208 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[May, 



Thirteen thousand five hundred lozenges for folding were cut in a few se- 

 conds. To exhibit the precision of this engine, 1000 strips of paper, each 

 gLth of an inch in width, were cut in the same short time. Previously to 

 being stamped, each lozenge has a notch cut in each side, for the convenience 

 of folding : this is done by an angular chisel. The envelopes are then 

 stamped at Somerset House. The machine used for this purpose, combines 

 the operations of printing and embossing, and was invented by the late Sir 

 W. Congreve. Air. C. Whiting enabled Mr. Uarlow to exhibit tiie whole 

 process, by sending one of these machines, which executed several stamps, 

 slightly ditfering in device from that on the postage envelope. One of Mr. 

 De la Rue's folders also attended, and showed the rapidity with which the 

 envelopes are folded and gummed after they are stamped. The government 

 envelopes employ at Messrs. De la Rue's thirty-nine folders on an average, 

 and a quick hand can fold 3,500 in a day. Mr. Barlow then noticed some 

 ttatistical conclusions. One engraving on Mr. Perkins hard steel roller will 

 -fford 1,680 transfers to soft steel plates : these again will, when hardened, 

 admit of 60,000 impressions being pulled from each, so that one original will 

 afford 100,800,000 impressions of labels, enough to paper one thousand 

 apartments of 24 feet by 15, and 12 feet high, making allowance for door, 

 two windows, chimney, pier glass, and dado. Twelve years ago, common 

 envelopes were sold at Is. the dozen : now, the postage envolope, with its 

 medallion, may be bought wholesale at half a farthing (exclusive of the 

 stamp), and yet though the manufacture is peculiarly costly, it returns a 

 small profit to the government. More than two hundred and twenty mil- 

 lions of chargeable letters were posted in 1843. Now, taking a common 

 sized letter as an unit, this quantity would pave a road 25 yards wide (the 

 average width of Oxford Street, pavement included) from the General Post 

 Office in London, to the entrance of Oxford. Or, supposing all the letter- 

 boxes in the United Kingdom to be open, and to communicate with one 

 large spout, the letters would keep flowing through it at the mean rate of 14 

 in a second. Mr. Barlow then briefly noticed some of the social advantages 

 of the penny post. He touched on the strength and permanence it afforded 

 to the influences of home — on the motives for self-education which it sup- 

 plied — on the aid it ministered to the inquirer after truth. He stated, that 

 at present about five millions sterling are forwarded through the Post Office 

 by money orders, and noticed the advantage of this arrangement to all, but 

 especially the humbler ranks. He asserted that nothing is too valuable or 

 too fragile to be trusted to this cheap conveyance : birds' eggs aud diamonds, 

 living insects, and watches, pills, plaisters, and bills of exchange, are com- 

 mitted to it with equal confidence. Mr. Bagster sends each sheet of his 

 Polyglot edition of the Holy Scriptures ten times through the Post Office, 

 some of th.. se transmissions being to learned men residing at a distance from 

 London, so that under the old system the postage on each volume of this 

 work would have amounted to .€105. Mr. Barlow concluded by a short but 

 expressive quotation from an anonymous writer, declaratory of the manifold 

 benefits of the Fenny Post, and of the obligations which the country owes to 

 the originator of the system. 



NEW IRON LIGHTHOUSE. 



Triumph of modern Engineers in the construction of Lighthouses, — The 

 first lighthouse that we read of, was erected on the island of Pharos, near 

 Alexandria, which was looked upon as one of the seven wonders of the world. 

 This tower was built by Ptolemy Philadelphus, in the hundred and twenty 

 fourth Olympiad, under the direction of the famous engineer, Sostratus of 

 Cnidus, in Asia Minor, at the expense of eight hundred talents. The archi- 

 tect was held iu such esteem with Ptolemy and other mouarchs, that by 

 Strabo he was called the friend of Kings. He was allowed by Ptolemy to 

 inscribe his name on the tower. 



M'hat would the contemporaries of the Egyptian Monarch have said, had 

 they seen the modern masterly constructions for the useful purpose, as the 

 lighthouses at the Maplin in the estuary of the Thames, and at the Point of 

 Air, in the county of Flint, both upon sand banks ? The latter stands at the 

 mouth of the Dee on quaggy sand, within an hundred yards of the channel, 

 where the tide rises about twenty feet. This most necessary Pharos will 

 annually save a multitude of lives and much property ; and was built by the 

 Honourable Corporation of the Trinity House, (always attentive to the safety 

 and welfare of seafaring men), from the design of Messrs. Walker and Bur- 

 ges, engineers, London, who are widely known over every part of the king- 

 dom. It rises upon nine strong iron pillars, most firmly secured in their 

 naturally unstable foundation, and promises to resist the rage of the windy 

 storm and mighty tempest. 



It has every possible convenience for the light-keeper, and exhibits a most 

 brilliant white light, fifty-five feet above the ordinary level of the sea, up the 

 Dee towards Chester, and to the west, as far Point Elianus in Anglesea ; and 

 a red light towards Hoyle Bank, thus furnishing an unerring guide to the 

 vessels traversing those intricate waters, where so many valuable lives have 

 been lost, and so many riches buried in the ocean. 



