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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[March, 



It should be recollected that Michael Angelo.Philibert de I'Orme, and 

 Sir Christopher Wren, not to enumerate other names, were not originally 

 architects by profession, and yet they have produced works, whicli 

 whatever technical defects they may possess, yet by their originality 

 thev have obtained fame in all times. As it is, the movement for the 

 restoration of Gothic architecture has been entirely extra-professional, 

 the great zeal manifested for it now is by the clergy, and in this, as in 

 other departments, it is but a short step from the theory of the ama- 

 teur to his practical exertions. If the architects once teach the public 

 that their proiessional title is but a name, farewell to all their glory, 

 and we cannot sav that such a result is either impossible or far distant. 

 One thing is ve'ry evident, that architects, as was observed at the 

 Institute on a recent occasion, are behind the age, and they must bestir 

 themselves strenuously. 



To return to the " Illustrations of Fonts," we are pleased to hnd 

 such a long list of drawings already received, promising a valuable 

 and extensive series, and also that the editor has formed a considerable 

 list of fonts lying in a desecrated state, and also of those once dese- 

 crated, but now restored, the publication of which is promised in a 

 forthcoming number. We strongly suspect that the editor is a clergy- 

 man, for the vigour and energy he displays are not characteristic of 

 the architectural profession. We are pleased to find noticed in the 

 numbers already published so many instances of the restoration of 

 desecrated fonts, showing a laudable and energetic spirit on the part 

 of the clergv. Indeed it appears that the clergy have been most ear- 

 nest in affording information, whenever applied to. 



The number of Norman fonts is considerable, several of them from 

 Cornwall, which we believe are rather later in date than is generally 

 assigned to the Norman period, for Cornwall was much behind the 

 Saxon parts of the Island. At Keysoe, in Bedfordshire is an early 

 English font having an ancient inscription as follows:— 

 " +TRESTVI ;KEPARHIC IPASSERVI 



PVRLEAL MEWAREL PRIEV : KE 



DEVPARSA GRACEVE RREYMERCILIFACE AM. 

 which forms a distich running thus in modern French :— 

 Restez ; qui par ici passerez 

 Pour I'aine de Warel priez : 

 Que Dieu par sa grace 



y/^.'^ Imerci iui fasse. Amen." 

 or Voir J 



Now we are inclined to give a different reading of the last line. It 

 is tolerably evident that it cannot be either Vkaie or voir, neither 

 agree with the sense or the orthography. The word is veurret, and 

 it is probably some irregular inflexion of the verb vouloir, perhaps 

 voudra, vemlltra, or veiiii/traii, contracted to veurrey. The two 

 latter lines according to us would read — 



" Que Dieu par sa grace 

 Voudra merci lui fasse." 



^ Hand- Booh for Plain and Ornamental Mapping, and Engineer- 

 ing Drawing, used by Surveyors and Civil and Mechanical Engineers. 

 By Benjamin P. Wilme. Part V. 



We have before had occasion to allude to the utility of this work, 

 and are glad to see that Mr. Wilme continues his labours so usefully ; 

 we must, however, remark that we do not approve of the colouring in 

 every instance as adopted by Mr. Wilme ; for example, in one of the 

 plates, stone ashlaring is shown of a tint usually introduced for brick- 

 work ; again, we must observe, that sufficient pains have not been 

 taken with the plate of " Signs used in Mapping," many of them are 

 drawn very carelessly ; this should not be the case with a work that is 

 professedly to be an examplar of reference. 



PROPOSED SUPPLY OF WATER AND RAILWAY AT BERLIN. 

 (From the Allgemeine Preuezische Zeitnnrj.J 



Since railways have been conducted through mountains and over deep 

 valleys, proposals for gigantic works have been listened to with less doubt 

 and astonishment. A project is now spoken of for Berlin, which, if com- 

 pleted, would be one of the most magnificent hitherto possessed by any 

 capital. 



It is well known that Berlin is not yet provided with water-works like 

 London, Paris, and other cities, for the purpose of extinguishing fires, clean- 



sing the streets and other objects. It has been found, after many enquiries, 

 that those arrangements which have been adopted in places where nature 

 supplies water from elevations, cannot serve as models for our flat country. 

