of animation and relief both in broad 

 features and in details, which tell him at once that he is in another 

 and a foreign country. He glides down the beautiful Seine and from 

 St. Germain to below Rouen he perpetually finds a country spoiled 

 from want of care, and a district of great capability wearing the face 

 of a comparative desert. None of the bright fields of his native land, 

 none of its varied and picturesque timber, no beautiful cattle spread- 

 ing over the distant scene, he misses the hedge and the hedge-row, 

 and above all he misses the dispersed population, the pretty seat or the 

 lowly cot. Instead of these he finds no houses but in villages, little 

 meadows and no variety of timber. From St. Germain to near Havre, 

 there is nothing hardly to be seen but poplar, alder and willow, miles 

 in length of distant forest, or long lines of well drilled poplars spreading 

 along the roads or the divisions of estates. Now the maypole-like 

 poplar is just the very last tree to be paraded thus in single file. The 

 scenery has all the uniformity of foliage of American landscape, and 

 there is only beauty enough to cause the traveller to regret that the 

 whole does not show to equal advantage. On approaching Elbeuf, 

 however, the scene changes, green meadows make up the foreground, 

 the mottled cattle swarm among the pastures, oak and other dark 

 trees, firs and the coniferous tribes, throw shade into the landscape, 

 and the traveller as he looks at the tree-clad hills and grassy slopes is 

 glad to find himself in a land of beauty. 



In Flanders we find the same — long ranges of deformed limes and 

 horse chesnuts making the straight roads more horrid, the brooks 

 fringed with pollard willows, poplars like Cleopatra's needles running 

 in lank rows as divisions of property, Scotch firs in patches to fertilize 

 the land, and without meadows, water or cattle, one scene of stiffness 

 and formality. The unhappy trees too are topped off' into mopsticks 

 so as to render horror more horrid. 



The Dutch, however, if they have a poor country have a rich green 

 sward, the weeping willow, and fine cattle ; and an Englishman if he 

 finds little to relieve, tind no nakedness to distress the eye. 



CO.MPARATIVE EFFECTS OF THE CORNISH AND LANCA- 

 SHIRE SYSTEM OF WORKING STEAM ENGINES. 



Sir, — As it is not now disputed by any one, that the Cornish or 

 high-pressure expansive system of working the Boulton and Watt 

 engine is more economical than that usually followed in the manufac- 

 turing districts, it may probably be interesting to a ))ortion of your 

 readers to have offered to their notice, an easy method of stating or 

 comparinp; tlie duty or effects obtained by tlie two systems, for the 

 purpose of shewing hereafter, the amount of saving that may really 

 be expected by the adoption of the Cornish system; and also to have 

 that saving expressed in terms that are generally understood and 

 adiiiilted by practical men. 



The following cases are selected, because they have been recently 

 laid before me for the purpose stated, by parties who are interested 

 in having a careful examination of the subject, and who have also 

 furnished me with the facts. 



The engine from which the data for the Cornish system are taken, 

 is that lately erected for the East London Water Works Company. 

 The cylinder is 8U inches in diameter, stroke 10 feet, speed lu strokes 

 a minute, and doing a duly of 7- millions of pounds raised one foot 

 high (or one bushel, or 'J4 pounds of coal, the steam being cut off at 



two-fifths of the stroke. The area of the cylinder, of course, i> 

 80 X yo = 6,400 circular inches. The load on the piston is obtained 

 by taking the counterweight which is 29 tons, or 64,9G<J pounds, and 

 adding thereto half a pound per circular inch, or 3,200 pounds for the 

 friction of the engine itself, making 68,160 pounds for the total gross 

 load ; which gives 10*65 pounds per circular inch, for the average 

 pressure of the steam in the cylinder. The velocity of the piston 

 being 10 X 10 =: 100 feet a minute ; the pounds raised one foot 

 high per minute, will be 68,160 X 100= 6,816,000, and the gross 

 horse power exerted, is this number divided by 33,000, or 20G'54 

 horses power. 



The Lancashire system is illustrated by a pair of double acting 

 sister engines working in a cotton factory in this country, and attached 

 to the same crank shaft. Each engine has a cylinder of 40 inches 

 diameter and 4 feet stroke, and makes 25 turns in a minute. The 

 gross consumption of coal at the factory is 46 tons a week, the engine 

 running 69 hours in that time. That portion of this consumption 

 used for other purposes than working the engine, is usually estimated 

 at 30 per cent., which includes that for steaming the factory, getting 

 up the steam every morning, waste during meal times, &c. (particu- 

 lars of which are given in the new edition of my work on steam 

 boilers,) leaving about 32 tons or 71,680 pounds for the net consump- 

 tion of the engines alone. The area of each cylinder is 40 X 40 = 

 1600 circular inches, the average pressure of the steam in the cylin- 

 der as taken by the indicator is 10 pounds per circular inch, and the 

 whole load on the piston is 1600 x 10 = 16,O0O pounds, which, of 

 course includes the friction of the engine. The velocity of the piston 

 is 4 X 2 X 25 = 200 feet a minute, therefore the pountls raised one 

 foot high per minute, is 1,600 X 200 — 3,200,000 ; and the horse 

 power exerted by each engine 96*96, or a total of 194 nearly. 



Comparative Duty. 



a. Pounds raised one foot high per 



minute ..... 



b. Gross horse power exerted . 



c. Consumption of coal per week of 69 



hours, in poumls . = d -)- 69 



d, = c -^ 69, ditto per hour ^ e -j- 60 



e, =r d -;- 60, ditto per min. = a -=- f 



f, = a -f- e. Pounds raised one foot for 

 each pound of coals ^ g -^ 94 



= f + 94 Pounds raised one foot 



high for 94 of coals 

 d -^ b. Pounds of coal consumed per 



hour, for each horse power 



Lancashire. 



g 



6,400,000 

 194 



71,680 

 1038-8 

 17-31 



369,728 



34,754,432 



5-35 



Cornish. 



6,816,000 

 206-5 



36,804-6 

 533-4 

 8-89 



765,957 



72,000,000 



2-58 



The letters in the above table indicate the mode of calculation, and 

 it will be perceived that the results in the second column (except 

 the two first lines and the two last,) are obtained by reckoning from 

 the bottom of the column upwards. It must be borne in mind that 

 the horse power exerted by the factory engines as stated above, in- 

 cludes that required to turn the whole of the shafting, about one- 

 third of the whole, which reduces the 7iet effective power expended 



194 

 in turning the machinery to (194 — — s~) = 1294 horses nearly, or 



o 



64J horse power for each engine, and making the consumption ot 



5-35 

 coal equal to half as much more as before, or (5-35 -| ^— ) = S-02 



pounds per horse per hour. What the net effective power of the 

 Cornish engine is, of course, cannot be ascertained without measuring 

 the water delivered, but it is not at all necessary for the purpose of 

 this comparison. 



Should the above be considered a fair method of stating the sub- 

 ject, and it is respectfully submitted to the correction of the advo- 

 cates of either system, I shall be glad, with your permission, to go 

 into the question of the cauets concerned in producing the great 

 difference observable in favour of the Cornish system, and also the 

 comparative cost or expenditure of fixed capital for the two kinds of 

 engines when doing an equal quantity of work, with a view to test 

 the propriety of adopting the Cornish system in cotton factories. 



I am, sir, yours, &c. 



R. Armstrong. 

 Manchealer, Dec. 1839. 



