isig.l 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



51 



the psceptions (of whii-h there arc a few) flo not affect the question, because 

 there is ahundance of depth over the hard parts of its bed. This sandy 

 formation, which is the cause of the evil of the extreme shallowness, affords 

 facilities for remedying it ; and the deepening of the channel where neces- 

 sary, without permanent or costly engineering works, is a task which the 

 author believes to he perfectly practicable. AU that is wanted is, to aid the 

 slow but certain powers of Nature by the application of scientific skill and 

 practical experience, combined with the cheap labour and the simple 'means 

 and appliances' already in existence in India, and with, in some places, the 

 steam-engine applied to macliinery afloat. In some places the improvements 

 might be etfected in a single season, whilst in other cases years of steady 

 perseverance in the necessary measures would be required ; and even when 

 the deepening is accomplished, the same measures must be continued in a 

 lesser degree, in order to secure what may have been gained. 



The principles upon which these views are based, are, — 1st, that the water 

 of the Ganges holds in suspension the fine sand with which it forms the shal- 

 lows, the bars, and the hanks. 2nd, that just in the measure that the water 

 is kept in agitation (whether by the natural action of the current or other 

 means, (will it hold more or less of this fine sand in suspension. 3rd, that 

 wherevever the agitation exceeds a certain degree at any spot, there the 

 ■water is deepening; and wherever at any spot it is minus this degree of agi- 

 tation, there the water is shoaling. This is aptly illustrated by a circum- 

 stance of common occurrence to the new steamers. From the great length 

 of one of these vessels, when it gets aground upon a shallow in an oblique 

 position with respect to the direction of the current, the water on the side 

 where the velocity is increased by the obstruction of the vessel becomes in a 

 little time deeper, and a channel is formed which generally enables her to he 

 got off; and on the other, or lee side, where the velocity of the current is 

 diminished, it shoals up so that in a few hours (should the vessel remain fast 

 so long) a sand-bank makes its appearance above the surface of the water, 

 upnn which one may jump out. 



But an example of what was done by very small means, in an instance 

 that came witiiin the author's knowledge, will serve to show more definitely 

 what might be done to improve the navigation by adequate measures. In 

 the month of April (the worst part of the dry season) in 1847, at a place a 

 few miles above Benares, the water bad gradually shallowed to 2 ft. 6 in. 

 Upon this shoal several of the government steamers, as well as the new 

 steamer Benares, stuck fast, and met with much detention before getting 

 over. Being near a military station, the of^cer in command of it took great 

 interest in the proceedings of petting off the Benares; and after she had 

 passed down, he in the most spirited manner (acting upon the writer's sug- 

 gestion, that some good result might be produced by manual interposition), 

 collected a number of natives, whom he directed so skilfully to disturb the 

 sand at the biittom of the water with pointed poles or bamboos, that, in a 

 few days, so much of the s.irrd had been carried away by the current, that a 

 channel through the shoal of 4^ feet deep, and amply wide enough for a 

 steamer, s>as thus formed. This channel then remained open during the 

 rest of the dry season, and the steamers passed through it without once 

 grounding. 



A Treatise on Public Slauqhter-Hmisipn. Bv Richard B. Grant- 

 HAjvi, C.E., M. Inst. C.E. London: Weale, 1848. 



^V'hile other engineers have devoted themselves to several 

 branches of sanitary improvement, as the sewer system and the 

 supply of water, Mr. Grantham has very usefully taken up the 

 subject of slauarhter-houses, basing his work principally on the 

 operations of the Parisian abattoirs. Tliis is, of course, familiar to 

 our readers, having been so often published; but it is so far in an 

 original form, that j\lr. Grantham has made personal observation of 

 the establishments at Paris. He attacks the nuisance of Smith- 

 field, but without advocating the Islington cattle-market, which 

 has been lately opened with the view of mitigating the evil. 



It is difficult to select anything from such a book which is not 

 trite, but tlie whole subject is of importance. Mr. Grantham's 

 practical remarks oil the French system may however be usefully 

 referred to. 



I consider that, holding the opinions I do, I am bound at once to depre- 

 cate the attemp'; of any private company, fornred of persons wholly uncon- 

 nected with the butchers' trade, making it compulsory on the trade to 

 slaughter cattle in abattoirs remote from the great masses of the population, 

 and those only few in number. 



I object to it upon the principle that no trade ought to be interfered with 

 to this extent by any party not connected with that trade, and that it ought 

 not to be confined to certain localities, and I do not believe that the public 

 will be better served by being subject to the coirtro! of an independent body ; 

 at the same time, if the trade will not or cannot see that it is incumbent 

 upon them to meet the demands of the times, and endeavour themselves to 

 abate the nuisance of the badly-conducted slaughter-houses, some one must 

 take up the matter, and they must he subject to their rules ; hut it ought to 

 be some constituted body already in existence. 



