1840.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



427 



ARCHITECTURAL SOCIETY. 



The Tenth Session of this Society was opened on the 3rfl ult., at their 

 apartments in Lincohi's Inn Fields, with a conversazione. The President, 

 William Tite, Esq., F.R.S., the Architect of the New Royal Exchange, took 

 the Chair at nine o'clock ; when the Secretary, Mr. Grellier, proceeded to 

 read the Report of the Committee, which stated the arrangements made for 

 the lectures and papers of the ensuing session, and announced five prizes for 

 the competition of the student-mSmbers, upon the following subjects :- — The 

 best architectural composition ; the best measured drawing of the front of 

 St. George's Church, Bloomsburj' ; the best series of architectural sketches 

 produced during the season ; the best notes of the lectures delivered at the 

 several meetings of the Society ; and the best drawing iu chalk or pencil 

 from the plaster figure. 



The President then read an elaborate essay on the history, chemistry, and 

 uses of bitumen and its compounds, tracing the facts of their application from 

 the earliest times, with illustrations from the Bible, from Herodotus, Diodorus 

 SiciUus, Josephus, Dioscorides, Vitruvius, and Pliny. The lectiu-er then 

 described the various kinds of bitumen, beginning with its most liquid state 

 of naptlia, and descending to petroleum, mineral tar, mineral pitch (some- 

 times called maltha), and then to the compact bitumen known as aspbaltum, 

 elastic bitumen, or mineral caoutchouc, mineral wax, and mineral tallow. 

 This part of the dissertation was illustrated by specimens of most of these 

 substances on the lecture table, and by references to the principal sources 

 from which they are derived in the present day. It appears that, for the 

 purpose of commerce and the arts, they are now obtained from the mines of 

 Avlona in Albania, of Lobsaun in Alsace on the left bank of the Rhine, from 

 Pyi-emont, which furnishes the asphalte of Seyssel, known in England as 

 Claridge's, besides the asphaltes of the Landes known as the Basteune and 

 Gaujac. Bitumens, in various states, are also found in great abundance at 

 Rangoon, in the Birmau Empire, at Coxitambo in South America, in the 

 famous Pitch-Lake of the Island of Trinidad, iu the celebrated Naptha Wells 

 at Baku on the Caspian, in Persia, iu Greece, Sweden, Gallicia, Moldavia, 

 Sicily, England, and, in fact, in all parts of the world. In many cases, the 

 varieties are found pure ; and in others, as at Seyssel and Lobsaun, they are 

 mixed with argillaceous sands, calciferous bitumens or bituminous grits or 

 shales : all the deposits appear to belong to the tertiary formation. There 

 are various opinions as to their origin ; their chemistry, however, would seem 

 to indicate that they must have been derived from the destructive distillation 

 of vegetable matter, the produce of ancient forests. Among other curious 

 facts facts stated by the lecturer, it was mentioned that the streets of Parma 

 are lighted with petroleum from the mines of Avlona ; and that a kind of 

 purified bitumen had been, for some centuries, used in Paris for greasing the 

 ■wheels of carriages, under the name of graisse noire. 



The introduction of bitumen into mastic, for the purposes of paving, lining 

 tanks, &c., though recently revived in Paris as a novelty, does not appear to 

 be so. Jlr. Tite noticed upon this subject, a Tract in the British Museum, 

 entitled, " Dissertation sur 1' Asphalte, ou ciment naturel, decouvert depuis 

 quelques annees an Val Travers, dans la Comte de Neufchatel, par le Sieiu: 

 Eirini d'Eyrinys, Professeur Grec, et Docteur en Medecine. Avec la maniere 

 de I'employer, tant sur la piene que sur le bois ; et les utilitee de I'huile que 

 I'on en tire." Paris, 1721, 12mo. From this tract the following extracts 

 were read ; from which it would seem that the proportions and applications 

 of bitumen in mastic were known more than a centuiy since. '• Pour former 

 le ciment, et le mettre en etat d'etre employe, il faut prendre la mine toute 

 pure, et la bien pulveriser. Pour le faire avec moins de peine et de frais (car 

 elle est fort dure), on pent I'attendrir en la mettant devant le feu, ou a sec 

 dans un chaudiere. Des qu'elle sentira la chalem-, on la broyera tres facile- 

 ment ; U vaut, cependant, mieux la piler froide, parcequ'en la chauffant, 

 I'huile s'evapore, et elle perd beaucoup de sa quahte et de sa force. 



"Quand elle est absolument ecrasee, et reduite comme duterreau,onprend 

 de la poix de Bourgoyne blanche on noire (la blanche est la meilleure) on la 

 fait fondre a petit feu dans uue chaudiere de cuivre ou de fer ; quand la poix 

 est entierement fondue, it faut prendre garde que le feu n'y prenne ; on y 

 mele pen a pen I'asphalte en le remuant continuellement avec un baton ou 

 spatulc, jusqu'a ce que I'incorporatiou soit faite, on le voit parceque I'asphalte 

 doit L'tre liquide comme de la bouillie ; la doze de la poix est la dixieme 

 partie, c'est a dire, qu'il faut neuf livres de mine et une livre de poix pour 

 former le ciment dans sa perfection." 



After giving an account of the manner of employing the asphalte as 

 mortar, the author continues, 



" L'on pourroit encore faire des bassins, reservoirs, citemes et terrasses, 

 meme sans employer des pierres de taille, et cette facon, qui couteroit moins 

 que les autres, serrit aussi solide, et auroit sa beaute, &c. &c." 

 His recommendations of the invention are warm : — 

 " Quand le ciment d'asphalte est fait exactement, il resiste egalement au 

 chaud et au froid; la plus grande ardeur du soleil, ni la gelee la plus forte, 

 n'y peuvent faire aucun dommage. Je cvois avoir trouve la chose du monde 

 la plus avantageuse pour le public, principalement pour Paris, &c. &c." 



