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THE CIA IL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[December, 



Maintaining railway crossings and sidings, when laid 

 on stone blocks of five cubic feet, for the first year, 

 per mile " . £150 



Ditto ditto second year . . . SO 



£230 U 



Ditto, on larch sleepers, for the first year, 



per mile £200 



Ditto ditto second year 120 



-£320 



We shall now proceed to a description of the improved metallic 

 wheel witli wood-faced tyre, showing its advantages in connexion with 

 the preceding observations. The construction of the wheel may be 

 undarstood by imagining a spoked wheel with a deep channelled tyre. 

 The wheel may be made either of cast or wrought iron, it having been 

 ascertained that tyre bars can be rolled to the recpiired pattern. In 

 this channelled tyre are inserted blocks of African oak, measuring 

 about four inches by three and a half inches, solidified by filling the 

 pores with unctuous preparations ; thereby counteracting the eti'ects 

 of wet by capillary attraction, — to which, by this means, it becomes 

 impervious, and at the same time is not liable to unequal contraction 

 and expansion. The blocks of wood are cut to the requisite form to 

 fit very exactly in the external circular cliannel of the wheel, with the 

 grain placed vertically throughout, forming a complete facing of wood, 

 as shown in the engraving. There are about from twenty-eight to 

 thirty of these blocks round each wheel, where they are retained in 

 their place by one or two bolts passing through each, the two sides of 

 the channel having corresponding holes drilled through them for this 

 purpose : the bolts are then well rivetted. After being so fitted, the 

 ■wheel is turned in the usual manner. The wheel when finished has 

 all the appearance of a common railway wheel, but with a rather 

 deeper rim, the tyre faced with wood, and the fiacge of iron. Woods 

 of various qualities may be used, whether hard or soft, requiring dif- 

 ferent clieraicat preparations according to their porosity, and in some 

 instances requiring to be compressed. 



The several advantages which this wheel possesses, are — 



1. That the wood facing will wear a considerable time without re- 

 quiring any repair. 



2. That the wood can be refaced, by turning it up again in the lathe, 

 as practised with worn iron tyres. 



3. That the tyre can be re-faced with wood at little expense, and 

 at a far less loss of time than usual. In the operations of re-facing 

 these wheels, or putting in new wood, the work can be performed 

 without the labour and cost of removing the wheels from the axles, 

 which in the keying and unkeying is known to be very troublesome.* 

 , 4. That, in regard to their working, it is the opinion of practical 

 engineers, confirmed by actual experiment, that they will work 

 smoother, easier, and, as some have expressed it, more "sweetly" 

 than iron-tyred wheels ; with the advantage of going well in wet 

 weather, even upon inclines, — having sufficient adhesion to the rail, 

 without dropping sand to assist them in this respect, as practised 

 when iron wiieels are used. 



6. That another and \eiy important result will be, that the rails 

 themselves will suffer less wear by using this kind of wheel, and that 

 the fastenings, sleepers, and blocks will receive considerably less in- 

 jury, and thereby favour the laying of railroads on stone blocks, where- 

 ever they are considered to be most desirable.+ 



A metallic wheel with a wood-faced tyre, which is the principle of 

 this construction, obviates most, if not all, the difficulties which have 

 been experienced, whether in the use of wooden, cast iron, or even 

 wrought iron wheels. Cast iron wheels may, indeed, now be con- 

 sidered not far short of being equal to wrought iron wheels, for safety 

 and durability, with all the superiority of which the ap|)lication is sus- 

 ceptible. They are also neither clumsy nor inelegant in form, and are 

 capable of being made to any pattern, even for carriage wheels for 

 common roads. It may, therefore, very possibly occur that they will 

 Lave the effect to bring cast iron wheels into as general use, and as 

 much reputation here as on the continent. This new construction and 

 simple adoption of wood makes excellent driving wheels for locomo- 

 tives; it may be readily stopped by using a cast iron break, and does 

 not undergo that wear which might be expected from the friction it 



* As in every tiling allectiug railways, it is a desideratum to decrease the 

 expense as much as possible, it may here be mentioned that three feet cast 

 iron wheels, with wuoil-faceil lyres and wrought iron axles complete, can be 

 made much cheaper than the generality of wheels. 



t Ou lines situated like the (ireenwich Railway and theBlackwall Railway, 

 wood faced wheels would diminish much of the noise which at present is a 

 source of general complaint. 



then has on the rail. The wood, by use, becomes exceedingly close 

 and firm, acquiring a surface not easily distinguishable from metal in 

 appearance. 



