1840.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



213 



TRANSATLANTIC STEAMERS. 

 Comparison of the passages of tlie four lines of Sailing Packet Sliips be- 

 tween Ijiverponl antl New York, witli tliose of tlic Transatlantic Steam 

 Ships, during the year 1839. 



Sailing Ships. 



Old or Black Ball Line 



Dramatic Line 



Star Line 



Swallow-tail Line . . . . 



Steam Ships. 



Great Western . 

 British Qiieen . 

 Liverpool 



Days. 

 48 

 38 

 45 

 45 



21 12 

 20 9 

 18 12 



Average of all the Sailing 



Ships '44 



Average of all the Steam, 



Ships 20 3 



Difference in favour of the 



Steamships ! 23 21 | 10 9 





Davs. 



22 ■ 



23 



27 



28 



13 



14 21 

 IG 



25 

 14 15 



Days. 

 33 17 

 30 12 

 3G 

 35 



IG 12 

 17 8 

 17 4 



34 1] 



17 



17 U 



Days. 



30 

 25 

 28 



31 



15 

 21 12 

 27 



-a 

 I I 



Days. 

 18 

 17 

 21 

 17 



12 6 



13 12 



13 18 



30 ' 18 6 

 21 4 13 4 



8 20 



5 2 



■<s 



Days. 

 22 12 

 20 12 

 24 

 22 12 



13 9 

 16 12 



15 IG 



15 4i 



7 13J 



The immense superiority, in point of speed, of the Steam Ships, will be 

 fully evident on inspection of the above table; where the ditference in the 

 first instance is more than half ; in the second almost three-fifths; in the 

 third more than half; in the fourth more than a quarter; in the fifth near a 

 third ; and in the sixth more tlian a tliird. 



It must, however, be borne in mind that the Transatlantic Steam Ships 

 are yet in their infancy, whilst the sailing ships are perfection ; there being 

 no faster ships on the face of the globe than the New Tork and Liverpool 

 Liners. 



Steam Navigation in Germany. — Besides the generally good roads, steam- 

 l)oats and railway lines are. of late, facilitating interior communication in 

 most parts of Germany. l'>erybody in Kngland knows the steam-boat com- 

 munications on the Rhine, which for several years past have poured out a 

 mighty stream of I'jnglish travellers alonj^" the western parts of Germany and 

 .Sivitzerland. In the course of this summer. (1840.) the banks of the iOlbe. 

 ■•Saxony, Bohemia, and tlie whole central part of Germany, will be .as easily 

 adniissil)]e to the tourist, as the banks of the Rhine have hitherto been. Per- 

 haps a few wcn'ds on this subject may prove acceptable to persons intending 

 to take a trip or a ioiirney to countries conip.iratively not so generally know n. 

 From London or llull lo'llamljur^b steam-boats are regularly running seve- 

 ral times every week, llamljurgh is situated about eighty miles inland, on 

 the navigable Elbe. I'rom Hamburgh to Magdeburgh, the journey is per- 

 formed on board steam-boats, ofleriug the best accommodations. The dis- 

 tance, by the river, is about 250 Knglish miles. From Magdeburgh to Lei|)siL- 

 a railway is constructing ; it will be opened in its whole length,in the early jian 

 of this summer: the journey — about seventy-four miles — will then be per- 

 formed in three or four hours. From Leipsie to Dresden a railway has been 

 in operation for more than a year : the distance — seventy-one miles and a 

 (juarter — is performed in about 31- hours. From Dresden another line of 

 steam-boats laui. about lit ty miles, as far as Tetschen, in Bohemia, w here 

 you find yourself at a few hours' journey from Prague and To'plitz, as well 

 as in the vicinity of Carlsbad, Frezonsbad, and tjie other celebrated and 

 fashionable Bohemian watering places, which may all all now l.'C reached 

 without any fatigue, or any great expense, five days after embarking from 

 England. From Prague to Briin the liistancc is about sixty miles, where the 

 traveller will find excellent public coaches, or can take for private use, at any 

 time and at moderate prices, stage coaches, kept always in readiness by all 

 the post-administrations throughout llie Austrian Empire, for the accommo- 

 dation of families travelling without their own carriages. From Briin to 

 Vienna, the ji/urney — about eighty-five miles — is pert'onneJ in bjur or five 

 hours, by a railway which has been in operation for upwards of a year. 

 From Vienna the steam-boats on the Danube run through Hungary to the 

 Turkish frontiers, and the Black .Sea, in communication with those plying to 

 Constantinople, Odessa, Trebizonde, &.c. In two months, when the whole 

 Magdeburgh-Leit»sic Railway is opened, a person may travel from England 

 to Vienna, or to Constantinople by steam, with the exception of a distance 

 of ab lUt eighty miles, comprising the two sections of road from Tetschen to 

 Prague, and from Prague to Briin. where neither railway nor steam-boat 

 conveyance is as yet established. — Jthcniewn. 



PROGRESS OF RAILV^AVS. 



Bristol and Exeter Railway.— It is expected that a portion of the Bristol 

 and Exeter Railway, as far'as Bridgewater, will be opened in the course of 

 the present year. \V'e understand that the works are proceeding with great 

 activity. — Railway Times. 



BLACKWALL RAILWAY. 



