1840.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



55 



Lord Cobliam. Stowe, several of the buildings ill the gardens. 

 Lord Clifford. Ugbrooke, a new house. 



" To this list Mr. Holland added : ' I cannot be indifferent to the fame and 

 character of so gi'cat a genius, and am only afraid lest, in giving the annexed 

 account, I should not do him justice. No man that I ever met %rith under- 

 stood so well what was necessary for the haliitation of all ranks and degrees 

 of society ; no one disposed his offices so well, set his buildings on snch good 

 levels, designed such good rooms, or so well provided for the approach, for 

 the drainage, and for the comfort and conveniences of eveiy part of a place 

 he was concerned in. This he did without ever having had one single diffe- 

 rence or dispute with any of his employers, lie left them pleased, and they 

 remained so as long as he lived ; and when he died, his friend. Lord Coven- 

 try, for whom he had done so much, raised a monument at Croome to his 

 memoiy.' 



" I will conclude this tribute to the memory of my predecessor, hy tran- 

 scribing the last stanza of his epitaph, written by Mr. Mason, and which 

 records, with more truth than most epitaphs, the private character of tliis 

 truly great man : — 



" ' But know that more than genius slumbers here ; 



Virtues were his which art's liest powers transcend : 

 Come, ye superior train, who these revere, 



And weep tlie christian, husband, father, friend.' " 



In these last words Repton has written at the same time liis own epitaph, 

 so admirably do they dcscrilie him as an artist and a man. At the head of 

 this article is a profile of him, with a diagram illustrative of his doctrine of 

 the theory of vision. He died as he had lived, quietly on the 2-lth of March, 

 1818, at Harestreet in Essex, his residence diuing latter years. 



The following extract from his description tells in a few words the man 

 and his character. 



" Twenty ycais have now passed away, and it is possible that life may be 

 extended twenty years longer, but, from my feelings, more proliable that it 

 will not reach as many weeks ; and, therefore, I may now, perliaps, be writ- 

 ing the last Fragment of my labours. 1 have Uved to see many of my plans 

 beautifully realized, but many more cruelly marred : sometimes by false 

 economy ; sometimes by iiijucUcious extravagance. I have also Uved to reach 

 that period when the improvement of houses and gardens is more delightful 

 to me than that of parks or forests, landscapes or distant prospects. 



" I can now expect to produce little that is new ; I have, therefore, endea- 

 voured to collect and arrange the observations of my past life : this has 

 formed the amusement of the last two winters, betwi.xt intenals of spasm, 

 from a disease incurable, during which time I have called up (by my pencil) 

 the places and scenes of wliieh I was most proud, and marshalled them be- 

 fore me ; happy in many pleasing remembrances, which revive the sunshine 

 of my days, though sometimes clouded by the recollection of friends removed, 

 of scenes destroyed, and of promised happiness changed to sadness. 



" The most valuable lesson now left me to communicate is this : I am con- 

 vinced that the delight I have always taken in landscapes and gardens, with- 

 out any reference to their quantity or appropriation, or without earing whether 

 they were forests or rosaiies, or whether they were palaces, villas, or cottages, 

 while I had leave to admire their beauties, and even to direct theii" improve- 

 ment, has been the chief source of that large portion of happiness wliich I 

 have enjoyed through life, and of that resignation to inevitable evils, with 

 which I now look forward to the end of my pams and laboiu's." 



The few extracts and illustrations we have given, justify us in saying that 

 the mere collation and condensation of such a mass of materials as are con- 

 tained in the work before us, would be alone sufficient to confer honour on 

 Mr. Loudon, but liis merit is still farther enhanced by the admirable manner 

 n which the whole work has been illustrated and improved. 



AN INSTRUMENT FOR ASCERTAINING THE AREA OF IRREGULAR 



PLOTS. 



The Committee on Science and the Arts constituted by the Franklin Insti- 

 tute of the State of Pennsylvania, for the promotion of the Mechanic Arts, 

 to whom was referred for examination an histrument for ascertaining the 

 area of irregular plots, invented by Thomas Wood, M.D., of Smithficld, Ohio, 

 Report : 



That they have examined the instrument invented by Dr. Tliomas Wood, 

 and believe it to be novel and ingenious, and very simple in its constniction. 

 It consists of two plates of plain groimd glass with theii' inner surfaces fixed 

 in a frame, so as to be parallel to each other, and only so far distant as to 

 permit a piece of drawing paper to slide easily between them. They are of a 

 rectangular form, fastened on three sides in any manner which shall leave 

 the siurfaces parallel. The fourth side being open, the space within is partly 

 filled with pure quicksilver. By means of a slip of drawing paper, the outer 

 edge of the quicksilver is made straight and rectangular with the sides. Its 

 position is then marked. This may be done by noting on the paper used, its 

 distance from the outer and open edge of the glasses. 



The plot of any irregular plot made from field notes or otherwise, is then 

 moved in till the quicksilver extends to that point of the plot vrbich is nearest 



the outer and open edge. The outer edge being now parallel to the former 

 edge by the manner in which the paper containing the plot is cut, its distance 

 from its former edge is measured or mai'ked on the same paper, and the area 

 of the irregular field is thus found to be the difference of the areas of two 

 given rectangles. 



