1S40.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



3.57 



dignity ami elevation. But, upon carrying the eye upwards, it is most pain- 

 fully offended by the unsightly dome and tambour upon which it rests. This 

 excrescence is most truly unfortunate ; firstly, the Greek character of the 

 architecture did not require a dome, a thing utterly unknown to the Greeks 

 themselves; and, secondly, the contour of the thing itself is both ugly and 

 inharmonious. Had the architect, when he had resolved upon a dome at all, 

 consulted the graceful simplicity, swelling circumference, and taiicring out- 

 line of that of St. Paul's, Loudon, his conceptions might have been more 

 chaste, and his work less open to criticism. Tlie circular heads to the win- 

 dows are equally architectural anachronisms. The sides facing tlie Dock and 

 Hanover Street, are adorned by a similar portico to tliat last described, and 

 placed upon a bold flight of steps. Here the critic can only praise the pilas- 

 ters, intercolumniations, entablature, cornice, windows, and doors; the latter, 

 especially, are bold, handsome specimens. Tlie rear elevation is most infa- 

 mously miserable. The eye is pained and disappointed at the wretched 

 poverty of ornament and detail ; entablatures discontinued ; two tiers of 

 windows in one part, and three tiers in another, the upper one being Ijeggarly 

 loojiholes in the place where the entablature should have been. Tlie interior 

 has also faults of no mean order; besides want of t.aste, the mixtures of 

 'styles, the commonplace, unimaginative nature of the details, it wants light. 

 Still, upon the whole, in spite of many serious defects, this edifice, from its 

 size, grandeur, chastened simplicity, isolation of position, and importance as 

 to utility, is well worthy of admiration from the stranger, and respect from 

 the citizens of the good town of Liverpool. 



Let nie now turn to the Royal Bank, Dale Street, /. e. froir. the extreme of 

 simplicity to that of richness and luxuriance. This edifice is just completed, 

 and is composed of a basement of enormous height, upon which is placed a 

 Corinthian order containing two tiers of windows. The centre is composed 

 of seven-eighths columns. There is nuicli richness and originality in this 

 edifice, and although its gorgeousness and profusion of complicated carvings, 

 mouldings, and detads may please vulgar taste, it is too sadly overdone to 

 please the more practised eyes of the architect or amateur. The basement is 

 ridiculously high; the Venetian windows too redundant of carving and 

 various ornaments ; the cornices would not be too rich upon a plainer face, 

 but now, cut dentd, carved ovolo, and ruuning heads weary the eye, which, 

 like the dove of old, finds no resting-place to fix upon, but, wearied and fa- 

 tigued, it turns away, but is reluctantly compelled to own the extravagant 

 richness and luxuriance of ornament. And yet, whilst some parts are more 

 adorned than any building in the country, the central windows are mere loop- 

 holes, not having even an architrave round them, whilst the rest of the 

 windows have not merely rich architraves, hut revel amid a profusion of 

 carved foliations. The top is surmounted by a balustrade, which, with the 

 plinth, is ridiculously high. I would also call attention to the wretched 

 life-size sculpturing of the arms in the centre of the budding, which bears a 

 distant resemblance to an amatory lion making love to some sportive unicorn, 

 who, rejecting his addresses, and tossing up his head with its tremendous 

 horn, seems to repeat to himself the scriptural piece of self-satisfaction, "My 

 horn hall be exalted."' Upon entering the interior, the eye is dazzled by 

 the rich profusion of arcliitraves, friezes, cornices, ceilings, panels, and orna- 

 ments ; the eye is wearied and confused, and attention exhausted ; no repose, 

 no chasteness, all is the most lavish profusion. The grand error seems to 

 have been to have crammed as much ornament and expense as possible within 

 a given surface. 



I will now turn to the Town-hall and Exehange. It is much to lie re- 

 gretted thr-.t the former does not face directly down Castle Street, instead of 

 the portico approaching one side of the street considerably more than the 

 other. Tills edifice is highly creditable for the day in which it was executed; 

 and, although there are no great beauties, there is little actually to condemn 

 beyond the meagre, wretched carvings between the capitals of the columns. 

 The ass£mbly-roouis are admirably jirnportioued, more especially the great 

 room, which is in sesquilateral proportion, but the ornaments are somewhat 

 few in number, and poor in detail. To the staircase, a later work, by Sir 

 Jeffry Wyatville, must be afforded the most unqualified ajiprobation. Its 

 proportions, decorations, colour, and all other adjuncts, are beyond all jiraise. 

 Its efi'ect is that of the most chaste repose ; ami. of its size, there are few 

 finer in tlie kingdom. Returning to the " place " forming the quadrangle of 

 the Exchange, the stranger is much struck with the similarity of this, upon 

 a small scale, with certain edifices upon the Continent. The effect of this 

 square from one corner, with the Nelson monument in the centre, is par- 

 ticularly fine ; for, although there is nothing worthy of note in the arclii- 

 tecfture itself, still there is an importance highly ])leasiiig and effective. The 

 monument is worthy of attention ; the lost arm of this great hero is here in- 

 geniously hidden by a flag. The base, whicli is circular, is ornamented by 

 basso relievos and statues, full size, chained to the base, and resting upon a 

 step, which gives a pleasing breadth to the lower portions. This adds much 

 to the effect of the base ; but whether it is worthy of the better feelings of 

 humanity to commemorate our triumphs by figures in chains and painful pos- 

 tures, thus perpetuating the fierce passions of war, new that peaceful times 

 are emptying their cornucopias around us, I leave to more philosophic critics_ 



Eder. 



y/H enormous or^an is now in the course of erection in the Abbey of St. Denis. 

 It contains about 6,000 pipes, amongst v.hich are some measuring 52 feet, 

 and weighing 12,0001b. This m.iguificent instrument is nearly completed. 



BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADV.VNCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 

 Tenth Meetixg. — Septemler, 1840. 



(From tlie Athenaeum.) 



Section G. — Mech.\nical Science. 



President. — Sir John Robison. 



Vice-Presidents. — His Grace the Duke of Argvle ; Rev. Dr. Robinson 



(Armagh); Messrs. J. Taylor ; J.Walker. 



Secretaries. — Jlessrs. J. S. Russell; C. Vignoles ; J. Thcmson ; J. Tod. 



Committee. — Messrs. J. Dun, T. Edington, W. Fairbairn, J. Glynn, Professor 



Gordon, Messrs. R. Griffiths, I. ifawkius, E. Ilodgkinson.'W. Jessop, A. 



Liddell, J. Macneil, R. Napier, Sir J. Rennie, Messrs. J. Roberts, J. Smith, 



C. W. Williams. 



The first paper read was " On Safety-valves for Steam Boilers,'' By Mr. 

 Galline. 



The merit of the proposed alteration rested on the general principle, that 

 the safety valves at present in use are not large enough ; and Mr. Galline's 

 object was to allow a large surface, like the lid of a chest, to rise when the 

 pressure becomes sufficient to force it up ; so that, on an accumulation of 

 steam, it might escape, before any accident could take place. His proposal 

 was, in brief, that a large valve shall open instead of a small one. 



" On extinyuishing Fire in Steam J'essels." By Mr. Wallace. 



Mr. Wallace proposes to effect this by steam itself. The plan has beeu 

 some time before the public, and many successful experiments made in the 

 presence of scientific persons. Among the most important was the following, 

 made on board the Leven steam-boat : — On the cabin floor, a space of 10 feet 

 by 14 was covered with wet sand, on which was laid iron jilates and on tliese 

 a fire was kindled with about 4.1 ewt. of very combustil)Ie materials, such as 

 tar barrels, &c. A hose S4 feet long, 2i inches in diameter, extended from 

 tlie boiler of the engine to the crdiin, and when the fire had been suflieicntly 

 kindled, so that the panes of glass in the windows of the cabin began to crack 

 by the heat, the steam was let in, and the door of the cabin shut. The fire 

 was extinguished in about four minutes. Several trials were made, and all 

 with like success. On another trial, a metal pipe of a greater diameter than 

 the hose was connected with the steam-boiler, and extended into the cabin. 

 .V small square hatch was cut in the deck immediately above the cabin, and 

 through this o]ieniiig were lowered down into the cabin two moveable grates, 

 each containing a blazing fire, well kindled, of about 1 cwt. of coals. The 

 hatch on the deck and cabin doors were then shut, and the steam let in, and 

 in 1j minutes the small hatch was opened, and one of the grates hoisted up, 

 when the whole mass of coal and cinders, which had before formed a power- 

 ful fire, were found to be completely extinguished. This experiment was 

 repeated twice with equal success. 



In reply to a question from the President, Mr. Wallace said, that the hose 

 might be made either or silk or canvas painted. It was stated that in Phila- 

 delphia, and now in London, the firemen always direct the water to the 

 lowest part of the fire, that it might be converted into steam. Dr. Hamel, 

 of St. Petersburgh, mentioned, that in Russia they have used woven hemp 

 hose for fire-engines more than forty years. Mr. Roberts, of Manchester, 

 said, that in that town there had been a fire in a factory some time since, 

 when the men went in, broke the steam-pipes, which were charged, shut the 

 doors, and the fire was out immediately. 



" On Wheels of Locomotive Enyines." By Mr. Grime. 



The rim or felloe of the wheel is turned, welded, and blocked in the usual 

 way to the size required, iay three feet diameter ; the side, or front rim of 

 the wheel, is formed out of boiler pl,ate-iron, say | of an inch thick, clipped 

 round to size required. I then, said the writer, take the plates and punch 

 out the centre, which forms the eye of the wheel. After this the shapes are 

 punched out, leaving the boss and arms standing together, with a sufficient 

 breadth of iron at the extremity of the arms that will be eqiul to thickness 

 of felloe, say 1^ inch to 2 inches, for wear, and, when weldeil, forms part of 

 the felloe. The boss of the wheel is punched out of plate-iron, s.ay \ of an 

 inch thick, into what I denominate washers ; I then pile them one upon 

 another, to the breadtli of the wheel, taking notice to cross the grain of iron 

 every washer when pdingthem. By so doing, the boss, or nave, will be con- 

 siderably stronger and tougher thau if the grain of iron went all one way. 

 When this is done, it bears the name of "faggotted iron." The washers being 

 piled to the required thickness, I pin them to one of the punched plates, the 

 diameter of wheel required ; then jiiit the rim or felloe on, and pin it to the 

 plate. This being done, I put in the midfeathcr, say J inch thick, and the 

 depth of felloe and piled plates or boss, there being in every washer a half 

 circle punched out to receive the midfeather ; the other plate is then put on, 

 and pinned to the other parts. The wheel being now formed, it is taken to 

 the furnace, which is constructed with a revolving table at tlie bottom, so 

 arranged that it can be dropped or raised. This table is formed of fire-brick, 

 and on the top are placed five loose bricks, to keep the wheel from touching 

 the table, and to enable the workmen to get the wheel into the furnace and 

 out again by means of a fork. The furnace having been got up to an intense 

 heat, thstable is set to a particular mark, the door of the furnace is raised, 

 and the wheel slided on to the table ; the door is then closed, and the table, 

 which is worked from underneath by a tooth and pinion, is turned round, 

 presenting every part of the wheel regularly to the flame, as the flame rushes 

 through the furnace. The wheel, having been in about three-quarters of an 



3 C 



