380 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[NOVKMBKR, 



conduct coinplaiiied of in the Sun newspaper of tlio 17tli and Uttli 

 June last. I am preparing to stop their jjroceedings (hrongli the me- 

 dium of a court of justice, but that is no gn.und for my sustaining in 

 the mean time injurious remarks, and the public mind abused through 

 the columns of ])ublic journals. 



I am prepared to prove that the system carried into effect, even in 

 all its minute details, is wholly my invention; as well as the inore im- 

 proved applications of the same'priuciple, as specified in my patents 

 of 1834 and 183G, all of which are legally held by me under the autho- 

 rity of the Patent Laws, which forbid those persons or others from 

 using any portion of that which is described in the- article inserted in 

 your Journal, 



In regard to the remarks that "the idea of employing the power of 

 the atmosphere against a vacuum created in an extended pipe laid 

 between rails, and communicating the moving power thus obtained to 

 propel carriages travelling on a road, we believe originated with Mr. 

 Medhurst, in 1827, and that in 1812 he published some ideas on this 

 method.'! And that "about 1835 some experiments were made with 

 a model in Wigmore-street, by Mr. Pinkus, very similar to those des- 

 cribed by Mr. Medhurst ; these experiments, however, failed from the 

 same cause probably, which prevented Mr. Medhurst from carrying his 

 into effect, viz., the impossibility of making an air tight communication 

 from the inside of the pipe to" the carriage, tight enough to allow a 

 useful degree of rarefaction to be produced." 



Now, Sir, I have to complain that not even so ranch as one particular 

 of all the allegations in the above quotations is true, and declare that 

 I can disprove them all by documentary evidence of record, and printed 

 publications of old dates. Myself an humble labourer in the field of 

 science, I trust I shall never be guilty of that meanness of mind that 

 would detract from another the merit justly due to him for any mental 

 production, and I will contend for equal justice to myself. 



First, then, the merit, and it is a high one of "employing the power 

 of the atmosphere ag;iiiist a vacuum," and transmitting that power, as 

 well as the suggestion of obtaining a similar power bv plenum (the 

 latter though impracticable) is due to the celebrated Papin, who sug- 

 gested them 120 years ago, and not Mr. Medhurst. 



Second. The suggestions and the experiment " employing the power 

 of the atmosphere against a vacuum, and by impelling a piston through 

 a tunnel," is due to Mr. Valance, who did' it at Brighton in 1824, and 

 not to Mr. Medhurst, who in 1810 only proposed thu impractical part 

 uf Papin' i plan of forcing arr under t/ie comprfsswn of manij almos- 

 p/itrts,:\s several others before him had done; and added at a subse- 

 quent date the idea of inovinga piston through an underground tunnel, 

 by forcing in air behind it, from distances of 20 miles apart, and so 

 impel goods and passengers therein. In 1824 Mr. Valance took out a 

 patent for his method of an underground tunnel, and the more correct 

 and practical priiiciple of rarefaction and atmospheric pressure. — Mr. 

 Medhurst, who held no patent, made claim to Mr. Valance's invention 

 of transmitting a piston through an underground tunnel. — Mr. Valance 

 in a pamphlet of that date, answered Mr. Medhurst, and pointed out 

 in what his invention differed from the other's claims ; thus both Papiu 

 and Valance went before Mr. Medhurst. 



In 1825, not 1835 as is alleged, I proposed to apply Papin's princi- 

 ple by anew method, combination of apparatus and machinery, wliereby 

 I was enabled to transfer the power generated under partial vacuum to 

 the exterior of extenekd mains or pipes laid on the margin of a canal or 

 railway, and transmitting the power so generated along such main. I 

 combined the main with a canal, and proposed to use Brown's Gas 

 Vacuum Engine as the prime mover, my plans and specifications were 

 recorded, my models constructed and exhibited : these contained such 

 a mechanical arrangement for effecting a propelling power under rare- 

 faction, as alone admits of its application at all ; subsequently they 

 became the subject of the first patent (1834) ever taken out for that 

 object. As I was for tlie first time informed in 183lj, Mr. Medhurst 

 in 1828 reprinted liis pami)hlet of 1810, for the Underground Tunnel 

 and the application of a Plenum, and with it, now for the first time 

 proposed to transfer the power to the outside of the underground 

 tunnel, and to have stationary engines 20 miles apart for forcing in air, 

 he shewed a lithographic drawing of the method, and having 4 years 

 before claimed the plan of Valance, and 3 years before of my method 

 of transferring the power of partial vacuum to the exterior of a main, 

 he proposed a long box and a pipe suspended over a channel of water 

 in order to make a water-joint ; these suggestions made at that late 

 date, were nevertheless so crude and undigested, as to be utterly im- 

 practicable as they show. His calculation based upon them he can in no 

 way obtain. He never made an experiment, as I am well iuformed, and 

 his pamphlet was in the hands only of private friends ; 1 saw one, for 

 the first lime, in 183G. Having been engaged until 1830, I in that 

 year again prepared fresh plans and specifications, such as are now en- 

 rolled, and exhibited them to friends. In 1833 I commenced my patent. 



