1849.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



173 



In 1829, a skew-bridge was opened at Rainhill. This, too, is 

 another work common at this time, but thouj^ht worthy of being 

 set down by the historian of the railway. More books have been 

 written since 1829 on skew-bridges, than there were then skew- 

 bridges in the island. 



In this year two locomotive engines were used for the first time 

 for loading marl at the two great cuttings.^^ Stephenson, by doing 

 this, opened a new field for the locomotive. Now, a good stock of 

 locomotives is held by contractors, besides ballast-wagons, and 

 thus a great means of economy in earthworks was brought about. 

 The plant of a great contractor now always includes a locomotive 

 engine and rails. This is another example of the unintentional 

 benefit derived from the progress of a great improvement: indeed, 

 in taking up an impro\'ement, no one can foretell to wliat it will 

 lead, nor in what indirect manner it may benefit the community. 

 Tiie doctor wlio took up the lump of gutta percha at Singapore so 

 few years ago, did not know tliat he was giving his fellow-country- 

 men a material, which though of little use in the East, should be 

 of so many uses liere. What was there made up into the handle 

 of an axe, was here to take the several shapes of a child's toy, a 

 surgical bandage, a steam-engine band, a speaking-pipe, a shoe- 

 sole, or a medallion, and set to work the mind of every mechanic 

 and man of learning, to find new applications. 



On 31st July 1829, the great tunnel being finished, and lighted 

 with gas, which made it more of a novelty, was opened as a show 

 to the townsmen of Liverpool, and %vas seen by several thousands. 

 A shilling was paid by each person, and the money was set aside to 

 be shared between the Liverpool and .Manchester Infirmaries and 

 the families of the workmen who had met with hurts upon the 

 line. From this fund a very fair sum was raised. 



The locomotive contest in 1829 will need to be spoken of by 

 itself, and therefore we may go on with the works. These were 

 still going on in the beginning of 1830, and the board found that 

 more money was wanted, though the line was ready to be opened 

 throughout. The more that was seen of the undertaking, the 

 more needful was it known to be to get station and warehouse 

 room, and greater accommodation for the traffic. At this time, a 

 cattle station was first thought of, and a coach manufactory was 

 set up. The whole outlay was then reckoned at 820,000/.^^ 



In 1829, the coal traffic was begun, and on tlie ISth September, 

 1830, the line was partially opened for carrying passengers. The 

 lamentable death of Mr. Huskisson at the state opening, is an 

 event too well known to he dwelt upon. 



There was a controversy, as usual, whether the rails should be of 

 cast or of wrought iron, but the board, on Stephenson's advice, 

 adopted Birkinshaw's wrought-iron rail, as on the Stockton and 

 Darlington Railway; Stephenson, however, raised the weight from 

 28 lb. per yard on the latter to 35 lb. per yard on the Liverpool and 

 Manchester,' '' so needful had it already become to get a stronger 

 rail."* The cost of the rails was, on the whole, 12/. 10s. per ton, 

 and the whole weight 3487 tons; the cost of the chairs was 10/. 10^. 

 per ton, and the weight 1,4-28 tons.^' In 1834, the directors re- 

 ported that these rails were found too weak, and ordered stronger 

 and heavier rails.'^* From 35 lb. the weight rose to 50 lb., 65 lb., 

 and 75 lb. 3 



Of thirty-one miles, eighteen were laid with stone blocks, and 

 thirteen with sleepers of oak or larch, the sleepers being laid on 

 the embankments and mosses.*" The two mosses crossed were 

 Par Moss and Chat Moss. The former was small, and about 

 20 ft. deep, and by June 1830 was already beginning to be brought 

 under the plough. Chat Moss was much greater, being then a 

 barren waste of about twelve square miles, and in depth from 

 10 to 35 feet; tlie whole being so spongy and soft, that cattle could 

 not walk over it. The bottom is clay and sand, on which is the 

 mass of peat.*i This has likewise been brought under the hands 

 of the husbandman. 



To the 31st May 1830, the whole outlay for surveying and en- 

 gineering, from the beginning of the undertaking, was 19,829/.,^- so 

 that the reward of Stephenson could not have been very exor- 

 bitant. 



In 1831, a new tunnel was found needful at Liverpool, to extend 

 the line, and next year the works were begun by Stephenson. 



In 1831, the outlay for cranes became greater, and the want of 

 them on railways has led to many valuable inventions. In the 

 same year, in consequence of a passenger train having run over an 

 embankment, Stephenson set about a self-acting break, which has 



employed so many since. A guard-rail wa5 thought of at that 

 time for the side of the lines, but was given up. 



