1840.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



259 



REPORT ON THE HARBOURS OF THE SOUTH EASTERN 



COAST. 



We should have liked to have gone at seme length into this report, 

 but other matter, we cannot say more important, has prevented us. 

 We may brieily characterize it as destitute of all ])rinciple, first pro- 

 posing one principle, then another, then contradicting both, and but 

 ill calculated to give satisfaction to the public or to men of science. 

 Upon none of the great physical questions, the operations of which 

 upon this coast have been the subject of so much controversy, does it 

 give any elucidation, indeed it does not enter upon them. With re- 

 gard to the numerous plans suggested for making harbours on these 

 coasts, many of them ingenious, some good, and all entitled to atten- 

 tion, the commissioners pass them over with silent contempt. 



Just to '.how the blowing hot and cold system which characterizes 

 the proceedings of the commissioners with regard to the great prin- 

 ciples at issue, we shall call attention to the following extracts from 

 the last number of the Journal. 



Margate. — " The power of sluicing at so great a distance as that proposed 

 in this plan, could only be applied with advantage to a surface dry, or nearly 

 so, at low water ; and the idea of keeping a deep-water harhour of any useful 

 width, clear by means of such sluicing, appears to us to he impracticable." 



Ramsgate. — " There is no natural backwater so essential for the purpose of 

 scouring." 



Deal and Sandwich. — " The shingle is continually moving by the action of 

 the waves, in the direction of the prevailing winds." 



Dover. — " It should lie observed that these sluices, though efficacious to a 

 certain extent, are not capable of removing the obstruction altogether. The 

 force of the water, which at its exit from the culverts is ver>' great, loses its 

 impetus as it spreads over a larger surface, and forces the shiugle to a com- 

 paratively small distance, where it is liable to form banks beyond the power 

 of the sluices." 



Folkstone. — " A small stream is pent up at the north-west side of the har- 

 bour, for the purpose of scouring at low water ; and with the assistance of 

 manual labour, in addition to this verj' inadequate backwater, the channel is 

 kept open so as to allow vessels of 10 to 12 feet draught to come alongside 

 of the main pier at the top of high water." " In our opinion no scouring 

 power would be able to keep the channels clear below the level of low water." 

 " Constant motion of shingle." 



Rye. — " Shingle accumulated by winds." " Powerful backwater thereby 

 acquired, operated as a scour during the ebb, to clear the channel and keep 

 the entrance open." 



■ Hasiings. — " There is no natural backwater, nor the facility of making an 

 artificial one to any useful extent." 



Netvhaven. — " The river affords a powerful backwater for scouring the 

 entrance." 



Shoreham. — " A bar rises occasionally above the low water level, and shifts 

 its position from 60 to ICO feet from the pier-heads." 



Littlehampton. — " The backwater not enough." 



These are materials for thinking, and we have no doubt will create 

 some excitement among the advocates and opposers of backwater. 

 We shall show, on a subsequent occasion, how beautifully this inde- 

 pendence of attachment to principles is preserved in the plans of the 

 commissioners themselves. 



RETORT UPON RETORT. 



Sir — Having myself animadverted in the first instance upon what 

 Mr. Bartholomew had said of the new fa^-ade of the College of Sur- 

 geons, Lincoln's bin Fields, which he is pleased to call both '• ill-fa- 

 voured" in itself, and not merely a cracking but "a creaking mass of 

 fracture," — it would ill-become me to complain of his animadverting 

 upon me in return, in the preface to his " Specifications ;" where he 

 has iutrodiiced a long note, in which he says : "Mr. Leeds having with 

 some coarseness of diction chosen to go out of his way in his 'Essay 

 on Modern English Architecture,' to comment upon my supposed ad- 

 miration of the former facade of the College of Surgeons, I here tell 

 him, that in this place as elsewhere, his quotations whether of the sense 

 or words, are not accurate. I have put forth no such sentiment either 

 by word or implication, I admired its portico as formerly existing, 

 &c., &c." 



