1840.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



379 



system geiiernUv adopted here is to place all the competition designs 

 submitted into (he hands of a favonred architect, from which to choose 

 and model snch plans as the committee may direct, who kindly indulge 

 the favourite with the necessary time. 



It mav be supposed that the writer is a disappointed candidate, and 

 that this is merely the ebulhtion of his chagrin and mortification from 

 defeat. Not so ; for having had the benefit of seeing the fate of 

 others on these occasions, he has invariably steered clear of this 

 species of competition. 



An instance of the flagrant injustice done in this way took place a 

 short time since, wherein architects were invited by public advertise- 

 ment to send in plans for an edifice to be erected near Dublin, to be 

 appropriated as a place of worship. After the plans, &c., had been 

 sent in, considerable shuffling took place on the part of the committee. 

 At length, after frequent postponements and delays, it was announced 

 that none of the designs, in their judgment, were suitable to the re- 

 quired building, although they numbered upwards of a dozen designs, 

 some of which were shown to me jn'eviously, and possessed (in my 

 opinion) very great merit, and were in strict accordance with the 

 rules laid down in the advertisement. In a short time afterwards the 

 building was begun, after the design and inspection of an architect 

 who had not competed, ainl as the building is now nearly completed, 

 I can, without fear of contradiction, assert that it is a "fac simile" (as 

 far as I have been able to examine it) of one of the designs I had been 

 shown, and which was sent in to the committee. 



The profession of an architect is completely degraded in Ireland; 

 for instance, in the erection of any county public building (the archi- 

 tect, if indeed any be engaged at all) is merely a subordinate to the 

 county surveyor, who, with very few exceptions, know nothing of our 

 profession, and until the clause which relates to this subject in the 

 present Grand Jury Act is remedied, things must remain in this state. 

 At present every public work is placed in their hands, and, generally 

 speaking, when anything architectural (or at least what should be 

 architectural) is to be done, they attempt it themselves, and a prettv 

 finish they make of it, instances of which are but too numerous. 



Again, a paragraph is now going the round of our papers, eulo- 

 gizing a new Saving's Bank erected in Limerick, " by Sir Thomas 

 Deane, the Eminent Architect, the progress of the work wan superin- 

 tended by William H. Owen, Esq., Civil Engineer, rvhose professional 

 taste and skill are so highly appreciated." 



Not wishing to occupy too much space in your valuable journal, I 

 have merely glanced at some of the strange doings perpetrated here, 

 which, if properly "shown up," would undoubtedly throw the gi'iev- 

 ances complained of by K. V. S. into the shade. 



I am, Sir, 



Yoiu" verv obedient servant, 



DMitt, Oct. 12, 1S40. J. A.", Architect. 



LAND SURVEYING. 



Sir — I should not trespass on your very valuable time, and on the 

 pages of your most deservedly popular Journal, did I not know that 

 you make it your study to give publicity to every thing, however 

 trifling, which may be of use to any member of the profession, whose 

 interests you so very ably advocate on all occasions. Should this 

 obtain your approval, your insertion of it will much oblige the writer. 



It has, I dare say, occurred to every one engaged in an extensive 

 survey, that there is a great danger of mistakes taking place in the 

 change of pins in a long chain line ; as the number of changes or re- 

 moves must be kept in memory, and one is very likely to become con- 

 fused if there are a great many of them. To obviate this incon- 

 venience, I would beg to propose a very simple plan, viz., that the 

 leader should be provided with a small bag, containing a number of 

 common marbles, such as school-boys employ in their games ; and 

 that on giving up his pins to the follower, or hind chainman, at every 

 remove, he should give him one of these marbles, to be kept by the 

 follower in another bag provided for the purpose, until they arrive at 

 the end of the line ; when each marble will stand for 10, and the pins 

 in the follower's hand, as usual, for single chains. 



By this method nothing is left to the memory, and of course a 

 greater degree of certainty is obtained. 



I have the honour to remain, Sir, 



Your most obedient servant, 



Dublin, Oct. 3, 1840. E. William Mansell. 



LAND SURVEYING. 



Sir, — I observe in your last Number an extract from Mr. Bruff's 

 Treatise on Engineering Field Work, wherein he says, in describing 

 the new instrument for measuring the contents of maps, that " the 

 principle of the plan has been long known to some few suveyors, but 

 that they prudently kept it to themselves, &c." Now, Sir, 1 should 

 very much like to know the names of any surveyors to whom the in- 

 strument was known before its introduction into "the Tithe Office, and 

 perhaps Mr. Bruff will be good enough to afford this information 

 through the medium of your Journal, as it is certainly important to 

 know to whom surveyors are indebted for the invention of this instru- 

 ment, which most justly deserves all the praise that can be bestowed 

 upon it. 



I beg it to be understood, that in seeking this information from Mr. 

 Bruff, I am actuated by no hostile or cavilling spirit, on the contrary^ I 

 think generally the contents of his work are most valuable, and strictly 

 to be depended on ; in this instance, however, I think he is misin- 

 formed, and believing that Mr. Bruff would not wish to deprive the 

 inventor of his due share of credit, I trust he will have no hesitation 

 in stating publicly, who are the parties to whom he alludes, as having 

 long known the principle of the jilan. 



I am. Sir, your obedient servant, 



An Old Surveyor. 



London, Oct. 15, 1840. 



THE NELSON AFFAIR. 



Mr. Editor — I send you some stanzas which you may, if you like, 

 suppose were intended to have been put into the foundation stone of 

 Railton's Column, but somehow or other escaped that honour ; allow 

 them therefore to be preserved in one of your columns. 



A'nti-Stylites. 

 Nelson loquitur : — 



You see that I stick to my post, 



Stuck up here on the top of a peg, 

 And having before but one arm, 



I am now left to stand on cue leg. 



Though not on a leg made of wood, 



Oh no ! — 'tis a leg built of stone ; 

 And so wondrous tall too it is, 



That I stand " all aloft and alone," 



Just after that ■n liimsical fasliion 



Old Simeon adopted of yore ; 

 But then he «as a saint most sublime. 



And his practice a bit of a bore. 



Yes, my case is confoundedly hard, 



Tho' some other folks' heads are quite soft, 



So I wish they had left me alone, 

 Before they had left me aloft. 



For Wightwick I see there is sneering. 



While others are laughing outright. 

 And folks seem myself to be queering, 



AVhile they gape at ray pitiful pUglit. 



! were but the stick I am stuck on, 

 A good walking-stick — by my fay, 



1 would not stand here to be quizzed at, 



But with stick and all walk away. 



PNEUMATIC OR ATMOSPHERIC RAILWAY. 



Sir — ^The fairness that should guide a public Journalist, and a scien- 

 tific one especially, will doubtless induce you to afford me a place to 

 reply to an invidious article contained in your Journal for July, which 

 does me great injustice — has an injurious tendency, and at the same 

 time confers approbation on Messrs. Clegg and Samuda, who are en- 

 deavouring to avail themselves of the result of information communi- 

 cated to them, whilst they were confidentially employed by me in 

 1836-7-8, in the construction of works and machinery designed for 

 carrying into practical operation the pneumatic or atmospheric rail- 

 way, which was intended to be applied on the Birmingham, Bristol, 

 and Thames Junction Railway at Wormwood Scrubs, as the first pro- 

 spectus of that railway (1835) will show, and on which line ray in- 

 vention is now pirated by Clegg and Samuda. 



The article in your Journal appears intended as a disparagement of 

 my invention. I Lave before publicly accused those persona of the 



