14^ 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[May. 



Feeling that it is perhaps impossible for your collector to know the 

 names of u'l the deceased architects, I trust that you will attribute this 

 letter to the sole motive by which it is dictated, namely, to add such 

 information as may enable vou to correct vour list should vou repub 

 lish it. 



I remain, Your most obedient Servant, 



29, Soho Square, April 3, 1^ 10. Samuel Bkazley. 



We have received another communication from Mr. Webb, for which 

 we are obliged, containing the names of some architects, which were 

 omitted in the table; we shall, at some future opportunity, avail our- 

 selves of this communication, together with others, and publish an 

 additional table. Editor C. E. and A. Journal. 



TEACHERS OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE, &c:: 

 Sir — As your highly useful journal is devoted to the advancement 

 of the professions you advocate, allow uie to draw your attention to 

 what I consider to be an evil of the greatest magnitude, and one which 

 has done more to lower the profession, and to bring it into disrepute, 

 than anything else that I am acquainted with. I allude to the pro- 

 ceedings of a certain class of persons, styling themselves "Architects 

 and Surveyors," or " Civil Engineers," who disgrace the profession 

 they claim by pretending to teach it in a fern lesso7is. Such men 

 should be held up to universal scorn and contempt, for they have ruined 

 the profession while filling their own pockets, by a process little better 

 than swindling. I will explain the manner in which they go to work. 

 They first put a specious advertisement in the newspaper, headed 

 "Offices for Surveying, Architecture, and Civil Engineering," and go 

 on to state that a few /fSsoHS are all that is required to enable a person 

 to practise on his own account! I Some deluded individual is sure to 

 be allured by this specious advertisement, for unfortunately, wherever 

 there are dnpes, there are sure to be knaves to take advantage of them. 

 Such persons, (the dupes,) find to their cost, that the business of an 

 Architect, or Surveyor, or Civil Engineer, is not quite so easily acquired 

 as they were at first induced to imagine by their disinterested instructor : 

 instead of a/en lessons, therefore, occupying a few weeks only, they 

 are persuaded to go on with the farce for a few months, or until the 

 master-hand thinks they will bear plucking no longer. He then lets 

 them go, assuring them that they are quile competent to undertake any 

 survey whaterer, whether for canal, railway, or turnpike-road, and, if 

 asked, furnishes them with testimonials to that eftect, The newl-y 

 fledged surveyor, or whatever he may choose to call himself, delighted 

 with his newly and so easily acquired profession, hastens to put his 

 skill to the test, and for this purpose, perhaps, takes an extensive 

 parish to survey at a low rate, one, perhaps, that has to obtain the 

 commissioners' seal, and for which he will therefore not be paid until 

 it is completed to their satisfaction, and to that of Capt. Dawson, no 

 easy person to please. He commences his work with confidence, but, 

 after a short time becomes involved in a labrynth of perplexity and 

 error, from which he cannot extricate himself; he, therefore, hastens 

 back to his mentor to relate his misfortunes, and is persuaded by the 

 latter to take -a few more lessons, or perhaps is induced to employ him 

 to survey the parish, for which he takes care to charge the " honorary" 

 surveyor, about five times as much as he is himself to receive for the 

 parish when completed. If endowed with a sufficient stock of gulli- 

 bility and cash, the latter accedes, and after expending perhaps a much 

 larger sum than he would have done, if he had placed himself with a 

 respectable surveyor in a regular manner, he at length acquires a suf- 

 ficient knowledge of the business to enable him to get on by liimself 

 without making many more blunders. In many cases, however, the 

 aspirant is disheartened with his first failure, and declines the honour 

 of being further taken in by his preceptor. 



This is the way, Sir, in which the pockets of the unwary are picked, 

 and the profession of the surveyor brought into disrepute ; and the 

 same remarks apply also to that of architecture, which our ^ro/essor 

 professes also to teach in a few lessons!! 



Really, the barefaced impudence of some men exceeds all bounds, 

 and yet we see the advertisements of these highly respectable members 

 of the profession almost daily in the newspapers, a sure sign that they 

 find it to answer their purpose, which is to fill their pockets at the 

 expense of others. 