These wheels are manufactured by Messrs. Brocklehurst, Dircks, 

 and Nelson, millwrights, engineers, and iron-founders, at their works, 

 No. 12, Oil Street, Liverpool; where tliey may at any time be seen. 



CANDIDUS'S NOTE-BOOK. 

 FASCICULUS XX. 



" I must have lifjerty 

 Witlial. as large a charter as the winds, 

 To blow on whom 1 please." 



I. After "-B«V' t'le niost provoking word in the language is your 

 "Only"; which is employed extenuatingly to apologize away, as it 

 were, the very sum of complaint, as being a mere trifle, too insignifi- 

 cant to be taken into the general account. This or that building may 

 have only such or such defect, and of course you run the risk of being 

 set down for a very ill-natured, or an exceedingly fastidious hyper- 

 critical sort of person, if you object to it on such account, even though 

 it should be of such nature as absolutely to cancel all other merits and 

 recommendations. There are cases in which a single defect may be 

 a fatal one ; I might instance this directly and architecturally by re- 

 ferring to buildings which furnish cases in point ; but it may be illus- 

 trated by the anecdote related somewhere, if I mistake not, by 

 Theodore Hook, of the Adonis who had only a single blemish. In 

 every other respect his person and countenance were unexceptionable. 

 His mouth, teeth, hair, eyes, hands, were all allowed to be perfect, and 

 were expatiated upon by a friend so elociuently that a lady fell in love 

 with his description, and dejired that the original might be introduced 

 to her; on which the other thought fit to hint that he had omitted one 

 slight imperfection in the portrait he had drawn, but it was "only a 

 single blemish," a mere trifle, absolutely, in comparison with the loss 

 of an arm or a leg. "Oh! some scar, I suppose — perhaps a wart ? " 

 inquired the lady; "an imlucky wart, perhaps, on the tip of his nose." 

 " A wart on tip of his nose ! Bless your heart, no! for the truth is, 

 he has — no nose at all ! which little defect is the one I alluded to." 



II. It is precisely such "little defects" and slight blemishes that mar 

 so many buildings and works of architecture. They have — in description 

 at least — a host of merits; columns comme ilfaul, Doric or Corinthian, 

 unexceptionable proportions, amplitude of dimensions, solidity of 

 materials, &c., are expatiated upon till you raise your expectations 

 almost to the highest pitch. At length you discover that the "slight 

 defect" — the " only fault " — should any have been hinted at, renders 

 the anticipated piece of perfection very much in the same plight as 

 the Adonis with the single blemish — the Adonis without a nose. 



HI. When people begin to be sick of the everlasting boring and 

 twaddling about styles, they will then, perhaps, begin to find out that 

 quite as much or more depends upon the application of a style, as 

 upon its merits as such. For what are the diflerent styles of archi- 

 tecture, but so many different languages of the art^some of them 

 more perfect, more expressive than others; but the excellence of a 

 language, and the excellence of a composition in it, are quite distinct 

 matters. The same language may be the vehicle of wit or of stu- 

 pidity ; and so also may the same style of architecture be employed 

 tastefully or uncouthly ; by one so as to charm and delight, by another 

 so as to excite only ridicule and disgust. Which being the case, of 

 what practical value are all those superficial, vague, and wearisome 

 discussions from time to time on the subject of styles, in which not a 

 single idea is brought forward that has not been repeated times innu- 

 merable before? On no other subject would such mere school-boy 

 stuff be endured, much less pass for any show of learning, as is parroUd 

 in regard to architecture. Many prate most glibly about the age of 

 Pericles ; yet ask one of those erudite, sagacious gentlemen, what he 

 thinks of that age in its chryseo-elephantine works, and architectural 

 polychromy, and ten to one but he will be struck all of a heap ; he 

 wonders what eltplia?tls have to do with the matter, nor did he know 

 before that Pericles had a daughter named Polly. 



IV. The fact is, we are apt to j\idge of styles as we do of national 

 or of professional character — in the lump; which, though a most 

 expeditious and convenient, save-trouble mode, not unfrequently leads 

 into dreadful blunders. The French are a lively people, yet shall you 

 find Frenchmen of most excessive dulness and stupidity. You may 

 stumble upon honesty in the shape of a lawyer, on temperance in that 



