1840.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



407 



"Tliattlie committee would require apian of the different floors of 

 the church, showing the present arrangements and pro|)osed alterations, 

 an elevation of each front affected by the nroposed alterations, a 

 longitudinal and transverse section showing the timbers of the roof, 

 &c., together with a detailed specification of the works, and estimate 

 of rendering the church, both inside and out, fit in every respect for 

 public worship. An additional estimate of what would be the expence 

 of repewing the present church on a better plan, in conformity with 

 the proposed new addition. An estimate of the expence for an addi- 

 tional gallery. 



" That the limited amount of the funds would not allow of any pre- 

 miums being given for the plans. 



"That the committee considered it indispensable for the competi- 

 tors to inspect the church. 



•' That a commission of five per cent, on the sum expended would 

 be allowed to the architect for his plans, &c., including the superin- 

 tendance of the works." 



And now, gentlemen of the profession, what do you suppose was to 

 be the amount of this commission for the chance of which all this was 

 to be done, and a journey to be made to W at the candidate's ex- 

 pence ? 



" That the Secretary informs the several architects that the sum to 

 be expended will not exceed four hundred and ffty pounds .'! .'" I 

 ■write it at length that no one may suppose a figure has been dropped. 



The following letter, part of the correspondence, is too curious not 

 to be given entire. The naive impudence of the latter part will not 

 easily be surpassed : — 



« W , January 5, 1S39. 



" Sir — In answer to your's of this morning, I beg to state that the 

 committee desire me to say that they consider a personal inspection 

 of the church necessary. Should you consider this worth your while, 

 I shall be happy to give you any information in my power on the sub- 

 ject. I should state that the length of the church is GO feet by IG feet 

 10 inches, so that the work will be on a small scale. The amount to be 

 expended will not exceed £450. The Rector of the parish is an Archi- 

 tect, but has not informed me whether he intends to compete for the work. 

 " I am. Sir, your obedient servant, 



"H S " 



Begging every architect who values the respectability of his pro- 

 fession to lend his aid in exposing these scandalous practices. 

 I remain, Sir, your obedient servant, 



K. P. S. 



Nov. 13, 1840. 



ATMOSPHERIC RAILWAY. 



In our last monthly number we published a letter received from Mr. 

 Pinkus, commenting on an article in our July number on the atmos- 

 pheric railway, in which he complains that great injustice had been 

 done him, by giving credit to Mr. Medhurst "for having originated 

 the idea of employing the power of the atmosphere against a vacuum 

 created in an extended pipe laid between the rails, and communicating 

 the power thus obtained to propel carriages moving on a road," and 

 to Messrs. Clegg & Samuda " for having rendered this idea practicable 

 and useful, by their simple and ingenious invention of constructing and 

 closing a continuous valve, by hermetically sealing it up with a com- 

 position each time the train passes." 



In treating on scientific inventions of interest, this Journal pursues 

 the undeviating course of giving the fullest and clearest information, 

 preserving the strictest impartiality as to the inventors; conferring 

 praise where it is justly due, and pointing out error where we consider 

 it to exist. Mr. Pinkus, after denying in tola all we have said of Med- 

 hurst and of himself, describes himself as " an humble labourer in the 

 field of science," who would "never be guilty of that meanness of 

 mind that would detract from another the merit justly due to him for 

 any mental production." This principle we admire, and Ciuinot but 

 regret that l:e should have lost sight of it in the very next paragraph 

 of his letter, where he attempts to deprive Medhurst of the praise we 

 awarded him, by describing Papin as the author " of employing the 

 power of the atmosphere against a vacuum." We are aware that 

 this is due to Papin, but if Mr. Pinkus had not stopped short, but 

 quoted our whole sentence, Medhurst must have come in for the praise 

 ■we justly awarded him, viz. "of using the power of the atmosphere 

 against a vacuum created in a pipe laid between the rails, and com- 

 municating the power thus obtained to propel carriages on roads," — 

 a very diflerent tiling from simply "using the power of the atmos- 

 phere against a vacuum," which we were fully aware originated with 

 Papin, had been followed by Lewis in 1817, and Vallence in 1824. 