I think, that you would be really conferring a benefit upon the 

 profession generally, and on the rising generation in particular, by 

 drawing attention to the tricks of these advertising quacks, who are in 

 general, persons of no kind of reputation or ability, and who are there- 

 fore quite unqualified to give instructions in the business they profess. 

 By pointing out also the fallacy and utter absurdity of a person 

 endeavouring to acquire in a few lissons, a profession in which a man's 

 n>holeli/e\s barely sufficient to enable him to acquire all the uiinutiiE of his 



art, and in which there is ahiMys something nem to be learnt, you may be 

 the means of preventing the inexperienced from falling into such an 

 error, and into the clutches of our advertising professors. The pro- 

 fession is already overstocked with persons regularly educated, and 

 perfectly competent to practise it, but it is too bad that they should be 

 continually brought into collision with, and made to sutler for the igno- 

 rance and blunders of others calling themselves "Architects and 

 Surveyors," or "Civil Engineers," on the strength of a few lessons 

 received from parties nearly as ignorant as themselves, and who are no 

 more qualified to practice the professions they pretend to teach, than 

 I am qualified to fulfil the duties of Lord High Chancellor. 

 I have the honor to be. Sir, 



London, ^pril 17, 1840. One who has Suffeki-.d. 



[We do not wonder that parties can be induced to think that civil 

 engineering can be taught in a college, when there are those who 

 believe that it can be required in a few lessons. What is to become 

 of the hundreds of accomplished professors who are to be manufactured 

 wholesale at the Gordon College i 



MR. MOORE'S PATENT ROTARY ENGINE. 

 Fiji. 1. 



BOn.i 



The following is a brief outline of this invention, taken from tli 

 specification. 



A 5, A (j is a hollow ring, or cylinder, with two pair of folding 

 doors, D 3 and F, which open in the direction D, D 2, and F, F 1, and 

 fall back into boxes to receive them. The doors of each pair open 

 together by means of tooth wheels, and are closed again by coiled 

 springs behind them, and afterwards pressed closely together by the 

 elastic force of the steam, when the piston C has passed them. A, 

 A 1 is a hollow axle, through one arm of which, at A, the steam 

 enters, and passing through the tube A 4, just behind the piston, fills 

 the space left between the piston C, and the folding doors F, next 

 behind it. By its pressure on C, and confinement against the said 

 folding doors, the piston (which is firmly connected with all the in- 

 terior part A, A 2, &c.) and the said interior part revolve together in 

 the fixed ring cylinder, A 5, A 5, in the direction C C. As the pis- 

 ton C approaches the doors D 3, the beveled part B 2, acting on the 

 ketch D 5, gradually opens the folding doors, which, after the piston 

 has passed, close again by means of the coiled springs, and are kept 

 tight by the steam issuing through A 4. Through A 7, A 1, all the 

 steam or air in advance of the piston passes ott; and leaves the front 

 side of the piston with no more than the common pressure of the at- 

 mosphere, as in all other engines, to oppose the piston. 



This is the principle of the machine, and of its action, but a variety 

 of contriva'ices are introduced — shown by other diagrams we have not 

 thought it needful to insert — for the purpose of meeting and over- 

 coming any difficulties in the way, and of rendering the machine more 

 perfect. — Railway JVIagazine. 



Elcctro-Galmvism. — At a leclure del vercd at the Biiston Meihanics" Insti- 

 tute, on Friday tlie ISdi ull., by Mr. H. R. tiilsun, the curator, he exhibited 

 a most ingenious and important aiiplicatiun of electro-magnetism to practical 

 purposes, by which he is enabled to take the casts reijuisiie for sterutypingin 

 cO|>per. Thi'y are at present made in plaster ol Paris, and arc seldom aiiso- 

 liili'ly perfect ; but by this novel application ol science to the arts, sten'otype 

 p'ales may be produced as perfect and sliarp as the type trom wliicli Ibev 

 arc taken. 



