1849.1 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



Dl 



imagination, and rendered them unable to perceive the great difference be- 

 tween the relative and the absolute limits of possibility. Because science 

 iiad failed to predetermine the point at which higher performances became 

 impossilile, they too often began to consider it superfluous to invoke her aid 

 at all — forgetting that the problems are quite different ones — to decide be- 

 tween the relative merits of two modifications of mechanism, and to define 

 the ultimate capabilities of either. There is no more striking example of 

 this tendency than is exhibited in the controversy between the two great 

 systems of railway traction — the locomotive and the atmospheric. This 

 controversy has already cost the public incredible suras ; and has, moreover, 

 been so dexterously managed, that even now, if the money markets were to 

 return to a very possible state of plethora, a plausible prospectus and a new 

 patentee w-ould tind it no difficult task to organise another company, aud to 

 get subscribed fresh hundreds of thousands towards carrying out an experi- 

 ment which ought never to have required more than a few months' trial and 

 a short lentitb of working line for its final settlement, — for the principles 

 according to which the experiment must succeed or fail, had been determined 

 long since ; and it is a fact equally sad and strange, that among the very 

 numerous patents relating to the atmospheric railway, there is not one that 

 touches upon the real turning point of the question. What was called the 

 " longitudinal valve" or opening, through which was estaMished the con- 

 nection between the piston travelling within the exhausted tube and the 

 train of carriages, formed the piece de resistance for the inventors ; and very 

 many and clever are the contrivances we find specified for improving or dis- 

 pensing with this valve. And yet the valve itself entered but as a subordi- 

 nate function into the equation by which success or failure was to be deter- 

 mined. Granting that its construction was theoretically perfect, and all 

 friction and leakage annihilated, the main principle, which depended upon 

 the laws that govern the motions of elastic fluids, was left wholly untouched. 

 The history of science, nevertheless, contained records which should have 

 prevented this mist.ike. One hundred and sixty years ago, M. Papin, one of 

 the earliest inventors of steam machinery, invented a motive apparatus in- 

 volving this identical principle, and "hich, when tried, was found wanting. 

 The machine alluded to was described by the inventor as *' an engine for 

 pumping the water out of mines by the power of a moderately distant 

 river." His plan was to erect upon the stream or waterfall a series of 

 force-pumps by which air was to he condensed into a reservoir. From this 

 reservoir a close tube, some miles in length, was to be carried over hill and 

 valley from the brink of the river. It was supposed that the condensed air 

 Would travel along this tube, and could be applied at the mine, through 

 appropriate mechanism, to keep the pumps going. M. Papin is said to have 

 tried his invention upon a large scale at Westphalia; aud it is certain that a 

 similar engine was erected in connection with one of our own Welsh mines; 

 and in both cases with equally ill success. The machines at the useful end 

 could never be got into motion. The condensers on their side worked 

 powerfully, but the blast of air at the distant extremity would hardly blow 

 out a candle ; and although it had been calculated that the condensation 

 would he transmitted along the tube in less than a minute, it was found 

 upon trial that tlie slight impulses which arrived at last had been three 

 hiiurs on the road. As a last attempt, the motion of the air-pumps was 

 reversed, and the efTett tried of employing an exhausted tube. But this 

 mode proved as inefficacious as the other ; and the experiments were finally 

 abandoned. 



In the process of weaving by the power-loom we find an analogous exam- 

 ple of velocity limited by the broken or alternating motion of the acling 

 forces. The rapidity with which the shuttle can be thrown from side to side 

 between the threads of the warp, is limited by the strength of the woof- 

 thread it carries across. When the strain is so great as to cause more than 

 a certain average number of breakings, the net product of the machine will 

 be increased by working at a lower velocity. By a recent improvement, the 

 shuttle is made at every vibration or ' shot' to commence its motion slowly 

 and increase in velocity as it proceeds ; thus diminishing the strain upon the 

 thread and economising time, even in the four or six feet that constitute the 

 average extent of each 'shot' And by this means the looms are sometimes 

 woiked at a rate of 180 threads per minute, or 3 in every second. This will 

 constitute the absolute limit of speed under the existing form of construc- 

 tion. To extend it we must introduce a new principle, and discover some 

 method of weaving the tissue in a cylindrical web ; when the oscillation of 

 the shuttle might be transformed into a continuous revolution, and the strain 

 upon the woof, arising from the perpetual stoppage and change of motion, 

 he annihilated. 



RIGHT OF ARBITRATORS TO COPY PLANS EN- 

 TRUSTED TO THEM. 



ROYAL ITALIAN OPEBA-HOUSE, COVENT GARDEN. 



[We have been requested to give insertion to the following let- 

 ter, and to give our opinion as to the practice. We must decline 

 saying one word as to the award ; but with regard to the right of 

 the umpire to copy any plans or drawings that are laid before him 

 we must deny, and consider that it is a breach of duty.] 



Sir — Under a deep sense of the duty I owe to the profession at large, as 



well as to myself, I feel bound, however reluctantly, to expose the following 

 facts, which, if tacitly sanctioned, I consider would be derogatory to my 

 professional character, and highly prejudicial to the ends of justice ; and I 

 hope to meet at your hands the candour and support that my case deserves, 

 and which it is well known you never withhold. 