 Returning, then, to the original idea of employing atmospheric pres- 



sure against a vacuum inside a pipe, and communicating that power 

 to carriages moving on a road outside it" ; we see nothing to alter 

 our assertion that it is the invention of Medhurst, who published a 

 detailed account of the means he employed, in 1837.* 



Indeed, however reluctant Mr. Pinkus may be to admit this fact, the 

 following extracts from Medhurst's pamphlet, places the matter be- 

 yond all doubt. 



In page 15, this passage occurs — 



When the carriage is to go through the canal, from the engine, the air 

 must be forced into the canal behind it ; but, when it is to go the contrary 

 way, the same engine is to draw the air out of the canal, and rarify the air 

 before the carriage, that the atmospheric air may press into the canal behind 

 the carriage, and drive it the contrary way. 



In the following page 16, he says — 



It is practicable, upon the same principle, to form a tube so as to leave'a 

 continual communication between the inside and the outside of it, without 

 suiTering any part of the impelling air to escape ; and, by this means, to im- 

 pel a carriage along upon an iron road, in the open air, with equal velocity, 

 and, in a great degree, possessing the same advantages as in passing within- 

 side of the tube, with the additional satisfaction to passengers of being'uu- 

 confined, and in view of the country. 



If a round iron tube, 24 inches in diameter, he made, with an opening of 2 

 inches wide in the circumference, and a flanch 6 or 8 inches deep on each 

 side of the opening, it will leave a channel between the flanches, and an open- 

 ing into the tube. If the tiauches of this tube are immersed in water up to 

 the circumference, as represented in fig. 1, where a, a, is a section of the 

 tube ; I), the channel ; and c, c, the snrface of the water. 



FiR. I. 



If such a tube is laid all along upon the ground, ■nith the iron channel ini- 

 mersed in a channel of water, up to m, and a piston or box made to fit it 

 loosely, and pass through it upon wheels or rollers, tliis box, driven througli 

 the tube by the air forced into it, may give motion to a carriage without, by 

 a communication through the channel and the water. 



Again in page 20, he describes 



A plan to combine the two modes together, that the goods may be con- 

 veyed nithin the canal, and a conuuunication made from the inside to the 

 outside of it, so that a carriage may he impelled in the open air, to carrj- pas- 

 sengers, would he an improvement desirable and practicable. It must be 

 effected without the aid of water, that it may rise and fall as the land lies ; 

 and it must give a continual impulse to the outside carriage, without suffer- 

 ing the impelling air to escape. 



And aware that his only difficulty was in constructing a means of 

 confining the power in the tube by using a valve in lieu of the water 

 joint, he remarks, that 



For this purpose, there must be some machinery which will diminish the 

 simplicity, make it more expensive, and more liable to be disordered, unless 

 executed in the most substantial and perfect manner ; but, by skill, by ex- 

 perience, and sound workmanship, it may be accomplished in various ways, 

 one of which I will describe, which, I presume, will evince the practicability 

 of it. 



In order to make this in the best manner, the top of the canal should be 

 made of wrought iron (or copper) plates, rivetted together, and rivetted all 

 along, on one side, to a cast iron rail securely laid upon the top of one of the 

 side walls ; and made to shut down close, and aii'-tight, upon a cast iron rail 

 laid firmly down upon the other side wall. 



In order to make the plate shut down air-tight upon the cast iron rail, 

 without being rivetted to it, there should be a groove all along, upon the top 

 and inner edge of the cast iron rail, and a thin edge of iron rivetted to the 

 plates all along, to fall into the gi-oove; then, if the, groove is partially filled 

 mth some soft and yielding substance, as cork, wood, leather, hemp, Sec, the 

 thin iron edge will bed itself into it, and shut so close that the air will not 

 escape, with so light a pressure as one pound per square inch. 



The plate that is to form the top of the canal, being thus prepared, may be 



* This work was entitled " A New System of Inland Conveyance." 



