1844.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



85 



strong sheathing of planks covers the water sije anJ the inside, within 

 wliich the concrete is rammeil in to about a foot below the lowi'st water line 

 and tlie rest of the wall of the embankment is th'n carried up with masonry. 

 In llie second design the masonry is also supported by piles under the 

 concrete. 



Herr Koli.man, architect, of Augsburg, made some observations on the 

 various legal rights existing with regard to water power, and the want of de- 

 fined principles of legislation aflecting it. 



Herr Wink EI.MANN, architect, of Berlin, gave an account of an improve- 

 ment in Cupel furnaces introduced into the royal foundry at Berlin, and also 

 into Borsig's foundry, consisting of a new arrangement of the blast-holes. 

 The furnace is surrounded with a hollow cast iron girdle, having eight blast 

 holes communicating «ith the furnace. The blast is said t^ be so much in- 

 creased as to melt with 201b of coal 2J cwt. of iron, whereas before it melted 

 only 15 cwt. Another advantage of this plan is, that by means of a pane 

 of thick plate glass, set on the outside, the progress of the melting can 

 be watched. 



Herr "Winkelmann also exhibited a model of the trussing for a bridge on a 

 new construction. 



Herr Hermes, architect, of Schwerin, gave a description, with drawings; 

 ot an improvement on the Turbine, introduced by Herr C. L. Nagel, of Ham- 

 burgh. 



After dinner, at twelve or one o'clock, the Association took a trip by water 

 to examine the Ludwig canal. 



Sept. 10 — The Association met at breakfast at seven o'clock in the morn" 

 ing, and afterwards examined the City jiictiire .gallery. The business p oceed. 

 ings began at ten o'clock. The time ibr the meeting this year was left to the 

 committee, and it was suggested that four days' meetings should be held in- 

 stead of three. The place of meeting fixed upon is Prague. 



This routine business being over, the company went to examine the col- 

 lection of paintings belonging to the Cathedral Clinpter. At tu o o'clock tlie 

 grand celebration dinner was held, when a hundred sat down. Thus con- 

 cluded the proceedings. 



The number of members who attended was 90, and the number of drawings 

 exhibited was 129, very few of them, however were original, principally studies 

 and representations of churches. They filled four rooms. 



NOTES OF THE WEEK. 



A most important discovery connected with Egyptian antiquities has been 

 made, fully confirming the anticipations of the great Dr. Young, that copies 

 would be found of the decree in.icribed on the Rosetta stone. Dr. Lepsius, 

 in charge of the Royal Prussian Expedition, has discovered in Nubia a per- 

 fect copy of the decree, including the demotic inscription. This was an- 

 nounced last week in the Literary Gazette, and very great results are anti- 

 cipated. 



By the return of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests we find they 

 have very laudably appropriated £.180. to the purchase of old tenements, 

 obscuring Holyrood House, andA'/ll.for a similar purchase as connected 

 with Arbroath Abbey, We wish this department were charged with the 

 maintenance and restoration of our ancient monuments. In Scotland alone 

 many fine ecclesiastical edifices might be preserved, which are now going to 

 Tuin. 



A statue of General Bertrand is proposed to he erected by public sub- 

 scription at Chateauroux, his birth-place. 



A mining engineer is employed by the French government expressly to 

 look after the mineral springs in France. 



An exhibition of paintings will be held at Ghent next July, which will, it 

 is said, be well worthy of the contributions of foreign artists, and of their 

 examination. 



A bronze statue by M. Moldknecht, life size, is to be erected at Conde sur 

 Noireuu to Captain Dumont D'Urville, the navigator. 



Mr. Cave has lately completed a pair of 150 horse oscillating engines, or 

 the two equal to 300 h.p., for an iron steam vessel, which he has likewise 

 built for the French Government in Senegal ; it is to he propelled by a 

 screw made entirely of wrought iron, galvanized and coated with a peculiar 

 varnish to prevent its corrosion by salt water. By a very simple contrivance, 

 for which Mr. Cave has taken out a patent in France, the screw can at all 

 times be disengaged from the gearing and brought upon deck, so that the 

 speed of the vessel may not be impeded by it when there is a sutBciency of 

 ■wind to use sails without steam. Before Mr. Cave decided on adopting any 

 peculiar sort of screw, he caused an iron steam boat, with a steam engine of 

 the power of 20 horses, to be tried up the river Seine, to be propelled by at 

 least 20 different shaped screws, till at last he found one more eft'ective than 

 the other, which he adopted for the vessel. 



We perceive by the daily papers that the launch of the Janus steam- 

 frigate took place on Tuesday, the 6th instant, at Chatham Dock-yard, 

 being a vessel of peculiar construction, designed by Vice-Admiral the Earl 

 of Cundouald, better known a« Lord Cochrane. After the launch ehe was 



taken charge of by the master-attendant, and was w«rped alongside the sheer 

 hulk to have her machinery fitted. The form of the body of the vessel 

 nearly resembles that of a wedge towards the extremities, is precisely similar 

 at both ends, and is, consequently, capable of moving in either direction 

 with equal facility ; her capabilities of advancing and retreating in narrow- 

 channels, for the purpose of offensive warfare, are thereby made perfect. 