The lessees of the Royal Italian Opera-house chose, about a year after its 

 completion, to contest two-thirds of my bill of 2,3U0^. for superintending 

 the erection of it, &c., obliging me to institute legal proceedings to recover 

 the balance of it, when, alter payiiig into court 825/. more than they had 

 offered me just before going to the jury, they begged a reference (w hich I 

 bad originally offered and they refused.) i'o this I acceded, and iMr. T. L. 

 Donaldson and Mr. T. Bellamy were appointed referees, and by them 

 Mr. S:imuel Angell was named as umpire, and, as the referees could not 

 agree, Mr. S, Angell became the sole arbitrator, and the deptisitory 

 of all my original designs and ducuuieuts uecessar^ to substantiate my 

 claim. 



On Mr. Angell's award being delivered (of which, as you hav»t perhaps 

 properly, refused to admit any comments on it, 1 must say nothing, what- 

 ever I may think), 1 applied at his office for my papers, and found to my 

 astonishment that the most complete of my designs, working drawings, 

 and papers, were missing from the portfolios and tin boxes, and that many 

 had beeu copied iu Mr. Angell's office by two of his assistants, one of 

 whom being found by me iu the act was obliged to admit that it was by 

 Mr. Angell's order that be had done so. Such proceedings seemed to de- 

 mand an explanation, and I wrote to him, that after the solemn assurance 

 he had given to me iu the presence of Mr. Donaldson, Mr. Smith, aud 

 others, as to the safety of my papers when delivered into his hands, 1 could 

 not but regard bis conduct as wholly unjustifiable, inasmuch as he was 

 acting as umpire in the performance of a professional and judicial duty, and 

 I requested him to deliver to me the other documents in his possession, and 

 to render to me the most explicit explanation on the subject. Mr. Angell's 

 reply was, that the documents I claimed of him remained in his strong 

 closet during his absence from town ; but he admitted that my drawin^js 

 and extracts of my papers had been copied in his office by his authority; 

 and that he considered he had a perfect right to have any copies or extracts 

 made from any documents or drawings put in by me as evidence in support 

 of my claim, in order that his memoranda might be complete, should iheie 

 be hereafter any occasion to refer to it; and he went on to assure me that 

 I need be under no apprehension whatever, and that he was quite prepared 

 at any time to show tlie tracing made from my drawings to Mr. Donaldson, 

 or to Mr. W. Cotteiill (my solicitor), iu expectation ot satisfying them as to 

 his mode of acting. 



These explanations cannot be regarded as offering anything like satisfac- 

 tion ; and as to his giving explanations to Mr. Cotterill, or Mr. Donaldson, 

 1 have only to refer to lUese gentlemen's letters, in which Mr. Donaldson 

 says, that " the award has caused great surprise and disappointment to him, 

 particularly as regards Julian's salary; and that after much thought he could 

 not understand why copies ot my drawings were taken by Mr. Angell, they 

 not being necessary to suiistantiate any point in the award, and tliat in so 

 doing he had erred in judgment in this case altogether;" while Mr. Cotterill, 

 the other gentleman referred to, wrote to me that " he had read over my 

 correspondence with Mr. Angell, but did not see any use in examining the 

 copies he bad taken from my drawings. Certainly," Mr. Cotterill says, " I 

 cannot see any possible use in Mr. Angell's copying any of them for any 

 purpose of the arbitration." 



To these opinions of the gentlemen to whom he appealed, and of a great 

 many more professional men to whom 1 have mentioned the citcumstances, 

 it is necessary to add, that one of the copies made from my designs, and on 

 which his assistant was discovered, is marked No. 52, the title of which runs 

 thus — " Longitudinal section ot the new theatre, saloons, stage, &c., from 

 the foundaiioiis to the roofs, complete as executed." On this copy Mr. 

 Angell's assistant has written as follows ; — 



" Copies of this and some other drawings of Mr, Alhano's works of Co- 

 vent Garden, by Mr. Angell's order, were taken by me and Mr. Wood, and 

 are in Mr. Angell's possession. 



(Signed) G. Judge, jun." 



" September 27, 1818," 



The law affording me no redress at this stage, I am obliged to state now 

 what otherwise 1 would under no other circumstances bring forward. 1 have 

 been a member of the profession of civil engineers for a quarter of a cen- 

 tury in this my adopted country, and have been engaged upon various works, 

 which 1 presume have sufficiently established my claim to some auinty ; if 

 not 1 would willingly allow my reputation to be estimated by what 1 have 

 done at Covent-garden Theatre, the manner in which it has been accom- 

 plished, the very short period in which it has been effected, and the small- 

 ness of the expenses attending it, considering that it required fifty-four 

 original and elaborate designs, and above a hundred working drawings, spe- 

 cifications, &c., &c. (all put in evidence), besides daily and nightly attend- 

 ance to the extent of from sixteen to twenty hours a-day, directing and 

 superintending from the very foundations the construction and decoration of 

 tlie new theatre, her Majesty's apartments, and the improvement of the 

 whole establishment; converting at the same time the whole of the old ma- 

 terials, on whiih were daily engaged from 1,000 to 1,600 workmen of all 

 trades, as well as the attendance ul six of my assistants and a dek of inc 



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