300 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[October, 



sides of llic liver l^y wnl'.s from side lo side. Ijut lliat every rcsi't'Ct must te 

 paid to tlie way in Hliicli the ])reseiit premises are occiniied, still improving 

 llie navigntion, and the value of tlie property, 'iliere is a lar^'e space cccii- 

 pied now Lv coal larpes. some on tlie opposite side In' barges « ilh timlier. 

 There may he places vliere, by carrying out the embankment wall, llie trade 

 may be so much interfered, with as to damage the property, unle.'^.s provision 

 be made in llie proposed improvements for accommodating those barges. He 

 proposes to place tlie barges alongside the wharfs, and extended a great way 

 cut. and to lie on their beds as they do now ; but still the river, as regards the 

 navigation, and as regards the iThalth of the town, and lie thinks as regards 

 the property itself, niiproved. The area of the river would be diminished 

 where it is too viile. 



The cilect of tlie removal of London Bridge on the severage has been to 

 expose a larger surface of the bank of the river at low water, and to render, 

 therefore, the iujuiious (u- unpleasant ed'ect from a d'scharge of the seivers 

 greater than before. The elJect on the bottom of the river generally has 

 been to deepen it in certain places, and to render it shoal in other places 

 very much, as he ascertained, and as he re;»d from the reiwrt fi'F 1821. Me 

 thinks it is quite impossible to look at the river Thames, at lou" water now, 

 without seeing, as regards the trade up the river, and the navigation opposite 

 to London itself, that the river is in a state that wants improvement very 

 much; and this is to be taken along with it. that as the ellect of all those 

 floods is constantly to deepen in one place, and to shoal in others, that that 

 deepening will extend in time, so as to be injurious to the property on the 

 banks of the river, as regards its foundations. He thinks the river will un- 

 dergo further change. The effect of the dam at London Bridge was to keep 

 the bottom, iibove London Bridge, very much higher than below London 

 Bridge; the dam is now removed, and there is, as was predicted by Mr. 

 Smealon. a constant movement of the bottom of the river douniwards, and an 

 increase in the depth in certain places ; and that will go on for many years 

 to come, perhajis generations. Tlie cHcct on the water-side i>roperly,'if'^con- 

 tinued without some protection, may he. as he has already said, to endanger 

 the foundations of some of the liest buildings on the river'Tliames; T refer to 

 the gieat current in one place, and to the forming pools in the middle of tlie 

 river. «hicli tends to draw the sand from under the buildings on tlie banks 

 of the river. It would be desirable, in his opinion, that the bed of the river 

 should be made uniform, or nearly so, in point of depth, and gradually 

 increase in width from Vauxhall Bridge downwards. 



The calculation which has been made for forming the embankment has 

 been, in the front of the private houses, where the embankment is to be made, 

 built of brick and filled behind with the e.tcavations from the bed of the 

 river; the Government property in the neighbourhood of Whitehall, and also 

 Somerset House, has been estimated to be faced w itii stone. He has no hesi- 

 tation in saying that this embankment wouhl improve the navigation 

 throughout ; there is no way, he contemplates, in which any person could 

 say (ithenvise, excepting this, that where the embankments are made there is 

 a small decrease of tidal water, somewhat less of tidal w.ater comes up the 

 river than would before, referring to width oiilv. and tlierefore a somewhat 

 smaller velocity of the ebbing tide ; but ibat w'ouK! be partly compensateil 

 for by the deepening. He has seen this done under his own directicms on the 

 river Yare. and the eHect has been good, both as regards the harbour from 

 the removal of the bar, and the mipiovement of the navigation up lo the 

 tow n ; that was done not by embankment w all. but by a dw arf piling, exai-tly 

 as the section now before the chairman shows it. ^tensions into the river 

 Thames are sanctioned, and their extent defined and regulated, by the nari- 

 gation committee of the city of London. The proposed w idth varies from 

 fiOO to 800 ft. If the conservators of the river think that barges can lie without 