scaled in 1834, and in that year constructed a large working model 

 tlrat was publicly exhibited, and upon its success in 183(5 an association 

 for working my system was formed, which is now extant ; contracts 

 were made for works to demonstrate the principle with my subsequent 

 improvements, for which patents also were taken out in various coun- 

 tries. The works were designed to be applied on the Birmingham 

 Bristol and Thames Junction Railway, at Wormwood Scrubs ; those 

 works were nearly completed, the line half a mile in length formed on the 

 margin of the Kensington Canal, which was united with that line of 

 railway. Samuda and Hague were the contractors for the engines, the 

 former as well in the construction of the pneumatic mains and valve, 

 and Samuel Clegg was confidentially employed and consulted, and wit- 

 nessed the progress of the experiments 'during such employment, 

 learned from me all the minute details that they have now carried into 

 effect, but which are nevertheless held by me under patents. Clegg 

 and Samuda saw my experiments in 1835-G made upon rough models, 

 but which were attended with perfect success, only some of the details 

 were pur|)osely omitted until further patents were sealed. 



Not only, therefore, is the invention in all its details my own, and 

 legally held by my patents, which embrace such mechanical combina- 

 tions, as without which that well known principle cannot possibly be 

 carried into effect, but I shall, when my interest best requires it, stop 

 their further progress. 



I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 



H. PlNKUS. 



11, Panton Square, Aug. 20, 1840. 



MUSEUM OF ECONOMIC GEOLOGY, 



CRAIg's court, charing cross, LONDON. 



CEd tract from the President's Addrena of the Geotof/ical Society of London, J 



Among the most important of the remarkable events of the past year, we 

 recognise with gratitude and confident anticipation of great advantage, both 

 to science and the arts, the establishment by her Majesty's government of an 

 institution hitherto unknown in England, namely, a Museum of Economic 

 Geology. This is to he freely accessible to the public at stated periods, in 

 the department of her Majesty's Woods and Forests, and Public Works, for 

 the express oljject of exhibiting the practical application of geology to the 

 useful purposes of life. In this Museum, a large store of valualjle materials 

 has already been collected and arranged, chiefly by the exertions, and under 

 the direction of Mr. De la Beche. In it will be exhibited examples of me- 

 tallic ores, ornamental marbles, building stones and limestones, gi-anites, por- 

 phyries, slates, clays, marls, brick earths, and minerals of every kind produced 

 in this country, that are of pecuniary value, anil applicable to the arts of life. 

 Information upon such subjects, thus readily and gratuitously accessible, will 

 he of the utmost practical importance to the miner and the mechanic, the 

 builder and the architect, the engineer, the whole mining interest, and the 

 landed proprietors. The establishment will contain also examjiles of the 

 results of metallurgic processes obtained from the furnace and the laboratory, 

 with a collection of models of the most improved machinery, chiefly employed 

 in mining, X well-stored laboratory is attached to this department, con- 

 ducted hy the distinguished analytical chemist, Mr. Richard Phillips, whose 

 duty it already is, at a fixed and moderate charge, to conduct the analysis of 

 metallic ores, and other minerals and soils submitted to him by the owners 

 of mines and jnoprictors of land, who n)ay wish for ijuthenfic information 

 upon such matters. 



The pupils in this laboratory are already actively employed in learning the 

 arts of mineral analysis, and the various metallurgic processes, 



A second department in the Economic Museum, will be assigned to the 

 promotion of improvements in agriculture, and will contain sections of strata 

 vi\ih specimens of soils, sub-soils, and of the rocks from the decomposition 

 of which they have been produced. 



To this last-mentioned collection, proprietors of land are solicited to con- 

 tribute from their estates labelled examples of soils, with their respective 

 sub-soils ; and all persons who wish for an analysis of any sterile soil, for 

 the purpose of giving it fertility, by the artilicial addition of ingredients with 

 which natiu'e had not supplied it, may here obtain at a moderate cost, an 

 exact knowledge of its composition, which may point out the corrective ad- 

 ditions which it requires. This jiortion of the Museum will more especially 

 exhibit the relations of geology to agriculture, in so far as a knowledge of the 

 materials composing the sub-strata may afford extensive means of permanent 

 improvement to the surface. — Phil. Mag., October, 1840. 



Si. James s Park. — An ornamenlal building in the Swiss style, consisting of 

 council-riiDm, briJge, and keeper's cotlaKe, is now building in .St. James's 

 park fiir the Oniitbological .Society of London. The site is nearly opposite 

 the Horse Guards, and the design, approved by the Board of Work.s, has 

 been prepared Ijy Mr. Watson, under whose direction it will be completed. 