 Subterranean conduits are nothing more than the gradual extension of works 

 separately undertaken and executed without regard to the future. In places 

 where a perfect system for the supply of water has to be established at once, 

 to its whole extent, aqueducts give a more perfect means of conduction than 

 pipes, which always occasion a continual disturbance of the pavement of the 

 streets. Aqueducts, however, would be too expensive for Berlin if they 

 were not at the same time directed to another and more important purpose, 

 viz., the introduction of railways into the city. At Paris a circular road is 

 intended to be formed round the city, for the purpose of connecting the 

 different lines of railway. For Berlin it is proposed to introduce, instead of 

 a circular line of rails, a system of viaducts, passing through the centre of 

 the town, where, by crossing each other, they will connect the termini of 

 different roads. This mode of uniting our railways will have many advan- 

 tages over the circular plan, which would interfere with the outlets from the 

 town. Luggage cars will, by this arrangement, be dispatched between 

 Leipzig, Breslau and the Baltic, without being unloaded at BerUn. These 

 railways within the town wUI, however, besides the principal object of their 

 adoption, supply the place of cabs and omnibusses, like the Blackwall and 

 Greenwich railways of London; — they will connect the distant parts of the 

 town with each other, and lessen the distance to the centre. The small 

 stations, which will have to be constructed for each of these railways, as; 

 near the centre as possible, and to an equal height with the viaducts, and 

 according to the models of the Blackwall, Greenwich, and Eastern Counties 

 railways of London, will cover a considerable portion of the budding ex- 

 penses, as the lower parts of these structures will be used for waiting rooms, 

 workshops, meal and corn halls, and other purposes. For the completion of 

 this grand design, the railway viaducts will also be aqueducts, for the supply, 

 in any direction between the different parts of the town, of high-serv-.ce 

 water for extinguishing fires, watering the streets, &c. The viaducts will 

 rise with the common gradients of I in 100, or, supposing wooden rails to 

 be employed, of 1 in 20. The required height will be gained after their 

 entrance upon the waste lands in the town, and they will be maintained at 

 the height necessary for the supply of the water, which will be raiiiCd by 

 steam engines from the river or from wells. The water may be further dis-. 

 tributed from the aqueducts through stone pipes, which, from the cheapness 

 of the material, may be placed on both sides of the street ; and as there will 

 be little necessity for repair, there will be few occasions to interrupt the 

 traffic. A greater width will be required for the railway viaducts tlian for 

 the aqueducts, and this surplus space will save the necessity of constructing 

 large reservoirs for the head of water, the formation of which would he 

 very expensive in the absence of high grounds. 



But Berlin, with the slight fall of its site, wants a greater quantity of 

 water, for the purpose of cleansing its streets, than cities with a considerabte 

 descent. This will be economically supplied by using the water raised by a 

 steam pov/er of 1000 horse, in its descent, for the purpose of machinery in 

 manufactures and workshops, an arrangement which we cannot now more 

 minutely describe. Thus the intended works will unite a complete supply of 

 w.iter, the shortest possible connexion of the railways terminating in Berlin, 

 an omnibus communication with the different parts of the town, and a^diS'j 

 tribution of steam power similar to the supply of gas or water. 



GEOLOGICAL SUBMARINE RESEARCHES. 



At the Royal Institution, Feb. 23, Professor Forbes gave a lecture " On 

 the light tJirown on Geologif by Submarine Researches." Having alluded to, 

 the researches of two Italian naturalists, Donati and Soldani, who dredged 

 the Adriatic about the middle of the last century. Prof. Forbes entered on. 

 the important inferences which he had derived from similar investigations in 

 the Irish Channel, and in the Archipelago. His first conclusion was, that 

 marine animals and plants are grouped, according to their species, at particular 

 depths in the sea, each species having a range of depth appropriated to itself. 

 Prof. Forbes illustrated this assertion by a diagram, indicating the plants and 

 animals respectively inhabiting what he termed the littoral zone, which 

 extends immediately from the coast — the laminarian zone, where the broad- 

 leaved fuci are most abundant — the coralline, in which there is an as- 

 semblage of mollusca, especially bivalves and corals, and the deep sea coraf, 

 so called bacause in it only we find examples of large corals on the British 

 shores. Prof. Forbes next alluded to the fact of the number of species 

 diminishing according to depth, so that by gaining an accurate knowledge of 

 the Fauna and Flora, appropriated to various sea-bottoms, the naturalists 

 can infer their depth — no plants are found below 100 fathoms, and the 

 probable zero of animal life is at 300 fathoms. Sedimentary deposits below 

 this depth are consequently destitute of organic matter. This circumstance 

 bids the geologist to be cautious in inferring that any stratum was formed 

 before the creation of animals, on no other account than that it is devoid of 

 organic remains : he should rather conclude from such deficiency, that the 

 stratum was deposited in very deep water — Prof. Forbes next remarked that 

 British species are found throughout the zones of depth in the Mediter- 

 ranean Sea ; but that in that sea, the proportion of northern testacea in the 

 lower zones greatly exceeds that in the upper, so that there is a represeata. 



