1840.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



215 



pvoaclieil, by any other vaDwav line in the kingdom. The rails, remarkably 

 heavy, are fifteen feet in lenglli. and laid on longitudinal jiieces of KyaniseJ 

 timber, the scantling of whieh is twelve inches by six inches. There are be- 

 sides transverse pieces, also KyaniseJ, ten inches by five inches, and screwed 

 to the longitudinal ones every' three feet, so that it may with safety be pro- 

 nounced impossible that the rails, when once truly and (irmly lixod in their 

 chairs, can ever afterwards be other than completely parallel to each other ; 

 a circumstance that cannot fail to give a motion to the cai-riages so thoroughly 

 easy and agreeable, as to bid defiance to all attempts at improvements on the 

 plan. When the archo.s, now 110 in nimiber, are extemied to the intended 

 permanent station. Piccadillv, near the Infirmary, the entire length of the 

 viaduct on brick arches will 'exceed two miles; and the quantity of timber 

 that will be consumed in laying the rails for this length only, will exceed 

 20.000 cubic feet. It is intended to open the railway, as lar as Stockport, on 

 the 29th May. — Manchester Chronicle. 



Lancaster and Preston Junctimi llailway. —Tlus railway will be opened for 

 the conveyance of passengers, and of traffic, on MTiit-Monday. The works 

 proceed at the Lancaster terminus -with considerable activity. A single line 

 of rails has been laid down as far as Galgate, and during the past week a 

 number of men have been despatched to the contract of Messrs. lI'Mahon. 

 which, it is rumoured, the directors intend to take into their own hands, in 

 order to ensure the compUtion by the 6th of next month, v liich otherwise is 

 more than problematical. — Railway Times. 



Paris and Rouen Rnilway. — The contract entered into between the South- 

 ampton Railroad Company and that between Paris and Kouen has been 

 .signed, and the works will be commenced immediately. The present railroad 

 from St. Germain will form the nucleus, and from the same point it is ima- 

 gined the railroad to Belgium might be commenced, and hence that goods 

 covild be forwarded directly from Rouen to Bmssels, without having to pass 

 through the French capital. — Globe. 



Glasffoiv ami Ayr Rnilwaii. — The most active exertions are making along 

 the line in order to eli'ect tlie completion of the whole line by the end of 

 July. Betwixt Kilwinning and Dairy the cutting and embanking is carried 

 on during the night as well as the day : and the contractor of this lot, 

 liitherto in the most backward state, is proceeding with the greatest vigour 

 and success. Considerable progress has been made in overcoming the diffi- 

 culties of the so called bottomless meadow, whieh has required so much de- 

 posit in the embanking. The most formidable part of it yet remaining 

 extends to about three hundred yards : and it is singular to observe that as 

 the earth is poured on the embankment, the surface on both sides is heaved 

 up to a considerab e extent. As the workmen proceed, they find each new 

 piece of embankment to sink during the night, which depression they have 

 to restore by fresh portions of surface material. Having once surmounted 

 this obstacle, their task will be comparatively easy, as the embankment at 

 this part of the line is only three feet. The meadow which lies betwixt Kil- 

 birnic and Lochwinnoch Lochs, is supposed to have been at one time also 

 covered with waier, but it was not considered to have retained so much 

 moisture as to cause such extra labour to make it properly terra fimia. other- 

 wise some change would have been made on the line, by which it might have 

 been avoided. The lodging-houses in Ivilwinning. Dairy, and Beilli, are 

 crowded with lal^ourers employed on the railway, whose expenditure must 

 be felt in a considerable degree by those villages. The iron-works at Dairy 

 are in the progress of building, and appear to be on a very extensive scale. — 

 GlasgoiP Courier. 



ENGINEERING VITORKS. 



The Royal George.— Cf\\.Vas\eyhegan his proceedings for the removal of 

 the wreck of the Royal George on the 1st of last month, but up to the 12th 

 nothing very remarkable was effected. Two guns, the rudder, and a conside- 

 rable quantity of timber, were recovered ; but as these were merely the frag- 

 ments of last year's work which the inclemency of the season prevented the 

 engineers from picking up, no serious measures were deemed necessary till 

 Tuesday, 12 ultimo. At eight o'clock in the morning, the red flags at Spit- 

 head announced that a great explosion was to be attempted : and at eleven 

 one of those huge cylinders which have formerly been described, filled with 

 2116 11). of gunpowder, was lowered to the bottom. One of Col. Pasley's 

 divers (George Hall) who has acquired great expertness in these operations, 

 descended his rope-ladder a little in advance of the cylinder, and succeeded 

 in fixing it securely to one of the lower gudgeons or braces on the rudder- 

 post, within six or eight feet of the keel. The diver having remounted, and 

 the vessels being withdrawn to a safe distance, the enormous charge was 

 ignited by means of the voltaic apparatus. Within less than two seconds 

 after tlie shock was felt, the sea rose over the spot to the height of about 

 1.5 feet, or not quite half so high as it did on occasion of the great explosions 

 last year— a diilerencc ascribable, probably, to the cylinder on the present 

 oecas on having been placed under ihe hull instead ot alongside it. The 

 commotion in the w ater, however, was so great as to cause the lumps and 

 lighters to pitch and roll at a great rate. The whole surface of the sea for 

 severixl hundred yards round was presently covered with dead fish and small 

 fragments of the cylinder. Amongst these were innumerable tallow candles, 

 and a mass of butter a foot and a half in length, evidently driven upfront 

 the purser's store-room. As soon as the va.st commotion in the water b.ad 

 subsided, and the boats had returned from the universal scramble lor the 

 candles and dead fish, the diver proceeded again to the bottom, and soon 

 reported that the whole stern of the ship bad been driven to pieces, and that, 

 so lar as he could ascertain, there was now a free and wide channel directly 

 fore and aft the ship, from stem to stern, through which both the flood and 

 ebb tides will rush, and thus the mud with which the hull of the Royal 

 George has been silted for half a century, will be washed out, and the way 

 cleared for Col, Pasley's further operations. 



Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal Company. — This company, having 

 purchased of the Moat Colliery Company the unexpired term of their lease 

 of the river Sowe, up to this town, have this week employed no less than 

 150 men in improving and making navigable for heavily laden vessels, that 

 part of it between this town and Radford Bridge. The work has been ac- 

 tively proceeded with, the bed of the river being lowered in some parts about 

 two feet, widened or narrowed as required, and thoroughly cleansed. This 

 improvement has been effected with the view of opening a market for IjOrd 

 Hatberton's and other collieries at Church Bridge, near Cannock, to which 

 }tlace a branch from the canal is in progress, at an estimated expense of 

 £20,000. It is expected that the branch will be completed by the end of the 

 present summer ; .so that the inhabitants of this tow n may reasonably expect 

 both a cheaper and better supply of the necessary article of fuel. — Stafford- 

 shire Gazette. 



Portsmouth Dockyard. — A Board of Admiralty, consisting of Earl Minto and 

 Sir M". Parker, lately visited the port. Several material points have called 

 their Lordships' attention to this neighbourhood : in the first place, the lioa - 

 ing bridge approaches required their inspection, in which they were assisted 

 by their engineer. Captain Brandreth i anil we have no doubt that all matters 

 in dispute will be satisfactorily arranged tor the company, and ailvantageously 

 for the public. We have reason to think that Mr. Lindegren's projecting 

 premises will be purchased and throw n open, by wdiich means upwards of 60 

 feet of high water beach will be available to the watermen ; care, however, 

 should be taken that the new beach be properly formed, for, as the situatimi 

 is removed from the operation of the tidal influence on the shingle, nature 

 will provide nothing but nuul to land on, unless the engineer shall e.\ercise 

 his art and procure a more hardened substance. 



NEW CHURCHES, &c 



Dorsetshire.— Tlhe foimdation stone of the new church at Ash was laid on 

 Wednesday, 13tli ult., by the Rev. R. Oakman. the vicar, in the (iresence of 

 a very large company, comprising about 2.000 of the nobility, gentry, and 

 yeuraanry of the county. — Dorset County Chronicle. 



Nottingham. — The beautiful church of St. Mary, which has justly excited 

 so much admiration from antiquaries, has been completely restored, at an 

 expense of 3,000^., which sum was raised by subscription ; and Mr T. Wright, 

 of Upton-hall, has purchased and presented to the church a beautiful Cruci- 

 fixion, by Fra Bartolomeo, anil one of his finest works, as an altar-piece. — 

 Nottingham Herald. 



Essex. — North and south transepts are now in progress at the parish church 

 of Messing, near Colchester, under the direction of John Burges Watson, Ksq.. 

 of 39, Manchester-street, London. The style is early I'inglish ; there is ,i 

 beautiful eastern window in stained glass and of great antiquity, .supposed lo 

 have been of Dutch origin, .and is an object of attraction to visitors; it is 

 also contemplated to have a new tower and spire, for which designs have 

 been furnished. 



Sisters of Mercy in Birmingham. — John Ilardman, Esq., of Handsworth, has 

 generously allotted to the use of this establishment, a piece of land opposite 

 his own dw elling ; and a convent is now in progress, from the designs of A . 

 W. Pugin, Esq.. the architect of St. Chad's Church. The conventual build- 

 ings will consist of chapel, cloister, community room, refectory, olliees, and 

 private chambers, or, as the are technically termed, cells ; to which will be 

 added a refectory, school-room, and suitable apartments for about thirty 

 female orphan children. The plan of the building is based chiefly upon that 

 of" Brown's Hospital " in Stamford ; and, as Mr. Pugin studies propriety of 

 destination in all his edifices, we have reason to know that the one in question 

 will not only be ornamental and picturesque, but in every respect conventual — 

 in fact, the only entire building, with purely conventual features, in the coun- 

 try. — Midland Counties Herald. 



Staffordshire.— 7hc new church of St. James', at Handsworth, was eonse- 

 eratcd on the 22iid April last. It is built in the early Gothic style, with a 

 tower of three stories at the west end, it contains 926 sittings, ol which 518 

 are tree. Mr. Richard Robinson of Wolverhampton, was the contractor, for 

 the sum of £2,500, — and Robert Ebbels, Esq., the architect. 



MISCELIiANEA. 



Artificial Asphalte. — The substitution of boiling coal tar instead of 

 water, with crushed caustic lime and screened gravel or sharp sand, in the 

 usual proportions for making coucrete, forms an admirable asphalte, perhaps 

 equal to the foreign asphalte. C. F. P. 



IJ'ood Pavement. — A considerable length of the Strand is now being 

 paved with wood ; the blocks are hexagonal, 9 inches deep, and 9 inches 

 across at right angles to the sides ; the upper edge is chamfered all round, 

 to form a groove to prevent the horses from slipping. The wood is laid o« 

 a bed of broken granite, and to us it appears that the work is behig done in 

 a very clumsy and unsatisfactory manner. 



Asphalte. — This material has been used in lining the reservoirs and tanks 

 of the Southampton RaUway, and found to answer very well ; it has also 

 been used for covering terraces — in some situations it has not been very suc- 

 cessful, but in others it is perfectly water-proof. An additional length of 

 the footway in Whitehall hai been laid with ttus material. 