 The following are her particular dimensions : — 



Feet. Inches. 

 Length between the perpendiculars .. .. 180 



Length of keel for tonnage .. ,. .. 159 1 



Breadth, extreme .. .. .. .. 30 



Breadth, moulded 29 4 



Depth in hold 19 1 



Tonnage, old measurement .. 761 53-94 



Intended load draught of water, with 260 tons of coals 11 2 



When launched her draught of water (with 40 



tons of ballast on board), was — Forward . . 7 5 



Abaft .. 7 2 



The Janus is fitted with a rudder at each extremity, but on ordinary oc- 

 casions one only will remain in place. The tillers work on deck. She has 

 two capstans, and is provided with a pair of hawser-holes abaft as well as 

 forward, but only one pair of riding bitts and one pair of catheads. Her 

 armament will consist of a 10-inch gun at each extremity, throwing hollow 

 shot of 861b. weight, and she will also be capable of mounting two 42- 

 pounder guns. The engine by which this vessel is to be propelled is an in- 

 vention of the gallant earl who designed her. It is to be a rotatory engine, 

 which, it is said, will not occupy more than one-sixth of the space required 

 for the common reciprocating engine. It may be placed so low as to be out 

 of reach of gun-shot; it will have no beams, cranks, side rods, parallel mo. 

 tions, levers, &c. ; and it may be fixed in less than a quarter of the time 

 now required for fixing marine engines. While its first cost is considerably 

 cheaper, it may be more easily kept in repair, (.') in the opinion of the pro- 

 jector, than the steam machinery now in use on board vessels of war. 



A Government trial of the Screw Propeller took place on the 3rd instant 

 with her Majesty's steamer Rattler, at the measured distance in Long Reach, 

 in order to determine, as correctly as possible, her rate of going, as com- 

 pared with that of her sister ship, Prometheus, which had been ascertained 

 by the Government authorities the day before, by a similar trial. The 

 Rattler having been built for the purpose of testing the merits of the screw 

 propeller with those of the paddle wheels, is constructed as nearly as pos- 

 sible upon the lines and models as the Prornetlieus ; they have both the same 

 amount of engine power — viz., 200 horses; both vessels were laden to the 

 same draught of water — viz., lift. 3in.; the steam pressure in both cases 

 was regulated alike — in fact, every thing that could be conveniently done to 

 render the trial a fair one was duly attended to. Under these circumstances 

 more than ordinary interest was excited amongst the naval and engineering 

 officers connected with the Woolwich Dockyard establishment, by whom the 

 results of the various trials of both vessels were most minutely noted, and 

 in the end summed up, contrary to the general expectation, in favour of the 

 Rattler, to the extent of nearly half a knot per hour, their relative speed 

 being as follows : — Prometheus, 8-757 knots; Rattler, 9-240 knots, or within 

 a fraction of lOJ statute miles per hour. The Prometheus is one of the 

 third-class war steamers recently introduced into her Majesty's navy by the 

 present surveyor. Sir William Symonds, and is, we are informed, under orders 

 to sail almost immediately for the Mediterranean. 



SEVERN IMPROVEMENT. 



The Lincoln Lock and Weir being the first of the series connected with 

 this important work, have been brought into full operation. The lock is 

 100 ft. long by 20 ft. wide, with a lift of 7 ft. at low water. The walls and 

 invert are faced with blue Staffordshire bricks of excellent quality, and are 

 built upon a foundation of red sandstone rock. The water is let in and dis- 

 charged through a culvert 7 ft. high by 4 ft. Gin. wide, built in one of the 

 walls, and running parallel with the lock chamber, with which it communi- 

 cates by seven arched openings, by this arrangement the lock is filled with 

 such rapidity that vessels have been passed through it in 2i minutes. 



The weir which is 300 ft. in length, is constructed of two rows of sheet 

 piling, the waling of which form the upper and lower sills, the intermediate 

 space being filled with blocks of red sandstone ; a large quantity of this ma- 

 terial is also placed below the lower sill to protect the piles from the action 

 of the water. Both the lock and the weir are placed in artificial cuttings, 

 ■which arrangement required the waters of the Severn to be diverted from 

 their original course. From a variety of causes this was a work of no small 

 labour and difliculty, but it was successfully performed, and the water was 

 turned into its new channel over the weir on the 30th of December last. 



Four other locks, one being 150 ft. long by 30 ft. wide, together with their 

 accompanying weirs, which range from 300 to 400 ft. in length, are in course 

 of construction between Stourport and Deglis, near Worcester. The woiks 

 below Worcester consist of a series of embankments, and the deepening of 

 the navigable channel by dredging. 