The lecturer exhibited tables showing the chemical analysis of various sub- 

 stances from recent woody fibre down through the lignites, coals and jets to 

 the most compact anthracite, and from the recent tm'pentine through the 

 napthas, pitches, &c., down to the asphaltes. lie pointed out the chemical 

 analogy or isomerism of many of these substances, as contrasted with their 

 uses and appearances. Iu the com-se of the lecture, reference was made to 



the ruins of Babylon and Nineveh, as well as to the ancient Oracles and 

 Nymphaia connected with tlie springs of Naptha, and particidarly to the ruins 

 of Avlona, which seem to connect the ancient NymphEcum spoken of by 

 Strabo and Dio Cassius, on the banks of the Aias, or Aous, the modern Viosa, 

 with the mineral pitch formation of Selenizza, furnishing the modem asphalte 

 of Avlona. 



Mr. Tite explained, at some length, the composition of the asphalte mas- 

 tics, recommending to the notice of the architects present a cai'eful consider- 

 ation of their appUcation and introduction. 



The lecture was received with the strongest marks of approbation from a 

 very large auditory, including many of the leading members of the Royal 

 Society, the Society of Civil Engineers, the Society of Arts, and the Institute 

 of Architects ; and, after the announcement of various donations to the 

 Library and JIuseum of the Society, the meeting separated. 



INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS WITH LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES, ON 

 THE HULL AND SELBY RAILWAY. 



On Tuesday, the 10th ult., a course of five days' experiments commenced 

 with the engines of the above Railway, originating through the following 

 circumstances : — 



About the commencement of the present year, six engines, somewhat similar 

 to those on the Leeds and Selby line, were in a greater or less state of for- 

 wardness for the Hull and Selby Railway, at the works of Messrs. Fenton, 

 Murray, and Jackson, of this town, when the Hull and Selby Railway Com- 

 pany resolved to have six other engines, on the most approved construction 

 which experience up to that period could produce, from the previous working 

 of locomotives ou the various Railways. Four objects were particularly kept 

 iu view, namely, safetij, simpUcift/, accessHiUty of the various parts, and 

 ecmifjmy, the whole combining general efficacy and dnrability of the engine 

 throughout. 



The first object is secured by giving a more extended Jose for the action of 

 the springs in supporting the weight of the engine, being about six and a half 

 by eleven feet, whereby a remarkably steady motiou is secured at thirty miles 

 per hour. It is not at all a matter of surprise that the four wheel engines of 

 several Railways now in use should every now and then go off the road, and 

 in an instant, when it is recollected the extreme base of their springs for sup- 

 porting the engine is only about three three quarters by about six feet ; hence 

 then: rocking, seqientine, and pitcliing motion, which without any other cause 

 than a shght increase of speed, literally lifts the flanges of the wheels above 

 the smface of the rails, and in three or four seconds the engine is turned end 

 for end, upset in the act, and the train with it ; whilst the stability of the 

 engine is effectually secured through an extended base upon the front and 

 hind wheels. By means of a new combination, the best properties of the 

 four-wheeled engines are also completely applied, by resting the weight on 

 the crankshaft immediately within the wheels, which experience has for years 

 proved to be the place least likely to injure it, and thereby avoid the alarm- 

 ing accidents which have so often taken place by the breaking of the shaft, 

 through placing the weight on bearings outside of the wheels ; the centre of 

 the engine being a sort of neutral axis, there is very httle power over its mo- 

 tion in that part, and this advantage, by placing the weight on the crank in- 

 side the wheels, is, in consequence, got without a sacrifice of stability. 



Secondly,— In addition to the safety and simpUcity of having only Urn 

 inner frames, instead of three or four, with as many bearings on the crank 

 shaft, the space under the boiler is still further stripped of machinery by a 

 new valve motion, which gives a high degi-ee of openness and facility of access 

 so desirable in examination, cleaning, &c , of the working parts. 



Tliirdlv,— The steam being used expansively by the valve motion above 

 alluded to, a great saving in fuel is effected, as will be seen on examining the 

 results of the experiments, and as the excessive wear and tear of locomotive 

 boilers arises from intense heat, it is not improbable this decided step towards 

 remoring the cause mil prevent the effect, namely, the rapid destruction of 

 the boiler. The action of this valve motion is perfectly smooth, being worked 

 by eccentrics (which are also of an improved construction), and any quantity 

 of steam from 25 to 90 per cent, on the stroke can be admitted into the 

 cylinders with the most ready and complete control, at any speed the engine 

 may be going ; if a high wind or an incline oppose the progress of the engine, 

 a greater quantity of steam is admitted ; if wind or gradients be favoiurable, 

 the steam is stUl admitted at full pressm-e into the cylinders, hut shut off at 

 an earUer period, propelling the pistons the remainder of the stroke by its 

 elastic force, similar to driving a time-piece by the uncoiling of the main 

 spring. 



Lastly,— A combination of dimensions and proportions have been gleaned 

 from the best results of locomotive engines of various constructions, and in 

 use in different parts of the country. The driving wheels are 6 feet diameter, 

 length of the stroke 2 feet, diameter of cylinders 12 inches, inside dimensions 

 of fire-box, 2 by 3i- feet, tubes, 94 in number, by °i\ feet long, and 2 inches 

 diameter. The general diminution of machinerj' iuthe construction has given 

 room for ample dimensions in the principal working parts, and thus the whole 

 arrangement has a close bearing on safety, simplicity, accessibility, and 

 economy. 

 Circiunstances led to those engines being ordered of Messrs. Shepherd and 



3 M 2 