The building is entirely constructed of iron : the principal framing and 

 pillars are oi cast iron ; the inclosure of the sides forming the habitable part 

 of the building of wrought iron, corrogated plates. The lantern framing is 

 cast from one of the brass guns recovered from the wreck of the Royal George 

 at Spithead. The entire weight of metal employed in the onstruction of 

 the lighthouse and lantern exceed 120 tons. The interior of the building 



above the reach of the waves affords ample accommodation for two light- 

 keepers, and also for such stores as are in immediate demand. The light was 

 first exhibited from this building on the evening of the 11th of February last. 

 — Chester Chronicle. 



TR.A.FALGAR SQU.\RE. 



We may say of this " Public Improvement," — " Better late than never ;" 

 for at last — after we know not how many years — the hoarding has been re- 

 moved, and the area thrown open ; but we cannot exactly say in regard to 

 it, " All's Well that End's Well," since we must confess to being disappoint- 

 ed. Even in what he has done, Mr. Barry has fallen short of our expecta- 

 tions : it is, indeed, comparatively good, yet does not come up to what we 

 looked for from him. As it seems to us, he has fallen into strange delin- 

 quency of taste, in carrying the parapet walls on the East and West sides of 

 the area, not horizontally and parallel to the pavement of the area, and to 

 the horizontal lines of the buildings on those sides, but incUued and follow- 

 ing the slope of the ground on the outside of the level area. This occasions 

 a very disagreeable and even paltry eft'ect as far as the area itself is concern- 

 ed, — which it may be presumed was tlie point chiefly to be studied. Could 

 it have been done, we should like to have seen those sides of the area en- 

 closed by screen walls of such height as would have shut out the buildings 

 to the East and West, for they are a very sad drawback on the architectural 

 ensemble of this P/flce. At present it is too much of a jumble; and has, 

 besides, the look of being ?»a«yi(p', by being quite out of symmetry, where 

 symmetry has been intended. The regular architectural arrangement of the 

 "Area" itself called for a corresponding degree of uniformity in the whole 

 Square or Place. As to the two basins we do not greatly admire them at 

 present, thinking it would have been better had they been sunk, so that the 

 surface of the water would have been on the same level as the pavement. 

 What the Fountains will be, we know not, but hope they will prove some- 

 thing vastly superior to the mere squirts we have hitherto had. 



In speaking of Trafalgar Square, we cannot forbear reprobating the bar- 

 barous taste which has disfigured the portico of the National Gallery, by in- 

 serting most vulgar looking iron fences — or offences — daubed over with vile 

 green paint, between the columns ; and that, too, just at a time when so 

 much is said about decorative design in all its branches. Such a fragrant in- 

 stance of vile taste in the entrance to a temple of Art, and a Royal Academy, 

 is truly shocking, and even dispiriting, since it shows that we do not make 

 any systematic advance in taste, but take a step forward one day, to go back 

 another, or perhaps even two, on the following day. Besides which the 

 stingy paltriness manifested in this instance is perfectly scandalous and dis- 

 graceAd. While no hounds are set to extravagance in any thing connected 

 with the Palace of Westminster, — winch after all is not exactly the most 

 suitable place for the exhibition of works of art, — -any thing seems to be 

 considered quite good eno\igh for National Galleries and British Museums. 



ATMOSPHERIC RAILWAY. 



Report on the Atmospheric Railway. Addressed to the directors of the 

 Chester and Holyhead Railway, by Robert Stephenson, C.E. Weale, High 

 Holborn. 



This report which has been anxiously expected for some time past was re- 

 ceived by us shortly before we went to press, we are therefore precluded 

 from making any observations or any systematic selection. We shall now 

 confine ourselves with a selection of what we consider the practical part of 

 the report, founded upon the numerous experiments made under Mr. Stephen- 

 son's directions, by his valuable assistants Mr. G. Berkley and Mr. W. P. 

 Marshall, at the Dublin and Kingstown Railway. 



The first practical application of the Atmospheric Railway was in June 

 1840,atM'ormboltScrubs,the particulars of which will be found in om Journal 

 for July 1840, Vol. III. p. 253, and likewise a drawing of the apparatus, in 

 the following number, p. 259, Vol. III. 



The first part of the report enters very minutely into tlie loss of power 

 occasioned by the leakage in the air pump, the vacuum tube, and the con- 

 necting pipe, under a variety of circumstances, the result shows that the 

 average amount of leakage at the density of the external air is 219 cubic feet 

 per minute, for the air pump and connecting pipe 478 yards long and 15 in. 

 diameter, and 252 cubic feet per minute, for the vacuum tube 2490 yards in 

 length and 15 inches diameter, or 471 cubic feet together, but if a vacuum 

 be formed equal to 15 inches in height of the barometer, or the air twice 

 rarefied, the effect of the leakage will be doubled. 



Mr. Stephenson has given five tables ; one of them is 3 ft. 6 in. long, full 

 of details of observations made to ascertain the amount of leakage, &;c., and 

 also to show the actual velocity of the train compared with theory. He has 

 also given another table, which we here insert, showing the weiglit drawn 

 by the trains, tlie resistance due to friction and gravity, the velocity, &c. 