The committee see no reason why such an instrument should not, when 

 constructed with proper care, give results as accurate as those ol}tained l)y 

 the common melliod of plotting, and dividing into right angled triangles by 

 the dividers and plane scale. Tlie area of the rectangle of any irregular plot, 

 when once completed, may thus l>e formed in five minutes, and all danger of 

 mistake from errors in the entries or in summing up the partial areas is com- 

 pletely obviated. — Franklin Journal. 



DEPTH OF THE SEA. 



Dr. Patterson read a paper at the American Philosophical Societt/, by Pro- 

 fessor Charles Bonnycastle, of the University of Virginia, containing Notes of 

 E.rperiments, made August 22d to 2olh, 1838, with the view of determining 

 the Depth of the Sea by the Echo. 



The appar.itns, which is fully described in Mr. Bonnycastle's paper, con- 

 sisted, first, of a )ietard or chamber of cast iron, 2\ inches in diameter and 

 5J inches long, with suitable arrangements for firing gunpowder in it under 

 water; secondly, of a tin tube, 8 feet long and IJ inch in diameter, teruii- 

 mited at one end I)y a conical trumpet-mouth, of wliicli the diameter of the 

 base was 20 inches, and the height of the axis 10 inches; thirdly, of a very 

 sensible instrument for measuring small intervals of time, made by J. Mou- 

 tandon of \Yashington, and wiiich was capable of indicating the sixtieth pait 

 of a second. Besides these, an apparatus for hearing was roughly made on 

 board the vessel, in imitation of that used by CoUadon iu the Liike of Ge- 

 neva, and consisted of a stove-pipe, 4 j ijiches in diameter, closed at one end, 

 and capaljle of being jilunged four feet in the water. The sliip's bell was 

 also unhung, and an arrangement made for ringing it under water. 



On the 22(1 of August, the brig left New York, and in the evening the ex- 

 periments were commenced. In these, Mr. Bonuycastle was assisted by the 

 commander and officers of the vessel, ami by Dr. Robert M. Patterson, who 

 had been invited to make one of the party. 



In the first experiments, the beU was plunged about a fathom under water 

 and kept ringing, wliile the operation of the two hearing instruments was 

 tested at the distance of about a quarter of a mile. Both instrnments per- 

 formed less perfectly than was expected ; the noise of the waves greatly 

 interfering, in both, with the powers of hearing. In the trumpet-shaped 

 apparatus, the ringing of the metal, from the blow of the waves, was partly 

 guarded against liy a wooden casing ; but, as it was open at both ends, the 

 oscillation of the water in the tube was found to be a still greater incon- 

 venience, so that the sound of the bell was better heai'd with tlie cylindrical 

 tube. At the distance of a quarter of a mile this sound was a sharp tap, 

 about the loudness of that occasioned by striking the back of a penknife 

 again an iron wire : at the distance of a mile the sound was no longer audible. 

 In the second exjieriments, the mouth of the cone, in the trumpet appa- 

 ratus, was closed with a plate of thick tin, and both instruments were pro- 

 tected by a parcelling of old canvas and rope-yarn, at the pari; in contact with 

 the surface of tlie water. In these experiments the cone was placed at right 

 angle.<i to tlie stem, and the mouth directed toward the sound. The distances 

 w ere measured by the interval elapsed between the observed flash and report 

 of a pistol. At the distance of 1400 feet, the conical instrument was found 

 considerably superior to the cylindrical, and at greater distances the superiority 

 become so decided, that the latter was abandoned in all subsequent experi- 

 ments. At the distance of 5270 feet, the hell was heard with such distinct- 

 ness as left no doubt that it could have been heard half a mile further. 



Tlie sounds are stated in the paper to have been less intense than those in 

 air, and seemed to be conveyed to less distances. The character of the souud 

 was also wholly changed, and, from other cxperimeuts, it appeared that the 

 blow of a watchmaker's hammer against a small bar of iron gave the same 

 sharp tick as a heavy blow against the large ship's bell. It is well known 

 that Franklin heard the sound of two stones struck together under water at 

 half a mile distauce ; yet two of the boat's crew, who plunged their heads 

 below the water, when at a somewhat less distance from the bell, were unable 

 to hear its sound. 



On the 24th of August, the vessel having proceeded to the Gulf Stream, 

 experiments were made with the view for which the voyage was undertaken ; 

 that is, to ascertain whether an echo would be returned, through water, from 

 the bottom of the sea. Some difficulties were at first presented in exploding 

 the gun under water, but these were at length overcome. The hearing-tube 

 was ballasted so as to sink vertically in the water. The observers then went, 

 with this instniment, to a distance of about 150 yards from the vessel, and 

 the petai'd was lowered over the stem, about three fathoms under water, and 

 fired. The sound of the explosion, as heard by Mr. ro::nyeastIc, v, ,ns two 

 sharp distinct taps, at an interviil of about one-thii'd ox a second. Two 

 sounds, with the same interval were also clearly heard on board the brig ; 

 but the character of the sounds was different, and each was accompanied by 

 a sUglit shock. Supposing the second sound to be the echo of the first from 

 the bottom of the sea, the depth should have been about 160 fathoms. 



To ascertain the real depth, the sounding was made by the ordkiai7 method, 

 but with a lead of 75 pounds weight, and bottom was distinctly felt at 550 