In 1832, the timber traffic was begun, and reached 5,000 tons 



yearly. 



Besides Mr. Locke, other now well-known engineers were em- 

 ployed under Stephenson. Mr. John Dixon was for a long time 

 resident engineer, and Mr. Allcard superintendent of locomotives. 



C To lie continued J 



3 3 Volume of Prospecluses. 

 3 5 Ritchie on Railways, p. 42 

 37 Booth's Account, p. 101. 



3 9 Ritchie on Railways, p. .'J4- 



4 Booth*s Account, p. 102 

 12 Booth's Account, p. 97. 



3 4 Volume of Prospectuses. 

 30 Booth's Account, p. t31. 

 3 s Volume of Prospectuses. 

 -Whishaw on Railways. 



4i Booth's Account, p. 54 and p. 56. 



PUBLIC ENTERPRISE, PATENT LAW, AND 

 NATIONAL PROGRESS. 



(Continued from page 103.) 



If the engineers, and therefore other enterprising classes, are 

 trammelled by the patent laws, so are they by every act of legisla- 

 tion. If, indeed, the engineer were a quack, hurtful to the com- 

 monwealth, he could not be kept within closer bounds ; and it says 

 little for the practical bearing of our system of government, that, 

 with the greatest want of public works, the civil engineers have for 

 the last two or three years been starving. Engineers are so far 

 from receiving encouragement, that they are in every way kept 

 back. They have latterly forced the government to make a sani- 

 tary movement, but although many classes of public works are 

 necessary for the proper development of a healthy condition of the 

 people, there is every impediment to their construction. A com- 

 pany for making waterworks, a bath, a slaughter-house, a market, 

 or a sanatorium," must expose itself to the risks and costs of a par- 

 liamentary contest. In a case of our own, a bill for setting up 

 waterworks in a town of from six to seven thousand ])eople, was 

 thrown out, by local influence, in its last stage in the Lords; and 

 a great part of the capital, which might have been laid out in 

 works, was wasted in fees. Thus capitalists are hindered from 

 putting their money in undertakings, which may become an utter 

 loss, for they have not that safeguard that come what may, still 

 there will be something for their money. 



Every class of public work is exposed to the same evils, and the 

 engineer and the patentee are ever thwarted by the legislative hin- 

 drances to their getting capital for their undertakings. However 

 useful may be the undertaking, or however -ivorthless, there is the 

 same system applied to both; and the hardships are such that they 

 work, as many of them are meant to work, as clogs on the growth 

 of public enterprise. However praiseworthy it may be to stop 

 jobbing, it cannot be praiseworthy to stop useful works, and tliat 

 system must be bad which looks rather to hindering rogues than to 

 fostering honest industry. As matters now stand, there is every 

 reason why a man should not embark in any useful undertaking, to 

 however small an amount, for he puts his whole wealth in peril by 

 becoming what the lawyers are pleased to call a partner. 



This is one of the great evils of English law-craft, beginning no 

 one knows how — that they have taken a false view of the relations 

 of partnership, so that in the eyes of our lawyers a fellowship of 

 two or three men and a fellowship of two or three thousand are 

 held to be on the same footing; though any one might tell before- 

 hand, if he did not know it by seeing it, that such associations are 

 as unlike as may he. It is quite true, that they are both associa- 

 tions or partnerships of single men, but they are thereby no more 

 under the same laws of goverimient than the hamlet of Gander- 

 sheim and the whole Germanic empire. No tradesman deals with 

 such associations under the same circumstances, no man embarks 

 in them under the same conditions, and the common-sense of so- 

 ciety has drawn the distinction between small partnerships and 

 joint-stock companies— one acknowledged in all systems of law but 

 that of England; and here the more wilfully denied because par- 

 tially acted upon. 



If a patentee, having gone through the plucking process of get- 

 ting a patent, then wants a thousand or two thousand pounds to 

 enable him to work it, the wisdom of the government places him 

 at the mercy of those few persons who may be willing to incur the 

 risks of partnership at his expense. George Stephenson, for in- 

 stance, must pay a forced contribution for the assistance of Messrs. 

 Losh, and has to wait for years before he can obtain an engine- 

 factory of his own — a factory, it is true, which made a great repu- 

 tation, and brought great wealth to this country by sending hun- 

 dreds of locomotives abroad, but which in the chapter of accidents 

 might never have existed. 



Some persons think it an advantage that a patentee shoukl be 

 laid at the mercy of capitalists for the working of his invention, 

 but on what real or moral ground cannot be stated. It must rest 

 on the hankering after money-grubbing and the furtherance of 