It is preposterous to take the Paris abattoirs as a precedent for the cir- 

 cumstances of London. In Paris, as I have elsewhere stated, the number of 



butchers does not exceed 500 in a population of nearly a million; and the 

 French citizens are not in the habit of consuming nearly the quantity of 

 meat per head that the English do; whereas in London alone, there are 

 about 4,000 butchers in a population of above two millions, and the con- 

 sumption, probably, four times greater in proportion. And although the 

 five Parisian abattoirs may not at all times be over-crowded, particularly 

 some of them, it forms no argument that six or seven public slaughter- 

 houses, placed round about this metropolis, will be sufficient, nor that the 

 distances at which they would probably be located prove the greatest possible 

 injury to the trade and inconvenience to the public. Unfortunately in this 

 country, particularly in London, we have no means by which we can, with 

 anv confidence as to the correctness, estimate the aruount of the consump- 

 tion of meat, but we have been informed by a good authority, that it may 

 he considered to be nearly double of that which is slaughtered in London. 

 I have before alluded, at some length, to the laws and restrictions to which 

 the butchers' trade, in all its branches, is subjected in France; hut that 

 system is totally inapplicable to this country. The surverllance and control 

 vvould not he submitted to here, — every man has always been accustomed to 

 conduct his own affairs in his own way ; and so long as he does not inter- 

 fere with, or prejudice, the public welfare, or violate the laws, he has a pre- 

 scribed right to perfect freedom. In France they have heeo taught to 

 respect that kind of control, not only by habit confirmed for a long period 

 in the general government of the country, but in the details of their trade, 

 ever since that traile assumed any importance in the internal economy of the 

 country. We cannot help fearing for the trade here, that should public 

 companies, not being butchers, establish public slaughter-houses, that it will 

 he reduced very nearly to the same state as the trade is in France, and that 

 of the most disagreeable description — namely, of a power which will have 

 only its own private ends to gain. 



Data 



THE DISTANCE OF THE SUN FROM THE EARTH 

 DETERMINED INDEPENDENTLY OF PARALLAX. 



(Reprinted from the Ipswich Chronicle, of December 23rd, 184.8.) 



To the Mathematicians of the Nineteenth Century. 



Gentlejien — The under-mentioned equations demonstrate and 

 prove the distance of that beautiful luminary the sun (independ- 

 ently of parallax or transitorial phenomena), and will, 1 hope, set 

 at rest all mistrust upon this grand and sublime question, which 

 has engaged the attention of all lovers of astronomy, ever since 

 the cultivation of science began. The data which I employ are 

 the lengths of the apparent day and night on the longest and 

 shortest days of the year, the radius of the globe we inhabit, and 

 the versed sine of the obliquity of the ecliptic. 



( 00 — y) s^ V4 ao2 y2 ^. ^ 00 _ y)2 j,2 _ 2 txj y 



4coy(oo -Hy) -h (CO— y)-r ~ (00— j/)2 



i 33 = ay 



Seconds, 

 f a = the length of the day on 21st Dec. = 8643004 

 b -^ tlie length of the day on 21st June = 86412-93 

 s = the earth's equatorial radius = o962-5 miles 



L I = verserl sine 23 deg. 27 min. 22-81 sec. = -0826363238 

 00 = tlie distance of the sun on the longest day. 

 y = the distance of the sun on the shortest day. 



With this data, and the known fact that the earth moves nearly 

 in an elliptical orbit, I deduce two independent equations, and 

 having the same number of unknown quantities, their respective 

 values are truly limited to a known, definite, and satisfactory re- 

 sult. The absolute values of the required quantities, will prove 

 the nice accuracy of the distance (obtained by a transit of Venus 

 over the sun's disc), but they will also demonstrate an error, re- 

 specting the eccentricity of the earth's orbit, or half-distance 

 between the foci ; consequently the ellipse will be much nearer to 

 a circle than astronomers have hitherto considered it to be, 



I am well aware that by making these remarks I place myself 

 antagonistical with mathematicians upon this subject, but truth 

 and demonstration will ultimately prevail over authority and un- 

 intentional error. In conclusion, and for the sake of publicity, I 

 intreat all gentlemen who are willing to aid pure tilgebra, to make 

 these equations as public as they possibly can, — for I wish them to 

 stand the test of the learned ; by so doing, they will succour the 

 cause of science in one of the noblest, grandest, most sublime of 

 all questions that ever came under the cognisance of erring man. 

 I remain, Yours, &c., 



Joii.v King, 



Upper Brook-street, Ipswich, 

 Dec. 20, 1848. 



8* 