Not being able at this moment to refer to the passage in question, I 

 cannot pretend to be certain as to the precise words, yet whether so 

 intended or not, the impression it left upon me was that Mr. Bartholo- 

 mew considered the building to be altered greatly for tlie worse. That 

 he admired the portico as formerly existing, the words I have quoted 

 sufficiently prove; nor do I dispute his right to admire, more espe- 

 cially as there is scarcely any production of the present day which his 

 aste will permit him to admire at all. He is now, it seems, however 



anxious to have it understood that he confined his admiration exclu- 

 sively to the portico, by which I suppose he means merely the columns, 

 for all that was behind them was most barbarous in design. But then 

 by not protesting against the deformity of the other parts, and by again 

 expressing his approbation of a portico, the interior of which was most 

 detestable, he certainly does leave it to be inferred that he was not at 

 all shocked at the architectural incongruities it presented. Very possi- 

 bly he may have regarded with profound contempt and abhorrence all 

 but the mere columns ; still as he did not chose to make that clear to 

 his readers, he ought not now to complain if he has been misunder- 

 stood, and his real meaning misrepresented. 



With regard to the coarseness of diction which he lays to my charge, 

 I allow that my expressions may have seemed coarse to one who is so 

 guarded and refined in his own language, as to speak of modern archi- 

 tecture as being no better than a " fraudulent, pickpocket system," and 

 of those who practice it, as ignorant pretenders and qua'cks, utterly 

 ignorant of scientific principles of construction. The horrible coarse- 

 ness of which I was guilty consisted in remarking: " after this, should 

 any one obtain that writer's approbation or good words, he will have 

 reason to consider it a most unfortunate symptom, and to take himself 

 to task very strictly in order to ascertain what can have excited such 

 ominous sympathy :" which no doubt sounds bearishly rude and inde- 

 licate to " ears polite," and in comparison with the delicate and d\ilcet, 

 Mr. Bartholomew himself invariably employs. 



Though he has done me the honour to single out myself, he might 

 find, did he care to look about, other critics and other publications 

 which have treated him with as little ceremony as he himself has 

 treated his own brother-architects. By no means therefore am I a 

 solitary offender; on the contrary, there are others still more coarsely 

 blunt, and — what is perhaps worse, some who are still more keen. 



W. H. L. 



CLEGG AND SAMUDA'S ATMOSPHERIC RAILWAY. 



With an Engraving, Plate XIV. 



In our last number we gave some particulars regarding the first ex- 

 periment, made on the Atmospheric Railway; we are now enabled 

 through the kindness of the inventors to give drawings and descriptions 

 of the railway and apparatus, together with some calculations. 



In Clegg and Samuda's Atmospheric Railway, the power employed 

 is the pressure of the atmosphere, brought into action by exhaustion. 

 By reference to the plate, the following description of the apparatus 

 will be rendered more clear : — 



Fig. 1, is a general elevation of the railway, with a train of carriages 

 passing over it. 



Fig. 2, is a plan of the railway, with the upper surface of the pipe, 

 at the part containing the entrance separating valve, removed to show 

 its construction. 



Fig. 3, is a longitudinal section of the railway, taken at the dotted 

 line mm fig. 4, showing the connection between the piston and the 

 train carriage and the method of lifting the continuous valve. 



Fig. i, is a transverse section of the same. 



Fig. 5, is a transverse section of the pipe on an enlarged scale, 

 showing the continuous valve and cover, and also the heater N, in dotted 

 lines. 



Fig. 6, a plan of the continuous valve on an enlarged scale. 



The moving power is communicated to the train through a con- 

 tinuous pipe or main, a, laid between the rails, which is exhausted by 

 air pumps worked by stationary steam engines, fixed on the road side, 

 the distance between them varying from one to three miles, according 

 to the nature and traffic of the road. A piston, B, which is introduced 

 into this pipe, is attached to the leading carriage in each train, through 

 a lateral opening, and is made to travel forward by means of the ex- 

 haustion created in front of it. The continuous pipe is fixed between 

 the rails and bolted to the sleepers which carry them ; the inside of 

 the tube is unbored, but lined or coated with tallow y^th of an inch 

 thick, to equalize the surface and prevent any unnecessary friction 

 from the passage of the traveking piston through it. Along the upper 

 surface of the pipe is a continuous slit or groove about two inches 

 wide. This groove is covered by a valve, G, extending the whole 

 length of the railway, formed of a strip of leather rivetted between 

 iron plates, as shown at fig. 5, the top plates being wider than the 

 groove and serving to prevent the external air forcing the leather into 

 the pipe when the vacuum is formed within it; and the lower plates 

 fitting into the groove when the valve is shut, makes up the circle of 

 the pipe, and prevents the air from passing the piston ; one edge of 

 this valve is securely held down by iron bars. No. 2, (fig. 5), fastened 

 by screw bolts, No. 4, to a longitudinal rib cast on the pipe, and allow* 