CoNsiuEUAULE excrtioiis are being made to open that part of the railway 

 from tlie Minories to Blackwall on the IStli inst., the anniversary of the 

 battle of Waterloo, when it is expected that his Grace the Duke of Welling- 

 ton will be present ; one line of railway is nearly completed from end to end, 

 t/ie railway is carried on a viaduct from the Minories to the West India 

 Docks, thence it is continued on an embankment, until it immerges into a 

 shallow cutting near the terminus at Brunswick Wharf, and terminates under 

 a shed covered with an iron roof, similar to that of the terminus of the 

 London and Birmingham Railway at Euston-square ; adjoining the shed is a 

 spacious biulding for the offices, of the Italian style of architecture, and 

 forms a in-ominent feature from the river, it is erected from the designs of 

 Mr. Tite the architect. President of the .Vrelntectural Society; the Black- 

 wall terniinus is most conveniently adapted for steam-boats, being situated on 

 Brunswick Wharf, alongside which the largest class steamers can embark and 

 disembark passengers at all times of the tide, and there are already 2 Graves- 

 end steamers announced for starting from this spot as soon as the railway is 

 opened, and no doubt many others will follow ; it is more than probable, be- 

 fore another year jiasses over, all the steamers which now start from below 

 bridge will make the Blackwall terminus the starting place, thereby avoiding 

 the most dangerous part of the voyage through the Pool, and save in time 

 about three (piarters of an hour; by this means the Gravesend bo.ats will he 

 able to make two trips each way every day, and we have no doubt it v\ill also 

 he found the nmst advantageous route to Woolwich, which can be done by 

 railway, and steamers across the river within three quarters of an hour from 

 the Minories to Vroolwich. 



To afford every facility for the conveyance of passengers, two classes of 

 carriages have been provided, part of which are already delivered ; the first 

 class are enclosed, painted blue, finished very tastefully, and embla- 

 zoned with the .\rms of the Cit.v, and the East and West India Dock Com- 

 panies, at the same time there is no superfluous ornament or exti-avaganee 

 about tbeni — the second class carriages are open at the sides, and .are not 

 provided with seats; the passengers will be obliged to stand dining the short 

 time that the}- are being conveyed, which it is expected will be in about nine 

 or ten mimitcs ; it is stated that the fares will be very trifling, for the first 

 class carriages Hd., and the second class id. 



The breadth of the viaduct on the top is 24 feet in cle.ar of the eoiiing 

 stone or cornice, and 28 feet out ami out. The arches on the top are covered 

 with asjihalte to prevent the percolation of wet through the brickwork. The 

 rails arc light in consequence of being relieved of the heavy locomotive, the 

 form is T shaped, and 5 inches deep, they are laid to a 5 feet 1 inch gauge, 

 on transverse sleepers of English fir, 3 feet apart, upon which the chairs are 

 spiked — the rail is secured to the chair in rather a novel manner, a hole is 

 pierced through one of the arms of the chair at right angles to the rail, in 

 which an iron ball about the size of a bullet is dropped and rests against the 

 rail, an iron key or wedge is then driven through an aperture in the same 

 arm of the,^hair parallel to the rail, which fixes and presses the ball firmly 

 against the latter, this method of fixing prevents any lateral vibration of the 

 rail, and at the same time it allows the free expansion and contraction of the 

 metal, Down the centre of each railway are fixed the pulleys upon which 

 the tail rojies will traverse, placed 30 feet ajiart; they are 30 inches diameter, 

 and 8 inches wide across the sheave, the rim is lined with rope matting to 

 prevent any noise from the rapid motion of the rojie passing over them ; the 

 axles turn upon ]iluminer blocks fixed on an iron curb, and over each bearing 

 is a small box for grease to lubricate the axles; the pulleys are fixed verti- 

 cally throughout the line, both in the straight part and the curves, for the 

 latter they arc of a dift'erciit shape to the others, being 30 inches diameter 

 on one side, and '.K inches on the other; the rim is formed like the outside 

 of the mouth of a large bell. — In the last month's Journal, y. 178, is describeil 

 how the railway is to be worked, by what is technically termed tail ropes, 

 that is, a rope at each terminus is attached to the carnages, and as the rope 

 is coiled up at one end of the railway by the aid of steam-engines, it draws 

 the carriages, and at the same time the rope at the other end is being nii- 

 vvound, thus by the time the forward lope, with the carriage, is wound up at 

 the station at Blackwall, the rope of the station at the Minories is unwound, 

 it is then ready to draw the carriages from the Blackwall terminus back to 

 the Minories. For this purpose there are four of these ropes, two to each 

 line — they are each 3.1 miles long, and 5} inches diameter, and are worked 

 by two pairs of marine engiues at each end of the line, those at the 

 Blackwall terminus are 70 horses power each engine, manufactured by Mr. 

 Barnes, and at the Minories station each engine is 112 horses power, manu- 

 factured by Messrs. Maudslays and Field, the latter are of greater power than 

 the former, in consequence of the railway being principally upon the ascent 

 from Blackwall to the Minories ; each rope is worked by one pair of engines, 

 the power is tranferred from the engines by means of spur wheels which turn 

 an immense wheel or iron pulley 14 feet diameter in the clear, and 22 feet out 

 and out, and 3 ft. in. wide on the outer circumference, and about 21 inches 

 at the inner circumference, — round this wheel is coiled the rope just described. 

 The engines at the Minories station have each a marine boiler of large dimen- 

 sions ; and those of Blackwall, one pair have three Cornish oval boilers, and 

 the other pair two marine lioilers. The engine house at Blackwall is on a 

 level with the railway, and at the Minories it is below the railway, under the 

 arches. The whole of the works do considerable credit to the respective 

 contractors, and to the indefatigable zeal of the engineers, Mr. George Ste- 

 phenson and Mr. Bidder. 