 prejudice to the navigation or highway, they may lie in tlie river afterwards 

 lust as they do now; but if the embankment be carried on. and those recesses 

 left, both as regards the current of the tide, and as regards being injured by 

 other barges, those docks would be snugger than the Barges lying out in the 

 river. Injury may be done to the individual by not allowing lu'm to go far 

 enough into the river, or injury may be done to the river by allowing him to 

 go too far, unless a general plan is laid down and ;.cted up to. When one 

 embankment is carried out, or a wharf carried out beyond the other, great 

 inconvenience arises to both of the parties ; and it is a constant source of 

 quarrel in the river Th:.mes at this moment; one party opposing the em- 

 bankment and another supporting it; ami he takes it the members of the 

 navigation committee itself arc mudi annoved by indi\idual applications, 

 they themselves having no certain rule to go by. He proposes that the 

 allinement should be general; it should be either an embankment or a dwarf 

 piling, to regulate the section of the river. He need hardly s:iy that his 

 answers must be very general ; but in a great work, such as this,' reference 

 would be had to the interests and wishes of the individual parties who have 

 property on the banks of the river, and their wishes complied with, so far as 

 that can be done without prejudice to the great public measure ; and if that 

 were dune, he thinks benefit would be done to all. These recesses woidd. in 

 degree, be injurious to the general plan of regulating the velocity of the river, 

 and the less of them the better; but as they would be reces'ses with their 

 sides at right angles with the line of the river, their eflect would be far less 

 injurious than gradual wideniiigs and narrowings. He presumes that the 

 only way the thing ci.uld be done practically, is to consider these recesses, 

 as well as the back ground, private property after Ihe works should be com- 

 plete ; he thinks it impossible to introduce any occupier or proprietor between 

 the present bank of the river and the jiroposed embankment. His idea is. 

 that all the ground reclaimed slioidd be considered as belonging, uixin terms 

 to be agreed, to the owner of the adjoining property. He considers that the 

 property on the banks of the river will be improved in value by the altera- 

 tions ; he docs not mean to say there may not be some exeeinions. but lie 

 thinks very few ; and it is impossible, in a great work like this, to have good 

 done to all without some injury, perhaps, to individuals. He has estimated 

 tor a brick wall, generally ; but, in some places, stone ; he considers all the 

 answers he has given now to htive reference to the north side of the river 



i he w hide length of the embankment, betw een Vauxhall and London Bridge 

 isll,Ojj feet, which is exclusive of the part th.it is not intended to be inter' 



fered wiih. The length lie has given terminates at Dowgate Dock ; that is 

 the whole length he proposed embanking on this plan. There has since been, 

 he has been in.brmed, anplicalious made by the owners of property below to 

 extend it farther, nearer to London Bridge. Dowgate Dock is about LCOO 

 feet from London Bridge. The 11.055 feet includes not only the portion he 

 proposes to embank, but .alsotlic.se recesses which he proposes to le.ave for 

 the accommodation of the trade. The total distance trom Vauxhall to Lon- 

 don Bridge is lo.'jOO feet, according to the present line of river frontage ; his 

 whole estimata is £310.000 ; £105, OJO if that, as far as he can ascertain, is 

 crown property. He thinks 2'/. per foot per annum would cover all the ex- 

 penses of the cost, with moderate additions for contingencies, expenses of 

 management, rent. &:c. He considers that the mud so carried aw.ay would 

 not be deposited in a still more im[ortant part of the river, in the Pool, fi.r 

 instance. There would be a diminished quantity of tidal water, but that 

 would be compensated partly by increased depth, by removing the shoals 

 w hich now appear above low water, and would be more than compensated by 

 making the bed of the river of a uniform character both in bread ih and depth ; 

 at present there is a rise at low water from London l^ridge up tri "Westminsler 

 Bridge of 2 ft. 3 in., the water being kept up by the shoals in the w ay describ- 

 ed ; it the river were regulated and deepened, ilic effect would be to lower the 

 water at ^\'eslminster Bridge, and all the way up the river lower than it is 

 now : th-3.efore in de|ith there would be a greater quantify of tidal water to 

 ebb and flow, which, he apprehends, in cubic quantity would exceed the con- 

 tents of the embankments. The width of the river when the embankment is 

 done, with what is ils present width at Ihose points, will be as follows: — at 

 the Penitentiary no diminution is proposed to take place in the 600 feet. 

