190 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[June, 



ON REBUILDING OLD CHURCHES. 



Sir — I beg to make a few remarks ou the impolicy, as well as the 

 bad taste of the Ecclpsiiistical Commission for IJuildiiig Churclies, in 

 throwing every obstacle in the way of repairing and reslor/iig old 

 churches to their former beanty and embellishment, preferring pulling 

 them down and building in their room, a wretched little brick building, 

 not inaptly compared, some years since, by a celebrated demagogue 

 and enemy to the leformed religion, to a dog-kennel tied to a sentry- 

 box. Is it doing honour to, or paying proper respect lo the cause 

 they advocate, to consider any building, however insignificant, good 

 enough to celebrate the worsliip of (jod mi How ditterent the feel- 

 ing in the olden time I Are we not indebted to the devotion and 

 zeal of our forefathers for the noble architectural remains of sacred 

 edifices, whose lofty proportions, grandeur and s\)bliniity fill the mind 

 with awe and solenniity ? — -even the Heathens honoured their Gods in 

 stately temples. A House of Parliament, a National Gallery, a Mer- 

 cantile Exchange, are justly thought wortliy of a noble edifice. Is it 

 not an insult to our God, and does it not bring religion into disrespect 

 and disrepute, when those who ought to support, and who themselves 

 live in palaces, consider a huvel good enough for their Almighly 

 Father \ 



Scrutator. 



RAILWAY COMMUNICATION BETWEEN LONDON AND 

 DUBLIN. 



The Committee appointed by the Lords of the Treasury, in pur- 

 suance of an address to the Queen from the House of Commons last 

 sessions, " that her Majesty wiU be pleased to give directions that an 

 engineer or engineers may be appointed to inquire and report upon tlie 

 relative merits, and the preference which ought to be given to the 

 respective already surveyed and projected railways following: — 

 namely, from Holyhead, ind Bangor and Chester ; Portdynllaen, via 

 Caernarvon, Bangor, and Chester ; Portdynllaen, rid Barmouth, Bala, 

 and Shrewsbury ; Orme's Head, via Chester:" and also, "that her 

 Majesty will be pleased to give directions that proper persons may 

 be appointed to inquire and report upon the best means of communi- 

 cation by sea between Dublin and London, as connected with the said 

 intended railways." 



The Committee have selected the line recommended by Mr. George 

 Stephenson, from Holyhead, rid Bangor and Chester ; it commences 

 at the termini of the Chester and Crewe and the Chester and Birken- 

 liead Railways at Chester, and proceeds by Bangor over the Menai 

 Bridge to Holyhead. The line is 85 miles long, and has only 1,504 

 yards of tunnel ; the gradients appear to be very favourable, viz. 



Miles. Chains. 



Level 41 8 



5 feet per mile and under .... 8 



Above 5 feet and up to 10 feet ... 7 20 



Above 10 feet and up to 15 feet ... 20 64 



1() feet per mile 7 



19 feet per mile 68 



85 







That part of the report which relates to the crossing of the Menai 

 Bridge, we have selected and given in full. 



Pussai;!' of the Menai Jiridgc. — The passage of the Menai Bridge is the next 

 point of importance. It lias licen supposed that this would have presented 

 an insujierablc obstacle to the lines of Messrs. Stephensi.n and Giles ; but 

 neither of these gentlemen propose to cross the bridge with locomotive en- 

 gines, the former suagesting that the railway carriages may be drawn over 

 Ijy horses, and the latter by a stationary engine. 



There seems to he no objection to either of these plans, and the loss of 

 Jime consequent upon them would probably not exceed one-quarter of an 

 hour. 



The following observations will show the suliicieucy of the Menai Bridge 

 to sustain the weightof any number of railway carriages that may be required 

 to pass over it. 



In tlie first place, as far as regards the mode of passage, no important dilll- 

 culty can be lore-seen ; the only question, therefore, is one of strength. 



The weight of a railway passenger-carriage, with its load, is commonly 

 estimalcil at about five tons, and the length occupieil by each carriage, Irom 

 one connectmg pin lo another, may be taken at 22 feet, when several car- 

 riages arc in connexion. Tins would give a pressure of only '23 of a ton per 

 lineal foot on the length of the bridge, supposing the platform to be wholly 

 filled with such carriages. 



Let us now see what weight the bridge is capable of sustaining. 



It appears from the statement of Mr. Proyis, who was the iesident en- 



gineer during the erection of this splendid structure, that tlie suspended part 



between the pier consists 

 Of 16 main chains, including connecting plates, screws, bolts. Tons. cwt. 