 From Millbank'to the east end of Bishop's-w.alk is intended to be reduced 

 from 1.050 to 800 feet. Ojiposite the Board of Control it is proposed to re- 

 duce it frc.m 1.200 to S-iO feet. Opposite Buckingham terrace, from 1,480 to 

 850 feet. Opposite .Somerset House, from 1.250 to S70 feet. Opposite Tem- 

 ple-stairs to Lett's timber-yard, from l,2i0 to 870 feet. Oppo.-itc White- 

 friars-dock to Bull-stairs, from 1,040 to 770 feet. From Trig wharf to the 

 opposite side, from 920 to 7.30 feet. West side of Queenhithe dock to opp.isite 

 side, from 700 to GSO ; after which the diminuiions are smtill, and the river 

 gels narrower. 



(To he continued.) 



STEAM NAVIGATION. 



STEAM NAVIGATION IN FEANCE. 



Eftracis from the Report of Covnt Barn to ihe C7iam6er of Deputies, in the 

 name of n Special Co7nmi.^sion intrusted irittl the erominafion of a pro- 

 jected taw relative to the estahlishnent of Steam Packets detween France 

 and America. 



The form, dimensions, and power of steam-boats evidently depend on the 

 service to w hich they are destined. They w^re not long merely employed in 

 the ascent and descent of rivers, but soon the limits of steam navigation were 

 enlarged, increasing the ]iower of the engines from 20 to 80, ICII, 200, and 

 250 horses, it became possible to extend the field of their employment to 

 venture on the sea with them. Towing boats, which had been constructed 

 in a few ports, soon threw a light on the siqieriority of the new system, by 

 bringing out large vessels, weather bound and condemned to inactivity, aud 

 drawing them in their %vake with a facility which seemed to defy the ele- 

 ments. From that day the bright days of sail-navigation, which, till then, 

 was looked upon as the chef d^icuvre of human understauding, were eclipsed. 

 Now vessels were started on every coast. Kegular and rapid communications 

 linked together every important town, such as Havre, London, Dover, Ham- 

 burgh, Ilotterdam. This was the forerunner of more daring attempts. 



Ill 1S19 a vessel from the United States, ''the Savannah," had crossed the 

 ocean from Liverpool to New York, jiartly by wind and partly by steam. 

 America, then, had the lead again in daring to apply Fulton's machine to 

 long voyages, and this is the more remarkable, that it has always had but 

 few steam-boats on sea service. This first essay was not repeated, until, in 

 1835, when the English undertook the passage from Falmouth to the Cape of 

 Good Hope; the .\talante, provided with an engine nearly similar to that of 

 the Savannah, accomplished in 37 days a distance of 2,400 nautical miles. 

 The Berenice, the Medea, the Zenobia, ])erforined jiassages of different lengths 

 on the coast of .iVfrica, and in the Indian seas. All these boats were English. 

 In the Mediterranean, steamers of different nations, Neapolitan, Sardinian, 

 Austrian, French, crossed from one port to another. Lastly, our service of 

 steam-packets fiom Marseilles to .Mexandria was cstablisheil, and threw open 

 to us a nc«" access to the East. The passage to Constantinople, which was 

 sometimes 45 days in duration, was thus reduced to 13-i clays. 



These numerous experiments gave rise to the idea that, by the aid of 

 steam, it was possible to accom]ili>li the distance between Europe and the 

 United States. The ditticidty of carrying the necessary quantity of coals for 

 the consumption of an engine acting, without interruption, from one shore of 

 the ocean to the other, during a space of from 15 to 20 days, was no longer 

 an obstacle. It had been discovered that the consumiition of combustible 

 did not increase in the same ratio with the jiowcr of the motors, — that an 

 engine of 250 horse power, for instance, was far from burning twice as much 

 fuel as was necessary for an engine of 125 horse power ; that, moreover, cer- 

 tain parts of the mechanism might he simplified in such a manner as to take 

 up less room, and consequently, leave more space at disposal for the accom- 