&c weighing 394 5 



Of transverse ties 3 16J 



And of suspended rods, platform, Ktc 245 13} 



The total weight being 613 l.'i 



The distance l)etween the points of suspension is .570 feet lOJ inches, and 

 the deflection 43 feet. M'ith these data, the tension in terms of the weight 

 may be readily computed, from the properties of the catenary curve ; but it 

 will, perhaps, be more satisfactory to derive it from the actual experiments 

 of Mr Rhodes, who superintended the erection of the chains, and who found, 

 practically, the tension to amount to 17 times the weight. This makes the 

 tension on the supporting chains from the weight of the structure alone to 

 amount to 1,094 tons. 



Now to sustain this tension, we have a sectional area in the 16 chains ol 

 260 square inches, which, according to Mr. Barlow's experiments, made ou 

 the chain-cable testing machine at Woolwich, are capable of sustaining 2,600 

 tons, without injury to the elastic force of the iron, namely, 10 tons per 

 square inch, the ultimate strength being 25 tons per square inch. 



If. then, from the absolute strength of tlie chains 2,600 tons. 



We deduct the strain due to the weight of the bridge 1 ,084 



There remains a surplus of strength of 1 ,506 tons. 



which is competent, therefore, to sustain a uniform load (allowing the tension 

 to be 17 times the weight) of 'S."J- or 886 tons. Now if the bridge were 

 covered with loaded r.aiUvay carriages on both sides, it would only be equi- 

 valent to 265 tons, leaving still a surplus strength of 621 tons. The objec- 

 tions, therefore, that have been raised respecting the capability of the bridge 

 to bear the weight of the railway eaiTiages which it might be required to 

 support must be considered as utterly groundless. 



Mr. .Stephenson proposes to establish a station at each end of the bridge, 

 where the locomotive engines would be kept in readiness to be attached lo 

 the trains. 



DESIGNS FOR THE NEW ASSIZE COURTS, LIVERPOOL. 



fWe have received several communications respecting the decision 

 of the Committee, and our attention has also been drawn to a letter 

 which appeared in the Liverpool " Albion " ; it contains a general 

 description of the successful design of Mr. Elmes, and some very ap- 

 propriate remarks ; we therefore give the article entire, with which 

 we hope our correspondents will be satisfied, instead of publishing 

 their papers, as we are so pre-occupied with matter, that we can ill 

 spare the space for any additional remarks ; however, we shall be 

 glad to receive any other communication on the subject that may 

 throw some light on the proceedings, in order that we may be able to 

 make some comments on the conduct of the Committee in the next 

 month's Journal, if found necessary.] 



Sir — A plan has been pretty generally adopted, of late years, in respect of 

 obtaining designs for pulilic edifices. I mean that of advertising for compe- 

 tition drawings, and awarding one or more prizes, in the ratio of tlieir excel- 

 lence or fitness, with the imjilied certainty, that the hearer of the first prize 

 should have still more substantial reward, in the supermtendency of the erec- 

 tion of the future edifice. This, in itself, would appear, and perhaps is, the 

 best method that, under the circumstances, cotdd be adopted. It might be 

 difficult to point out a better ; but, Sir, a httle reflection will at oucc show, that, 

 however excellent this may be, in the abstract, it cnthely loses that character 

 unless it be invariably coupled with the necessary quahfications for judging, 

 combined with excellent taste, in the awarders of the honours. 



I have held this opiuion, iu common with others who have given the matter 

 consideration, since the plan became general ; but, whatever coufirmation it 

 might have then required, the award in the proposed Assize Courts has now 

 amply confirmed. When I say, that the sub-committee, in this case, had not 

 the necessary qualifications to fit them for deciding, let it not be understood, 

 that this is done through any feehng of disappointment or personal hostihty 

 to gentlemen witli some of whom 1 am on terms of intimacy : on the con- 

 trary, I trust I shah be able to prove the position with which I set out to the 

 satisfaction of your readers ; but 1 may, at once, say, that I am not an archi- 

 tect, the truth of which is known tu you, therefore have uot competed for the 

 prize, consequently am not a " disappointed niau" individually ; but, perhaps, 

 as one of the public, this feehng is particularly strong, and more esiiecially so 

 when I look around the walls of the Exhibition-room, in PostoHicc-pIace. I 

 am uot only disap))oiiited. Sir, with the prize-drawings there to be seen, but, 

 with one or two exceptions, the whole. They evidence want of invention, in 

 the first place, and want of judgment, in the second ; and the two designs 

 that combme these essentials, have, for want of judgment iu the committee, 

 been thrust aside. The majority of the designs, prizes included, evince a 

 senile imitation of the Greek style of temple arclutecture, which, ever)- day's 

 experience teaches us, is neither fitted to oiu- wants nor our cUmatc. If the 

 Greeks had had either the one or the other, they woidd have invented a style 



to have suited both; but invention with «« is at once crushed, the ambitious 



